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The Hour of the Star
- New Directions Paperbook
- Narrated by: Melissa Broder
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction
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Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. They came from Fleet Street, Knightsbridge, Wolverhampton, Sweden and Wales. They wrote ballads, ran coffeehouses and lived on country estates; they breathed ink dust from printing presses and escaped people traffickers. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women.
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An Insight in to the lives of the poorest women
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Summary
The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector's consummate final novel, may well be her masterpiece.
Narrated by the cosmopolitan Rodrigo S. M., this brief, strange, and haunting tale is the story of Macabéa, one of life's unfortunates. Living in the slums of Rio and eking out a poor living as a typist, Macabéa loves movies, Coca-Colas, and her rat of a boyfriend; she would like to be like Marilyn Monroe, but she is ugly, underfed, sickly, and unloved. Rodrigo recoils from her wretchedness, and yet he cannot avoid the realization that for all her outward misery, Macabéa is inwardly free. She doesn't seem to know how unhappy she should be.
Lispector employs her pathetic heroine against her urbane, empty narrator - edge of despair to edge of despair - and, working them like a pair of scissors, she cuts away preconceived notions about poverty, identity, love, and the art of fiction. In her last book, she takes us close to the true mystery of life and leave us deep in Lispector territory indeed.
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What listeners say about The Hour of the Star
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Lacrimioara Tripon
- 20-02-19
Dare to be vulnerable
I loved journeying of Clarice's abstract narrative. This book has an unique mystical and artistic style. Between the real and imaginary of the mind, and who can judge the limits of such undefined worlds.
1 person found this helpful
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- Kristoffer Engdahl
- 09-10-18
Utterly unique
Reading this felt like a curious mix between being on acid and dreaming. The strange punctuation adds to the dreamlike quantity of the work.
3 people found this helpful
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- Jacob
- 20-02-18
Excellent Audiobook
Stimulating audiobook of a dense, introspective, and often funny novel. Features crystal clear and well-paced narration.
3 people found this helpful
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- Ella Mc
- 22-08-19
audio ruins a great book
What a shame. This is such a terrific book, and the audio skills it. The narrator sounds like a very young, very American Disney princess. To say it conflicts would be the understatement of the century. She also has no inflection, nor does her tone or pace change from introduction through story through translator's note. I am so disappointed that I will be asking for a refund. Thought it would be nice to have a favorite book on audio, but not this one! Wow.
1 person found this helpful
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- CAMay
- 06-08-18
Great reading
The narration is wonderfully done. The story itself pulled me in immediately and I listened straight through. I "almost" understood this poor girl.
1 person found this helpful
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- Gordy
- 11-04-18
So awesome
This is book is fantastic and the fact the poet Melissa Broder is narrating just makes it even more awesome. Yes!
1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-03-18
Amazing Book. Great read!
Any additional comments?
If you've never read Clarice Lispector, now is the time, because Melissa Broder's read of this book is incredible.
1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 26-02-18
Cool book about the complexity and uncertainty of life.
Sometimes this book is complex and insightful. Sometimes it is rhymic poetry. Somtimes it is interesting because of what it suggests.
1 person found this helpful
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- Debra Hartrum
- 15-02-18
Melissa Broder Sounds Amazing!
Great narration of an incredible piece of literature from CLARICE LISPECTOR. Audiobook game on point. Get this. High repeat value.
1 person found this helpful
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- Jeremy Stein
- 13-02-18
Great!
This was a really well done audiobook. The book is excellent and the narrating and and production quality are great!
1 person found this helpful
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- annkpowers
- 01-03-21
Hypnotic
This is far from a conventional narrative. Give it time — it requires so little — and you may be bewitched. I enjoyed Melissa Broder’s reading, although she did oddly pronounce a few words. Perhaps that was in the spirit of the text.