Welcome back to this week’s book, The Hour of the Star. I had mentioned in my first blog post that I was most excited to read this book, and I genuinely did enjoy this book and it is one of my favourites till now. This book is written by Clarice Lispector, and it revolves around the life of a poor woman named Macabéa. She is socially awkward and lacks social-awareness. She has been described by the narrator, Rodrigo S.M. as a nobody, and unremarkable. According to me the narrator was just a lonely and bored man considering his writing in the beginning of the book.
While reading the book I was a little bit concerned as to how the narrator was speaking about Macabéa, by saying things like “scarcely has a body to sell, nobody wants her, she’s a virgin and harmless, nobody would miss her”. He also said this line “A male writer, that is, because a woman would make it all weepy and maudlin.” which was a little weird but I guess that was his style.
The beginning of the book kind of felt like a long poem, but it really did get very interesting after that. I liked how she really liked her job as a typist, as well as really loved her boyfriend. I felt bad for Macabéa when she was genuinely trying to learn and understand what her boyfriend was saying because she didn’t have as much knowledge as him, and he got irritated by her asking him every time, and told her to be quiet. Her life especially saddened me when she was diagnosed with tuberculosis but she didn’t take it seriously because she didn’t know much about it and didn’t have a lot of knowledge regarding its treatment, but regardless she was never disappointed by her life and always seemed to be happy and in content. Her positive attitude kind of astounded me considering she could only eat hot dogs because she was so poor. The ending was sad and kind of expected, and I was a bit confused about it, but after reading it a couple of times I got it.
Reading this book made me realize the importance of education in a person’s life. Education is the utmost necessary thing to keep a person up float, and so that they can live a good life, and not live in poverty. I am grateful that all of us have the opportunity to get a good education, and we should not take that for granted.
See you all in the next book!
Question: What do you think would have been different if Macabéa had even a little bit of knowledge about the world and her disease?
Week 1 - Introductory Blog Post 
3 responses to “The Hour of the Star”
Dhwani, I’m glad you picked up on the the narrator’s presence and his relationship with Macabea. It’s a good point to meditate on before class! I would maybe ask you whether you think that she really was content with her job and her boyfriend since, as you might remember, once she went with the card reader she said she realized how sad she had really been. Your reflection on education is good but do you think the author might have other commentaries about perhaps the effect of where we were born?
Thanks for your comment!
Tesi
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Hi, Dhwani,
Your question is very interesting. I believe that if she had even a little bit of knowledge about this world, she can make more choices (actively make choices), and she will also face a better and warmer life.
Jialu Xu
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Hi Dhwani,
To answer your question, I think that if Macabea was educated and had more knowledge of the world, she would be able to interpret the mistreatment from Olimpico and understand the severity of her tuberculosis diagnosis. Additionally, education is so important, she could’ve understood the culture and world in front of her, filling her with motivation and hope. It’s disheartening to see the impact from a lack of education and it made me even more grateful for the opportunities I have.
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