2015: The Year of Reading Women discussion

Thread for discussion of The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector which will take place during March 2015.

Great! I'm already behind my reading schedule. Lispector in March sounds apt. I'm in!

I've changed the status of this book in the group to "currently reading," as it's now March! I haven't started it yet myself, but I should be soon and am excited to hear what people have to say, if anyone is still interested in this book.

I am, but I'm a little behind!

Whoops! I have too much on my plate and fell behind myself... :O Too many books and too little time... but I'll hobble along behind the rest of you and try to catch up soon....

Thanks for taking up the slack, David! :)

I just read this! It started out strong and I read it in a pretty big spurt until about two-thirds of the way through, and had a hard time getting back into it after that, so may I recommend reading this at a time when you can really immerse yourself in it. I feel like it works best read in one sitting if you can manage it.

Anybody else planning to pick it up this month?

I'm curious as to the selection of translator for the discussion here.

I happened to hear Idra Novey, a poet, speak today. She is another translator of this work:

I'm still in it

I just read this as well, and the Idra Novey translation is the one I read. I highly recommend it. From what I hear (and this seems true), she is very good at keeping Lispector's odd rhythms and idiosyncratic phrasings, while some other editions may work to clear those out. But I'm sure any translation is fine.

I found this to be very dense and shocking, and had to read it in short bursts. I loved it. The language is so beautiful.

I haven't participated in any group reads in this group yet, so I'm not sure how this is best done. I hope you all chime in with your thoughts as you read it, whenever you manage to read it. The good thing about the internet is that this thread will always be here.

Daniel wrote: "...But I'm sure any translation is fine...."

Translation is such a difficult thing that I am seldom sure about that, Daniel. Having heard Idra Novey speak, I would expect that to be very applicable to this work. It did not sound like a straight-forward text to translate at all.

My sense is that Ms. Novey put a lot of love and sensitivity into it, which is reflected to some small extent in the collection of poem-letters that she composed in response to quotations from Clarice. Those comprise the first part of her Clarice: The Visitor.

I say these things in no way to denigrate the work of any other translator. I had never heard of Clarice Lispector or The Passion According to G.H. until yesterday, so all this is sheer coincidence for me. But I have done enough work reading classics (including Homer, Dante, Tolstoy,...) to know that translations can make great differences. For anything I care deeply about and have the time, I increasingly read more than one translation. It is always a fascinating experience, revealing so many aspects of storytelling, language, culture, time, word choice, etymology...

I wish that I could accurately reconstruct one of Idra's comments about translating Lispector for you -- I wasn't being that attentive on the subject. But I do recall something fascinating that she said about having to decide whether parts Clarice left unsaid (implied) did she have to leave as such or render into language. It was an aspect of translation I understood, but I had never heard or read anyone expressing exactly as Idra did. To me, it suggested the challenge, and perhaps an intrigue, of this text, let alone its translation.

I had a sense I would like however Ms. Novey had wrestled with it. She displayed a sensitivity and intelligence towards the nuances of language, syntax, and meaning. But that is not to say but what some other translator's rendition might not be equally powerful or sensitive, or whatever this novel needs. If readers here are reading different translations, you all may well find it fun to compare particular passages.

P.S. Recent translations of classics have generated some good articles on the subject of translation itself. If interested in the subject, here are a couple, definitely not directly related to Lispector.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archi...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/opi...

I read the Idra Novey translation as well, and she includes an interesting note at the end where she discusses some of her word choices and laments the fact that Clarice Lispector was not still around to consult.

This is one of those little books that give me a hard time. I'm having a hard time getting into its rhythm.

I agree that this book is very difficult. I think its easier to get into the rhythm as the book gets on. It eventually devolves into a series of much shorter chapters that are each a bit tighter and more cohesive than those long chapters in the beginning.

Funny, I had the opposite feeling. As the book went on, it delved deeper into her interior thoughts and I had a harder time staying with it. When I read the introduction and some other reviews on here, I have a hard time relating to how life-changing some readers found the experience. Oh well, I tried! I found her writing interesting enough that I'll give her another shot sooner or later.