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Amongst the abundance of an anonymous book exchange, it was this book that left an impressive oil stain…
It taught me how to translate thoughts as a compass and not enemies…offering new but functional perspective…
• The main character is hopeless and defiant in every human way
• The obstacles merge with magic and science
• The language is inviting and playful (look into ‘Troposphere’)
I was preserved in a lawless comfort the entire read and I have mourned many times since finishing it…
Sep 30, 2024
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I want to thank Liv for giving me my favourite book.
Clarice has been my favourite author since I was 14, reading what she writes always felt like reading my thoughts and beliefs about life on a page as if they had been scooped out of my brain and elegantly placed in a book.
This is the only text I had never read and known to be her most regarded work The Passion According to G.H. takes the status of a masterpiece In the Brasilian Literature scenario. I wanted to make sure to read it when I felt ready, ready to say goodbye to Clarice, as I turned 21 one of my best friends gifted me this book and I knew it was time.
The history is simple, a woman is cleaning her house, and she finds a drawing, a roach and God. From there Clarice takes your hand and leads you into the journey of finding meaning.
According to Aristotle, the end of all human actions resides in the search for happiness. This book describes that in the most genius way. Heaven and hell are portrayed as being a place on earth, a place on us. I doubt that two people can read this book and tell you the same history, it is highly subjective you can take away from it whatever exists in your mind.
My biggest takeaway was that hell and even are inside of us, by wishing for things you don't have you must go through war to achieve them, war is hell. By wishing for things that you already have (like seeing your friends on the weekend, talking to your grandparents, baking a cake) you find heaven. Heaven is in the simple, it is in the recognition that you were given more than what you could have asked for. Love is the realization of getting someone you wished for through passion, it is tedious, complete and beautiful. You can find content in love, and you no longer wish.
That is what I read, but please don't let my blurry vision take you down a path. I am sure that if you read it your life and experiences would lead you to many different conclusions.
This is a book that I would love to give to everyone I know and ask them what it is about.
That is the beauty and geniality of Clarice.
"Humility is much more than a feeling, it is reality seen with a minimum of good sense".
Jun 8, 2024
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It’ a beautiful and heart breaking memoir that changed the way I view the world. The perspective this book gave me is incredible, and taught me so much about how to be grateful, and how to live happily in the moment despite the darkness that often surrounds us.
Dec 14, 2024
I know I am technically late to this book but I just finished it and it has fundamentally changed me forever. Maybe its because I am an academic, or because I often introduce myself as the speaker of 2 and a half languages but it hit hard. It is vivid and spectacular and grief inducing and devastating. It has so much heart, so much love, yet so much despair. The attention to detail regarding history and conflicting philosophies, politics, religious beliefs and belief systems is so carefully and precisely constructed, it is in and of itself poetry. It's so vivid that I can taste it, I can feel the texture of the pages, different passages are rattling around my brain and I can remember where I read them, I am a different person from before I read this book. After the reading slump I was in, it feels like all along I was waiting to find this book, I didn't know I was missing it, or waiting for it and yet when I read it it is like all at once I suddenly knew that I had needed this book all along. Read it, if you are one of those people that gets skeptical of things that reach a certain level of popularity, just know that all the hype in the world has undersold this book. It is that good. And yes, I attached a low light photo of my copy because I have reread chapters of this so often that the pages are curling, fished it out of my backpack when I found random spots to sit or stand idly, accidentally smudged it when I immediately reached for it after writing sprawling pages in my notebooks. You see how my earphones aren't connected to anything because all I am thinking about is this book? Yeah exactly! This is a good fucking book I am so serious you guys if you have held off on reading it, bump it up your list.
Jan 9, 2025
Top Recs from @thenarrator
My favourite pheromone…
Within moments of topical application, even the shyest of mammals feverishly flock to ask…
Miss, what IS that(?)!
I often feel like I‘m Jean-Baptiste in the finale scene of Tom Tykwer’s Perfume.
Which always begs the question… why didn’t he ASK the women if he could collect their scents ¿!
If he leaned into being a gorgeous, quirky, educated young man rather than let his obsessions spook the dolls, it could’ve been a win win experience…
You get a custom perfume
and
I get a spa day (which in the 18th century couldn't have been very popular!!)
Oct 1, 2024
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Pay $5 and play a game of chess on Thompson Street.
I’ve sat across a 13-year old tell me that love doesn’t always feel good. I’ve been beat in 3 moves by a painter who reduced my identity down to a ’concept’.
It’s no man’s land, it’s a wonderland, it’s New York City.
Oct 1, 2024