Clarice Lispector: hour of the star (The reason I wont ever trust a Psychic)

I will begin by saying that my thoughts on this book are very complicated and I can tell if I liked it or hated it. The negative of this book for me is that it felt like it was written by a college student who is struggling to meet the word count for an assignment and therefore is saying anything and everything to have more words. This was at some point in the novel rather charming as I was able to get intimate details about Macabea’s life that I wouldn't be privy to if this were written more traditionally. For example, in the excerpt in which we find out about her rather unusual magazine ad collection, “the cream was so appetizing that if she had the money to buy it she wouldn’t be a fool. To hell with her skin, she'd eat it, that’s right, in large spoonfuls straight from the jar” (30). Though we already get a picture of Macabea as some depraved, ugly, slightly odd girl tidbits like this throughout the novel helped me find Macabea somewhat endearing. However, for the majority of the novel especially in the middle and end I found the other unique writing style to be too distracting. It ruined my immersion into the story and world that Lispector had so carefully built. I could tell that the author (Lispector or Rodrigo) had put a lot of effort into crafting the story, but it got harder and harder to follow with all the jumps in style. I felt like the author was jumping back and forth between broad and narrow, significant and insignificant, and random and related. 

I will say though after watching the lecture I have gained a certain appreciation for the planning Lispector put into this that I did not think about. She does a wonderful job of writing a character who is writing a character and doing so shows a unique perspective of the relationship between a creator and their creation. Rodrigo often mentions the girl in an insulting or negative way like when he says “to go along gently despite my impatience with that girl” (8) or “The person I’m going to talk about is so dumb that she sometimes smiles at other people on the street” (6). Yet at the same time, he says “I’m the only one who finds her charming. Only I, her author, love her. I suffer for her” (19). Lispector sets up the novel in a way that we can see the strong relationship Rodrigo has with a creation he ultimately kills off. This is further shown as he interrupts the reader’s consumption to delay Macabea’s death only to end the novel in a rather cavalier way “Don’t forget that for now it’s strawberry season” (77).

My question is do you think Macabea’s ending is somewhat positive because as he writes “She was finally free of herself and of us” (76) or do you think it's negative because the character and a part of the author end up dying “I know because I just died with the girl” (76)?