Katrina Dodson

THE COMPLETE STORIES, BY CLARICE LISPECTOR
Translated from the Portuguese by Katrina Dodson
New Directions, US
Penguin Classics, UK
 

The 2015 publication of Clarice Lispector's Complete Stories was a literary revelation. It drew rapturous praise from critics and was featured on the cover of the New York Times Sunday Book Review, a first for a Brazilian author. The collection comprises, for the first time in any language, all the stories that made Lispector a Brazilian legend: from teenagers coming into awareness of their sexual and creative powers to housewives whose lives are shattered by unexpected epiphanies to old people who don't know what to do with themselves. Lispector's stories take us through their lives — and ours. From one of the greatest modern writers, these 85 stories, gathered from the nine collections published during her lifetime, follow Clarice Lispector from the age of nineteen in 1940 to her death on the eve of her fifty-seventh birthday in 1977.

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"Clarice Lispector had a diamond-hard intelligence, a visionary instinct, and a sense of humor that veered from naïf wonder to wicked comedy." —Rachel Kushner, Bookforum

"Translated beautifully and with a vigorous pulse by Katrina Dodson, The Complete Stories is bound to become a kind of bedside Bible or I Ching for readers of Lispector, both old and new." —Valeria Luiselli, Publishers Weekly

"You could call Lispector's stories telegraphs from the flames of hell, but that would discount how innocent and funny they could be. Manna from the shtetl? Prayers at the high-rise window before the tranquilizers kick in? You will not be disappointed if you read The Complete Stories. It might even become your bible." —Benjamin Anastas, The New Republic

"A genius on the level of Nabokov." —Jeff VanderMeer, Slate

"The Complete Stories is a dangerous book to read quickly or casually because it's so consistently delirious. Sentence by sentence, page by page, Lispector is exhilaratingly, arrestingly strange. —Terrence Rafferty, New York Times Sunday Book Review

"Mystic intelligence and charm, perfectly unhinged sensibility." —James Yeh, VICE

"To fans, Lispector is simply 'Clarice,' like Cher or Madonna or her countryman, Pelé." —Brenda Cronin, The Wall Street Journal

"This compendium of tales by the great Brazilian weaves a spell so narcotic it lends credence to the belief that the author, long dead, still speaks." —Rachel Shteir, The Boston Globe

"Katrina Dodson recasts the Complete Stories into English with an energetic mastery that feels utterly contemporary while evoking the intoxicating dissonance of the original Portuguese prose." —Magdalena Edwards, The Millions

"Katrina Dodson's translation of Clarice Lispector's Complete Stories is a revelation that lays bare the breadth of both the author's and translator's talent. Our unanimous selection of Complete Stories underscores the absolute pleasure of being steeped in Lispector's deep intellect and her striking, varied portraits of human interaction and intimacy, rendered rich and vivid by Dodson's steady hand. The Complete Stories are diverse in tone, mood, perspective, subject matter, and quirk, and Dodson's dexterity in navigating these differences, while simultaneously lending Lispector a singular English voice all her own, is a thoroughly impressive feat of literary translation." —Judges' citation, 2016 PEN Translation Prize

"A gorgeous, exhausting, sui generis collection." —Dustin Illingworth, 3:AM Magazine

REVIEWS

• New York Times Sunday Book Review (cover), Terrence Rafferty

• New York Times, Larry Rohter

• New York Review of Books, Colm Toíbín

• New Republic, Benjamin Anastas

• Benjamin Anastas on "Brasília"

• Publishers Weekly (starred review), Valeria Luiselli

• The Millions, Magdalena Edwards

• The Nation, Ava Kofman

• NPR, Juan Vidal

• TLS, Miranda France (subscription)

• Slate, Jeff VanderMeer

• Flavorwire, Jonathan Sturgeon

• Electric Literature, Kyle Coma-Thompson

• Words Without Borders, Jenny McPhee

• Best Translated Book Award Praise: Mark Haber; Amanda Nelson

• Boston Globe, Rachel Shteir

• Boston Review, Max Nelson

• Express Tribune, Hurmat Kazmi

• The Globe and Mail, Stephen W. Beattie

• The Guardian, Julie Schwietert Collazo

• Hyperallergic, Daniel Witkin

• The Independent, David Evans

• Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal, Mike Fischer

• Philadelphia Inquirer, Andrew Ervin

• San Francisco Chronicle, Joan Frank

• Full Stop, the Editors (3-part series)

• Harvard Review, Gabriel García Ochoa

• Jewish Quarterly, Fabian Wolff

• Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

• The National, Joanna Walsh

• RTÉ, Paddy Kehoe

• Tikkun, Michael LaPointe

• tn2, Daniel Tatlow-Devaly

• Willamette Week, Matthew Korfhage

FEATURES

• "The True Glamour of Clarice Lispector," New Yorker online, Benjamin Moser

• "Found in Translation," Los Angeles Review of Books, Stephanie LaCava

• "Clarice Lispector: Brazil's Virginia Woolf," Wall Street Journal, Breda Cronin

• "Clarice Lispector's Magical Prose," The Atlantic, Thu-Huong Ha

• The Scofield 2.1: Clarice Lispector and the Act of Writing (Summer 2016)

• Music & Literature No.4 on Clarice Lispector (2014)

• "Legião estrangeira divulga a obra de Clarice Lispector mundo afora," Revista Época

• "The Joys and Challenges of Translating One of Brazil's Most Brilliant and Beguiling Fiction Writers," The Stranger, Rich Smith interviews Katrina Dodson

• "Channeling the Language (and Spirit) of Clarice Lispector," Asymptote, Megan Bradshaw interviews Katrina Dodson

• "Passionate Acolytes," Paris Review online, Scott Esposito interviews Benjamin Moser

• "Four Questions for Katrina Dodson, Winner of the 2016 PEN Translation Prize," PEN America, Alex Zucker & Allison Powell

• "Elena Ferrante and Clarice Lispector Up for Best Translated Book Award," The Guardian

FROM THE COMPLETE STORIES

• "One Day Less," Harper's

• "Happy Birthday," Wall Street Journal

• "Remnants of Carnival," Vogue

• "Report on the Thing," VICE

• "The Smallest Woman in the World," Tablet

• "Love," The Offing

• "Waters of the World," Asymptote

• "Monkeys," Guernica / PEN

• "The Buffalo," PEN America

• "Mineirinho," Cabaret Wittgenstein

• "Beauty and the Beast or the Enormous Wound," Lit Hub

• "Covert Joy," Tin House

• "Praça Mauá," Tin House

• "Better Than to Burn," Tin House

• "The Dead Man in the Sea at Urca," Lapham's Quarterly (print only)

• "Brasília," Little Star Journal (app subscription)