Near to the Wild Heart opens with a scene of the child Joana playing in the garden, making up poems for her father. Joana's wildness and barely suppressed violence, along with her linguistic creativity, are her most notable features. She is frequently compared to animals: over the course of the book Lispector compares her to a bird, a snake, a wildcat, a horse, and a dog. She commits transgressive acts—as a child she throws a book at an old man's head, for example, and as a married woman she leaves her husband, Otávio, and greets the news of his adultery—he has made another woman, his
A Match Made in Heaven A Match Made in Heaven A Match Made in Heaven is a 1997 television film inspired by actual events. It is about a dying widow who plays matchmaker to her 32-year-old unmarried son and sets him up with a nurse that she meets. The film stars Olympia Dukakis, John Stamos and Kelly Rowan. Thomas "Tom" Rosner (Stamos) is a successful lawyer and happens to be a good catch. However, his unmarried state is the greatest sorrow of his mother, Helen (Dukakis), who is a cancer patient. As Helen visits the hospital for a check-up, she encounters her doctor's new nurse,