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A review by paigeweb
The Apple In the Dark by Clarice Lispector
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Abstract, obscure and enthralling. The Apple in the Dark went from being my least favorite Clarice book in the first half to ranking among my favorites during the second and third parts. Somewhere around the midway point, something clicked... As Clarice would say, in her signature phrasing, "something had happened"; as a reader, I "awoke."
In The Apple in the Dark, Clarice deconstructs a man down to his basest elements before setting about the laborious process of his incremental psychological resurrection. As his mental landscape evolves, so does the clarity of the writing; it is as if, with the character of Martim as surrogate, Clarice is giving birth to herself in a dual act of self-creation on part of both author and protagonist (comparisons to A Breath of Life would be interesting on this point). The catalyst for Martim's metamorphosis? A crime that is at once central and peripheral to the story. Its particulars are of small importance to the plot, yet its consequence is a profound existentialist meditation on what it means to be and to communicate, and the cost of individuality.
"Are we bad?", he wondered perplexed as if he'd never lived. What dark thing is it that we need, what greedy thing is this existence that makes a hand grasp like a claw? and yet that greedy wanting is our strength and our clever and helpless children are born from our darkness and inherit it, and beauty is in this dirty wanting, wanting, wanting -- oh body and soul, how to judge you if we love you?
In The Apple in the Dark, Clarice deconstructs a man down to his basest elements before setting about the laborious process of his incremental psychological resurrection. As his mental landscape evolves, so does the clarity of the writing; it is as if, with the character of Martim as surrogate, Clarice is giving birth to herself in a dual act of self-creation on part of both author and protagonist (comparisons to A Breath of Life would be interesting on this point). The catalyst for Martim's metamorphosis? A crime that is at once central and peripheral to the story. Its particulars are of small importance to the plot, yet its consequence is a profound existentialist meditation on what it means to be and to communicate, and the cost of individuality.
"Are we bad?", he wondered perplexed as if he'd never lived. What dark thing is it that we need, what greedy thing is this existence that makes a hand grasp like a claw? and yet that greedy wanting is our strength and our clever and helpless children are born from our darkness and inherit it, and beauty is in this dirty wanting, wanting, wanting -- oh body and soul, how to judge you if we love you?