She starts with a woman who has been left by her lover. The woman is distraught – can’t go on. Then, in an instant near the story’s close, the narrative flips and suddenly she is happy.
The short stories of the great 20th-century Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector have been collected in English for the first time, in a new translation by Katrina Dodson. Lispector, the daughter of Jewish immigrants fleeing violent persecution in Ukraine, was in her time a newspaper columnist, a diplomatic wife, and (in her only TV interview) a self-proclaimed “amateur”.
She writes on the micro-detail of ordinary lives, mostly of women: the decision not taken, the argument rehearsed but not spoken. A man buries a dead dog in an inadequate tribute to a dog he neglected, then digs it up again; a woman’s involuntary moment of compassion for a blind man prompts her to consider abandoning her family; a respectable teacher is not raped and murdered by two robbers on a train. Lispector’s restless curiosity drives her towards those nebulous, life-changing moments that are as difficult to identify as to recount.
The narratives are mostly interior, and Lispector’s story-busting narrators are often those refused a say in their fates: children, old women, chickens, as well as “the smallest woman in the world”. Their very powerlessness enables them to slip the shackles of conventional story. In “Journey to Petrópolis” an old lady is shunted between relatives until, neglected, she wanders off to die by the roadside. A sad tale? Yes and no (moments of surprising joy are never lacking in Lispector’s work). Her characters move constantly in and out of focus, with death as the ultimate evasion of narrative, of meaning, of language and eventually of the storyteller herself.
Lispector plays with what is found between the lines, in spaces the writer can set up, suggest, but is wise enough to know she cannot control. Writing, Lispector says, in “The disasters of Sophia”, is akin to the sin of lying, and the culpability it induces rescues the writer from the weight of acknowledging her own work: “I thought everything made up was a lie, and only the tormented awareness of sinning redeemed me from this vice.”
The schoolgirl narrator of this story is at first unsure what the hidden “treasure” her teacher refers to is. Is it the subject of her composition? Is he flirting with her? No, she comes to realise he is talking about her shameful ability to write. There are many stories about hidden treasure. Most, like “Preciousness”, combine the idea of female physicality with a wider sense of self. Both are interdependent, open to assault and full of terrifying joys.
Moser, in his introduction, writes of how Lispector’s characters echo the writer’s own experiences, making “a record of a woman’s entire life, written over a woman’s entire life”, but let’s not equate Lispector too closely with her creations. An “amateur” who was nevertheless a professional newspaper columnist, a wife who divorced, a bourgeois born into the life of a refugee; these perspectives are seldom recounted in the stories. To confuse Lispector with her characters would be to undermine her art.
Over time, Lispector’s stories turn to the subject of creativity, and each seems a new clue to their creator’s achievement. “I will tell at least three stories, all true because they don’t contradict each other,” the narrator begins a story called, provocatively, “The Fifth Story”. Increasingly concerned with artifice, Lispector let her stories’ seams show because, like the finest Japanese designer denim, the red-edged selvage on the interior is also part of their elegance.
So, which came first: the chicken or the egg? In “The Egg”, Lispector gets closest to discussing her writing process. “I could interfere with whatever is carried out through me. It’s because I myself, I properly speaking, all I have really been good for is interfering. What tells me that I might be an agent is the idea that my destiny surpasses me.”
Lispector without doubt identifies with the chicken; the egg she produces, her art, is seamless and necessarily mysterious even to its creator. Did it arrive fully formed? Her early work already reads like the mature productions of most writers. Each story demands such attention. Lispector never repeats a subject or an approach except to push it further. Moser, in his introduction, calls her a “female Chekhov”, but Lispector is no one so much as the fullest version of herself.
Joanna Walsh is a UK-based writer. She edits fiction at 3:AM magazine and runs @read_women.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse Of Madness'
Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Michael Stuhlbarg and Rachel McAdams
Rating: 3/5
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
Five healthy carbs and how to eat them
Brown rice: consume an amount that fits in the palm of your hand
Non-starchy vegetables, such as broccoli: consume raw or at low temperatures, and don’t reheat
Oatmeal: look out for pure whole oat grains or kernels, which are locally grown and packaged; avoid those that have travelled from afar
Fruit: a medium bowl a day and no more, and never fruit juices
Lentils and lentil pasta: soak these well and cook them at a low temperature; refrain from eating highly processed pasta variants
Courtesy Roma Megchiani, functional nutritionist at Dubai’s 77 Veggie Boutique
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EOlive%20Gaea%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202021%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECo-founders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Vivek%20Tripathi%2C%20Jessica%20Scopacasa%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ELicensed%20by%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%20World%20Trade%20Centre%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Climate-Tech%2C%20Sustainability%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%241.1%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ECornerstone%20Venture%20Partners%20and%20angel%20investors%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%208%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A