Near to the Wild Heart

the most beautiful writing

Bad is not living, and that's all. Dying is something else. Dying is different to good and bad.”

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A wild ride in the mind of young Joana who's intense introspection brandishes her to a life somewhere between a metaphysics philosopher and a mentally tormented. She feels intensely and then not enough, she questions everything and delights and despairs in acknowledging her ignorance, while her mind detaches herself from the people around her.

I liked the first half of the book a lot more than the second. Discovering Joana's wondrous way of thinking while she navigates coming-of-age, was intriguing to read. It had these beautiful moments of pause, of intense mindfulness, of intense sensations. But in the second half, which was more of the same with grown-up Joana, reading her mind's ruminations got a bit more tedious, and I kept wanting the book to end.

I find it hard to read/judge the book without the context of its age and place within the literary world in mind. I very much appreciate the book, but maybe one has to read all revolutionary, introspective, stream-of-consciousness novels at a certain point in one's life :)

There are parts in this book that really made me gasp. Given the author's young age at the time of Wild Heart's publication (23) it really is an astonishing achievement, and it's unlike anything I'd ever read.

And yet, reading it often felt like a chore. The protagonist, Joana, was exhausting in a way that a severe alexithymic is exhausting. It was like observing and interpreting a person constantly observing and interpreting herself.

Still though, it really made me want to read Lispector's later works. For a debut work this is amazingly good.