September book pick: An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures by Clarice Lispector (1969)

If you’ve followed my reading for a while, you know that I love Clarice Lispector. Lispector (1920-1977) was a Ukranian-born Brazilian author who wrote novels, short stories and articles. Her style is enigmatic, poetic, philosophical, cosmic and deeply personal. Over and over in her work she confronts what it means to be human, to be animal, to be alive, to experience, to think and to communicate.

Lispector at home in Rio de Janeiro, ca. 1963

Uma Aprendizagem ou O Livro dos Prazeres (An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures) (1969) is her sixth novel. An unusual love story between Lóri, a schoolteacher, and Ulisses, a philosophy professor, the book dives into connections and borders — an individual’s relationship to the world, and people’s relationships to one another.

Some practicalities: I’ll be reading the book in French, translated from the original Brazilian Portuguese by Teresa and Jacques Thiériot and published by des femmes in 1992. (Unsurprisingly, I find reading Lispector in French easier.) But I also plan to read the English translation, partially to write about it here, and partially because I’ve found reading Lispector in different translations fascinating. I have the Penguin Modern Classics edition translated by Stefan Tobler in 2019. The same translation is published in the United States by New Directions*. The book was previously translated in 1986 by Richard A. Mazzara and Lorri A. Parris.

*This is the third month in a row that I’m covering a book published by New Directions, if you’re keeping track…