"Near to the Wild Heart" by Clarice Lispector

Another twentieth century Latin American classic, this time from Brazil. Last year I read Clarice Lispector's "Hour of the Star", her last novel. This one was her first. She wrote it when she was only twenty-three and for that reason alone I found it to be remarkable. It is quite a simple story - heavily biographical in many respects - about a girl growing up without her mother and then without her father too. She lives unhappily for a while with a well-meaning but begrudging aunt and uncle, before being shipped off to boarding school. This narrative proceeds using alternate chapters in the first half along with another about her later marriage, but in these a different style is used being more stream-of-consciousness in nature, taking us inside the characters' heads. The second half then comprises a single story about the disintegration of the marriage. It is all, of course, hugely depressing, but the central character is hugely engaging. Her rebellious streak and refusal to be bound down by her past and present relationships made me root for her. A very enjoyable little read.