The Hour of the Star

Clarice Lispector’s novel The Hour of the Star was originally published in Portuguese as A hora da estrela, by The Heirs in 1977. New Directions Paperbook published the original English translation of the novel in 1992. The novel is Lispector’s final publication during her life; her novel A Breath of Life was published posthumously. The Hour of the Star is set in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and follows the first-person narrator, Rodrigo S. M., as he attempts to tell the story of his beloved fictional character, Macabéa. Penning her tale raises complicated questions about Rodrigo’s own life and identity. His complex and intimate relationship with his writing project and his character forms the basis for the novel’s thematic concerns with meaning and identity, the impact of poverty and social invisibility, and existential reflections on life. True to Lispector’s iconic style, the novel subverts literary traditions and linguistic conventions and toys with structure, form, and style throughout.

This guide refers to the 2011 New Directions Paperbook edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The novel contains references to and descriptions of domestic violence, death by suicide, emotional abuse, and poverty. The guide content refers to the last two topics.

Plot Summary

The novel is set in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where the first-person narrator, Rodrigo S. M., resides. One day, he’s walking down the street when he encounters a compelling-looking girl from the northeast region of the country. He sees something mysterious in her expression and decides to write a story about a character like her.

He isolates himself, eats little, and deprives himself of sleep, literature, and human contact so that he can focus on penning Macabéa’s tale. However, he finds the story more difficult to write than he anticipated. Each time he tries to work on the project, he’s filled with terror and dread. He worries that Macabéa is too “dumb” to write about, that she doesn’t ask enough important questions about life and identity, and that her story is fundamentally too predictable. Despite these fears, Rodrigo can’t let Macabéa go. He obsesses over her story for months, trying to decide what it is about her that he can’t forget. He decides that the girl’s name will be Macabéa and that she will be from Alagoas, like himself.

Once Rodrigo finally starts to write Macabéa’s story, he feels increasingly invested in her fate. Each time he sits down to work on it, however, he finds it nearly impossible to continue his creative project. He feels as if Macabéa is hanging on his neck or lodged inside of him, but he doesn’t know how to start telling her story. He makes a few decisions about the narrative, determining how many characters he’ll include and some of the major plot points. He also decides that he won’t use ornate language because Macabéa is a simple girl who leads a simple life. Not only does she have few luxuries, but she asks few questions about herself, the world, society, or the human condition. Rodrigo wonders if these frustrating aspects of her character make her hard to write about. However, he also can’t help wondering if writing her story might help him uncover some secret meaning behind life and death.

Rodrigo finally sits down and begins focusing on his story. When Macabéa was two years old, her mother and father died. She then moved in with her aunt, with whom she lived throughout her childhood. However, her aunt was cruel and violent. Before her aunt’s death, she secured Macabéa a typing job in the city, where Macabéa moved into a tenement apartment.

Macabéa still lives in the same apartment, which she shares with four other women, all named Maria. Her roommates are fine, but Macabéa rarely sees or interacts with them. One of the Marias lets Macabéa borrow her clock radio, which Macabéa uses to listen to the time, advertisements, and broadcasts about historical facts or cultural information.

One day, Macabéa meets Olímpico de Jesus Moreira Chaves. She experiences desire for the first time. They start to see each other regularly, and Macabéa begins dreaming of marriage. However, Olímpico is cruel to Macabéa, belittling her and laughing at her. She tries to please him and engage him in conversation, but Olímpico doesn’t really like Macabéa. He soon breaks up with her after meeting her coworker Glória, who he thinks is a better match.

Macabéa tries to comfort herself after Olímpico abandons her by buying herself a lipstick. She tries it on in the bathroom mirror at work. When she returns to the office hoping she looks like Marilyn Monroe, Glória jeers and laughs at her. Macabéa realizes that Glória isn’t her friend after all. However, Glória starts to regret her unkindness in the days that follow. She assures Macabéa that she’ll find a new boyfriend soon and suggests that she visit Madame Carlota, a local fortune teller, to find out when her new lover will appear.

Macabéa is enchanted by Madame Carlota as soon as she arrives at her apartment. She tells Macabéa all about her life and correctly intuits the details of Macabéa’s past. She then draws cards and reveals that Macabéa’s life is about to change forever. She predicts that her boss won’t fire her as planned and that she’ll soon meet a handsome foreigner named Hans who will fall in love with her.

Macabéa leaves feeling delighted and hopeful. As she stands out on the street, contemplating everything she learned from the fortune teller, a car whizzes by and hits Macabéa, knocking her to the ground. A crowd gathers around her body, watching the blood flow from her head and waiting for her to die.

Rodrigo doesn’t want Macabéa to die but can’t stop her death. He feels sorrowful once she’s gone but realizes that even he will die.