The city under siege - by Clarice Lispector

In 1971, Clarice Lispector told the newspaper Correio da Manhã that A Cidade Sisitada, from 1949, was her most difficult book to write. Perhaps because, in Lucrécia Neves' story, Clarice's talent brought to perfection the paradox of dehumanizing her characters as much as possible to make them viscerally human. The simple-minded protagonist Lucrécia, sweetly devoid of reasoning and/or conscience, is the soulmate of Macabéa, from The Hour of the Star. Lucrécia is just what she sees: the horses wandering around in the suburban hometown of São Geraldo, the Pasto hill, the warehouse, the windless afternoon sun. Lucrécia was therefore Saint Gerard. His soul, his emotions were the boredom of suburbia. She had a vague desire to get married and, for this reason, she went out with Lieutenant Felipe, whose military uniform she liked, but he didn't like São Geraldo, so he wouldn't like Lucrécia. He went out with Perceu Maria, whom he despised perhaps because he was astonished and empty like her. But neither of them asked her to marry him and, when the agony in Lucrécia's heart beat out of step with the sleepiness of the city, she dreamed of a ball. A ball with music and dancing would be salvation. Out of pure catatonia, Lucrécia was left to marry Mateus Correia, a rich and much older merchant, on the initiative of her mother, Ana, to whom she had offered no enthusiasm or resistance. After the wedding, Lucrécia continued to see the movement of traffic, the construction of a viaduct, spiders making their webs, and mosquitoes every day. She saw her husband and his domestic concerns. Did you love him? After Matthew's death, Lucrécia, less besieged but not yet free, goes in search of a man with a good heart. But for her, love was difficult. She didn't see him and therefore didn't know what love was. The besieged city, like the other titles by Clarice Lispector re-released by Rocco, received new graphic treatment and underwent rigorous text review, carried out by specialist in textual criticism Marlene Gomes Mendes.