"Escape" by Clarice Lispector (from The Complete Short Stories of Clarice Lispector trans. By Katrina Dodson)

My Posts on Clarice Lispector 

"Escape", set in Rio de Jinero, is the story of a woman's never really serious attempt to escape from her twelve year marriage.  There is nothing really wrong with her husband, she is just bored and weighed down with the crush of sameness.

"Desires are ghosts that dissolve as soon as you light the lamp of good sense. Why is it that husbands are good sense? Hers is particularly solid, good, and never wrong. The sort who only uses one brand of pencil and knows by heart what’s written on the soles of his shoes. You can ask him with no hesitation about the train schedule , which newspaper has the highest circulation and even in what region of the globe monkeys reproduce the fastest."

Lispector does a good job of invoking the feel walking along a street in front of the ocean in Rio, an experience I have had.  

There is a very dark under current in the woman's psyche.  She relays a recurring childhood dream which seems to be drawing her to walk into the ocean.  

There is no date of publication data for any of the stories in the collection.  I have an advance review copy and I hope this information will be in the final version.  If not it is a serious editorial lapse.  

Mel u