Family Ties
by Clarice Lispector
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The silent rage that seizes a matriarch whose family is feting her eighty-ninth year.The tangle of emotions felt by a sophisticated young woman toward her elderly mother. An adolescent girl's obsessive fear of being looked at. The "giddying sense of compassion" that a blind man introduces into a young housewife's settled existence. Of such is made the world of Clarice Lispector, the Brazilian writer whose finest work is acknowledged to be her exquisitely crafted short stories. Here, in these show more thirteen of Lispector's most brilliantly conceived stories, mysterious and unexpected moments of crisis propel characters to self-discovery or keenly felt intuitions about the human condition. Her characters mirror states of mind. Alienated by their unsettling sense of life's absurdity, they seem at times absorbed in their interior lives and in the passions that dominate and usually defeat them. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Com treze contos, esta coletânea contém algumas das obras-primas da narrativa curta brasileira. Neles, os personagens são sempre surpreendidos por uma modalidade perturbadora do insólito, no meio da banalidade de seus cotidianos. Clarice cria situações onde uma revelação, que desconstrói e ameaça a realidade, desvela a existência e aponta para uma apreensão filosófica da vida. A autora trata a solidão, a morte, a incomunicabilidade e os abismos da existência através da rotina de dona de casa ("Devaneio e embriaguez duma rapariga", "Amor", "A imitação da rosa"), do mergulho trágico em uma festa familiar nos 89 anos da matriarca ("Feliz aniversário"), da domesticação da natureza mais selvagem das mulheres show more ("Preciosidade", "O búfalo"), ou dos pequenos crimes cometidos contra a consciência, como o drama do professor de Matemática diante do abandono e da morte de um animal. show less
Having read and loved Lispector's later novels, Family Ties provides an insight into how she developed her unique style. Some of the stories fall short and don't engage (the title piece, Mystery in São Cristóvão) but some are exceptionally written and create an immersive universe in just a few pages (Love, The Smallest Woman in the World, The Buffalo). As always with Lispector, the writing is incredibly taut, and the psychological dive into the minds of the characters is impressive, particularly given the short length of the stories.
Las protagonistas de la mayoría de estos cuentos son mujeres, mujeres intentando llevar una vida "normal" pero que no se sienten nada "normales". Sensibilidades a flor de piel, pasiones a punto de saltar por cualquier detalle y una prosa preciosista que alarga los tiempos y las sensaciones de forma increible.
Muy buena lectura para ir con pausa y recreándose en cada figura.
Muy buena lectura para ir con pausa y recreándose en cada figura.
A collection of short stories focusing on the claustrophobic inner lives of married women in middle class families. It is marked by boredom, insecurity, anxiety and a loss of self. In Clarice Lispector fashion te prose is deeply introspective. The stories Love, Imitation of Rose, and the Smallest Woman in the World stood out to me as my favourites.
I love Lispector! "The Chicken" and "Mystery in Sao Cristoval" are two especially brilliant stories in this collection.
Vrouwen uit de middenklasse, in het midden van de vorige eeuw, gingen niet werken en hadden dienstmeisjes. Ze verveelden zich dood. In die omstandigheden krijgt elke simpele gebeurtenis een intense betekenis. Een kip die ontsnapt, een familie-etentje, een ontmoeting op straat. Lispector weet met alledaagse ingrediënten een mysterieuze wereld te bouwen.
Feb 22, 2020Dutch
1
Esta obra reúne contos onde as personagens - sejam adultos ou adolescentes - debatem-se nas cadeias de violência que podem emanar do círculo doméstico. Homens ou mulheres, os laços que os unem são, em sua maioria, elos familiares ao mesmo tempo de afeto e de aprisionamento. Clarice Lispector trata a solidão, a morte, a incomunicabilidade e os abismos da existência através da rotina de dona-de-casa, do mergulho em uma festa familiar nos 89 anos da matriarca, da domesticação da natureza mais selvagem das mulheres, ou dos pequenos crimes cometidos contra a consciência, como o drama do professor de Matemática diante do abandono e da morte de um animal (fonte: livraria da Cultura)
Aug 1, 2023Portuguese (Brazil)
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150+ Works 12,816 Members
Clarice Lispector was born in the Ukraine and was taken to Brazil as a young child. She was a law student, editor, translator, and newswriter, who traveled widely, spending eight years in the United States. "Family Ties" (1960) is a collection of short stories revealing Lispector's existentialist view of life and demonstrating that even family show more ties and social relationships are temporary. Although tied to each other and to the outside world, the characters are finally totally alone and separate. Lispector received praise from American critics for "The Apple in the Dark" (1967), a novel about a guilt-ridden man's search for the ultimate knowledge (Eve's apple), which he believes will bring him hope. Lispector's books are being translated into various languages in Europe, especially in France, where the critic Helene Cixous is one of her great admirers and a promoter of her works. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Family Ties
- Original title
- Laços de família
- Original publication date
- 1960
- First words
- It seemed to her that the trolley cars were about to cross through the room as they caused her reflected image to tremble.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 869.3 — Literature & rhetoric Spanish Literature Literatures of Portuguese and Galician languages Portuguese fiction
- LCC
- PQ9697 .L585 — Language and Literature French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese literatures Portuguese literature Provincial, local, colonial, etc. Brazil
- BISAC
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- Popularity
- 56,718
- Reviews
- 8
- Rating
- (3.76)
- Languages
- 8 — Danish, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Portuguese (Portugal), Spanish, Swedish
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 26
- ASINs
- 2



























































