How to Be Book Club - "Água Viva" by Clarice Lispector

Existential crises are like a persistent rash. There's no cure, but if you're suffering from the Big Questions, maybe the How To Be Book Club can be a salve. Come hang out in Book Club Bar's back garden one Saturday each month, and join us in discussing works of philosophical fiction from across different eras and parts of the globe. We'll read the book beforehand (and do us a solid, if you can—get your book from our store), and then gather for casual conversation over drinks. Our usual fanfare will be available—coffee, beer, wine, and cocktails, plus some special brunch offerings! No preparation needed; just bring your book, your sweet self, and your curious mind!

This February we'll be discussing Água Viva by Clarice Lispector, with an optional companion text of Mysticism by Simon Critchley. Cards on the table, Água Viva has no characters and no plot, but HEAR ME OUT! Clarice Lispector is one of a kind. Her metaphors are visceral, her language unpredictable, her curiosity relentless and piercing. She is known in some parts of Brazil as "Hurricane Clarice." In her lifetime, she purposely cultivated naïveté and rejected intellectual elitism which allowed her, as Colm Tóibín has said, "to write as though no one had ever written before." At only 88 pages, Lispector's Água Viva is an unforgettable meditation on life, time, and presence. Simon Critchley's definition of mysticism—"a way of systematically freeing yourself of your standard habits, your usual fancies and imaginings so as to see what is there and stand with what is there ecstatically"—in many ways describes what Lispector sought in her writing: transcendence of the self, universality, and access to the sublime.

This month's pick: by Clarice Lispector
Optional companion text: by Simon Critchley

What your ticket includes:

• $8 off any drink at the bar

Grab a brunch cocktail at the bar and tell us what you thought of the book! Our informal discussion will be led by BCB bookseller Keri Kelly.

Registration is capped, so please register early if you are planning on attending. Please note: gratuity for the bartenders is not included. Please use your tickets at the beginning of the event.

Host or Publisher Book Club Bar