The Woman Who Killed the Fish

"Clarice Lispector’s anthology of animal stories reflects her acerbic view that human compassion for animals doesn’t prevent the latter from being eaten or exploited. As bought pets, animals must either conform to our anthropomorphic lens or, as “uninvited natural creatures,” remain too repellent to merit our sympathy. The title story’s sly narrator implicates both herself and the reader, by justifying the fatal neglect of her son’s fish on her all-consuming work as a fiction writer. Nevertheless, in one instance Lispector does allow a rabbit to escape his cage like Houdini, and in another ensures a hen is protected by a cyclops from Jupiter."