New PEN Reads Post by Jaime Manrique Now Online‏

PEN READS: THE HOUR OF THE STAR A new entry has been posted at PEN Reads, an online reading group that brings together readers and writers to discuss works of literature relevant to PEN's mission. In this third post, Jaime Manrique examines the movie adaptation of Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star, the first book chosen for PEN Reads. Read earlier posts by Colm Tóibín and Ben Moser. Susana Amaral's The Hour of the Star by Jaime Manrique Great novels are seldom, if ever, successfully translated to the screen (Luchino Visconti's film adaptation of Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard is the one exception that immediately comes to mind). Wonderfully accomplished novels fare better (just to mention a few recent adaptations, think of Ang Lee's The Ice Storm and Mira Nair's The Namesake, fine movies made from eponymous novels). Still, more good novels fail than succeed in the attempt. In fact, it is a commonplace to say that, in general, minor novels make the best movies. Then what about Clarice Lispector's The Hour of the Star? It is a novel that is short on narrative but big on interiority, peppered with goofy philosophical musings, and has at its center the character, Macabea, who is described by the novel's narrator as "simple minded," and as "a creature from nowhere with the expression of someone who apologizes for occupying too much space." Though The Hour of the Star, Lispector's final work, is hardly the stuff out of which good movies are made, Amaral's film adaptation comes as a refreshing surprise to the readers acquainted with the novel. I will not go as far as to say that I prefer the movie to the original novel, but I would like to argue that Susana Amaral's film expands the confines of the novel and enriches the narrative, adding layers of feeling that the novel doesn't have. It achieves this, I think, by turning the "unformed" Macabea into an unforgettable movie creation. I would even go as far as to say that thanks to Amaral's movie, Macabea has finally come fully to life. Read the entire post and join the discussion online at PEN.org.

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