"Praca Maua" by Clarice Lispector (1971)

Feeling Lonely, Bored, Badly in Need of  a Night Out?  Join Clarice at Club Erotica.

" it was nearly three in the morning. The “Erótica” was full of men and women. Lots of housewives went there for fun and to make a little extra cash."

The Complete Short Stories of Clarice Lipsector, published August, 2015, translated by Katrina Dodson, edited and introduced by Benjamin Moser 

My Prior Posts on Clarice Lispector 

"Praca Maua", named after a street in  on the ocean, is a brilliant compelling story about a Rio stripper. She is thirty or so, married to a carpenter, their work hours mean they rarely see each other and she sleeps with customers at the bar she works at to make extra cash.  She does not hate her work at all, sometimes finds it exciting, sometimes boring.  Customers buy her drinks and she make commisions from this even though her drinks are just colored water.  She is friends with a man who also works the bar.  He takes hormones, comes from an upper class family, is popular with sailors, and has adopted a four year old girl on whom he dotes.  

The woman is perfectly realized.  She is a hooker for the easy money, beats working in a store.  Clarice does a great job of bringing her to life.  As the story closes, her and her man friend have a fight over a customer when the woman says he is so handsome she would sleep with him for free.  She achieves a brief ephinay as the story closes.

To me this story shows the very broad range of people and situations Clarice can write upon convincingly.  I read this story three times and liked it more each time.  I think the only right way to experience the short stories of Clarice is to read them all in publication order then go back and read as your instincts dictate.  

I think in time I will develop a sense of Clarice's presentation of the status of women in Brazil.  I think "Praca Maua" is an important part of this matter.

Me, I'm heading off to Erotica.