Customer Reviews

The Critical Response to Anais Nin (Critical Responses in Arts and Letters)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

THE CRITICAL RESPONSE TO ANAIS NIN is an amazing book the scholarly fan of this literary legend will appreciate. Thirty one reviews are reprinted, ranging from the early 1930s to the mid-90s, divided into five categories of, "General Assessments," "Nin's Shorter Fiction," "Nin's Novels," "Nin's Diary," "Nin Herself." They range in length from being a few paragraphs to several pages, extremely hostile (suggesting that Nin is sexist, self-indulgent, not quite literature, and an insult to feminists) to extremely supportive - such as Henry Miller's 1937 review originally published in The Criterion that predicts that Nin's diaries will, when published, take their place beside the great literary revelations of the century.

I especially appreciate THE CRITICAL RESPONSE TO ANAIS NIN because it helps me understand the era in which Nin was working. I was 2-years-old when Anais Nin died. It would therefore be easy for me to remain ignorant of how revolutionary Anais Nin was. THE CRITICAL RESPONSE TO ANAIS NIN helped me see that the very fact that she was even writing was revolutionary! Can you believe the first review of a work by Anais Nin - a 1932 review of DH LAWRENCE: AN UNPROFESSIONAL STUDY - was titled, "Femininity of DH Lawrence Emphasized by Woman Writer"? How odd to hear her referred to as a "woman writer." To me, she's just a writer. It adds a dimension of respect for her art to realize that just by creating her art she was taking a risk, challenging the world.

This book is best suited for the Anais Nin scholar. If you are a casual reader of the diaries or the erotica then this book will likely be a bit much. If you are interested not only in Anais Nin's work but also the phenomenon of her career and the varied reactions it elicited, then this book will be an amazing addition to your library. (As for the substantial price, the most I can advise is to do what I did - shop around for a substantial discount.)

Andrew Parodi