Editing Clarice Lispector (section)

=== ''Covert Joy'' and ''Água Viva (The Stream of Life)'' ===

In 1971, Lispector published another book of stories, ''Felicidade clandestina'' (''Covert Joy''), several of which hearkened back to memories of her childhood in [[Recife]]. She began working on the book that many would consider her finest, ''[[Água Viva (novel)|Água Viva]]'' (''The Stream of Life''), though she struggled to complete it. Olga Borelli, a former nun who entered her life around this time and became her faithful assistant and friend, recalled: {{blockquote|text=She was insecure and asked a few people for their opinion. With other books Clarice didn't show that insecurity. With ''Água viva'' she did. That was the only time I saw Clarice hesitate before handing in a book to the publisher. She herself said that.<ref>Franco Júnior, Arnaldo. "Clarice, segundo Olga Borelli", ''Minas Gerais Suplemento Literário'', December 19, 1987, pp. 8-9.</ref>}} When the book came out in 1973, it was instantly acclaimed as a masterpiece. "With this fiction," one critic wrote, "Clarice Lispector awakens the literature currently being produced in Brazil from a depressing and degrading lethargy and elevates it to a level of universal perennity and perfection."<ref>Ribeiro, Leo Gilson. "Auto-inspeção." ''Veja'' (September 19, 1973).</ref> The book is an interior monologue with an unnamed first person narrator to an unnamed "you", and has been described as having a musical quality, with the frequent return of certain passages.<ref name="iowareview.uiowa.edu">[http://iowareview.uiowa.edu/reviews/oct-14-2013/clarice_lispector_s_gua_viva "Clarice Lispector's Água Viva"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020083139/http://iowareview.uiowa.edu/reviews/oct-14-2013/clarice_lispector_s_gua_viva |date=October 20, 2013 }}, ''Iowa Review''.</ref> ''Água viva'' was first translated into English in 1978 as ''The Stream of Life'', with a new translation by Stefan Tobler published in 2012.<ref name="iowareview.uiowa.edu" />