La luna and its atoms

From the recent new translation of The Hour of the Star by Benjamin Moser, which I prefer. The book includes a brief preface title "A Passion for the Void" by Colm Toílbín. In his text, he traces some similarities between the author and her characters, e.g. the predominance of hesitant, slow movements. It appears that Lispector was famous for not reacting promptly when people called her in the streets or elsewhere, almost as if movement required careful consideration and willful decision. Even what is usually considered mechanical movement did not happen so inertially for her. And yet this suggestions can only hinder rather than enrich the reading of her short novel. Being aware of that danger, Toílbín asserts "This is not to suggest that the story is autobiographical; rather it is an exploration of a self that is sometimes glimpsed, but barely known" (ix). I am not quite sure what he means by "glimpsed, but barely known". Are the characters in The Hour of the Star, including the narrator "in the making", bundles of hidden meaning? Just as the new translation allows us to approach the text anew, what other interpretations of the narrative that do not emphasize these ideas of veiled truth can we muster today?