The First Kiss by Clarice Lispector, 1971
The magic trick:
Setting up an immature premise and following with an intense consideration of sexual experience
It starts out so simply. Innocent. Immature. A young couple talking. The girl asks her boyfriend if he’s ever kissed a woman.
So the reader instantly falls into this light-hearted mindset. We’re settling in for some kind of teen comedy, right?
Well, things get more intense as the boy answers her question. Intense and a little weird. Unquenchable thirst. Field trips with classmates. Naked statues. I don’t know how much I like the story. The sexual metaphors maybe are a bit obvious. But it’s certainly an interesting and sharp change in tone. And that’s quite a trick on Lispector’s part.
The selection:
The solution was to collect saliva, and that was what he did. After filling his burning mouth he swallowed it slowly, then again and once again. But it was warm, the saliva, and it didn’t take away the thirst. An enormous thirst larger than he himself, which now took over his whole body.
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