Sunshine in Bern

Days are passing by. Como as nuvens no céu. I hardly have time to write to you.

Yesterday evening I checked out Wikipedia for Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector (1920-1977). Read a couple of reviews. She looked like Marlene Dietrich and wrote like Virginia Woolf. I'm not impressed by Marlene. And I never read anything - if I remember well - of Virginia Woolf. So this is hardly a recommendation for me. I checked Clarice out because many of my Brazilian friends keep on quoting her. She died more than 30 years ago! So I'm curious about her writing.

Clarice was born as 'Chaya' in Ukraine. Her family suffered terribly in the pogroms during the Russian Civil War. In 1922 her family managed to flee to Brazil. Her parents both died young. She married a diplomat. And lived for more than ten years in Europe and in the USA.

I put these three books on my reading-list:

• 'Family ties' (1960). Original written in Portuguese 'Lacos de Familia'. "Best book of stories ever written in Brazil".
• 'The passion according to G.H.' (1964). Original written in Portuguese 'A Paixão Segundo G.H.'. "Great" mystic novel.
• 'The stream of life' (1973). Original written in Portuguese 'Água Viva'. Many consider this as Clarice "best" book.