Nota 17

“Macabéa understood one thing: Glória was a fanfare of existence. And it must have been all because Glória was fat. Fat had always been Macabea’s secret ideal, since in Maceio she’d heard a guy say to a fat girl walking down the street: ‘your flesh is fresh!” From then on she’d aspired to fleshiness and that was when she made the only request of her life. She asked her aunt to buy her cod liver oil. (Even then she had a thing for ads.) Her aunt asked her: you think you’re some rich man’s daughter wanting luxuries?”

Note used in the 315th paragraph of The Hour of the Star. The handwriting is by Clarice and by Olga Borelli (observation circled, on the left).