Customer Reviews

Incest: From a Journal of Love : The Unexpurgated Diary of Anias Nin, 1932-1934

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For the love of ... Are we reviewing the book, or are we critiquing the woman? We're reviewing the book, right? So why so much moralistic brouhaha about the writer's behavior? When Van Gogh's work is auctioned off for a gazillion dollars, is the fact that he was mentally ill of great concern, or is there more interest in his artistry, his skill, and his innovative and altogether original treatment of a mundane subject?

Yes, Anais Nin describes doing some things that we find disturbing. (Regarding the abortion, back in those days when very little was known about the fetus, late-term abortions were common and there was no moral dilemma. We simply can't judge her by our modern understanding. And as for her bizarre relationship with her father, one again would need to understand the context, the extremely complicated history from which the behavior arose.)

So enough of the judgments of Anais Nin's descriptions of her own behavior (does she get points for honesty?) and take a look at the writing. I simply defy anyone to describe such strange events with as much brilliance and poetry. Nin's writing is like a ballet on ice; it is stylized, feminine, passionate and strict at the same time. Who else could divulge the darkest secrets with the delicacy of a geisha serving tea?

Some day Nin's achievement will be recognized by the literary establishment. In the meantime, if you don't count yourself among the squeamish, judgmental, or easily disturbed, buy this book.

You're generally in one of two camps when it comes to Nin. It was true when she was alive and it seems to be just as true now that she's dead. If you're in the camp that loves her, you will love this diary. Her writing is beautiful. I've read the biographies of her and I know that she had a tendency to embellish the facts or even to outright lie, but that doesn't destroy my enjoyment of her diaries in the least. If the pages contained in her journals are not an exact representation of the reality she was living (is there such a thing?) they are a representation of her life the way she wanted to see it...and really, isn't that what being an artist is all about? She gives a very clear image of a world that is completely alien to most of us; a world that many of us might like to find but have never had the courage to seek. She writes of a world full of artists and lovers and intellectual friends...a world full of life and eaters of life. It's magnificent. Truth or fiction, it doesn't matter to me.

Regardless of the subject matter, Anais Nin is an incredible writer and her way with words was probably part of her charm in life. Her ability to describe even the most perverted behavior as something transcendent and meaningful probably was the ability that kept her circle of lovers around her. She could make the most petty behavior seem poetic by her descriptions and that's seductive to someone caught in a relationship with such a person.

I read the journals of Anais Nin not because I identify with her, or even sympathise with her, but because I enjoy the way she makes every small event of her life seem like something elevated and rife with meaning. I am fascinated by the lurid details and by the paradox of all her affairs, were these men sexually abusing her, or was she using them? It seems, somehow both.

And there's a little bit of teenage angst still lurking inside me that was never cured. The part of me that still listens to the Smiths and loves Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton adores Anais Nin and her glorious tragic screwed-upness.

In general I find Anais Nin's work to be self-indulgent and her subject matter (largely herself) trivial. Her portraits of others are frequently lightweight and lack perceptiveness. Her Diaries are overwrought and sometimes unintentionally funny but in general aren't worth the time it takes to read them. These previously unpublished sections of her Diaries, in which Nin describes her incestuous relationship with her father, are however the most compelling segments of her writing in the whole canon.

She describes with great insight her father's character, and she sketches his physical attributes with great economy yet enables us to see the man as she saw him - frail, a hopeless narcicist and an aging dandy, yet compelling and vital despite the betrayals of his body (and his betrayals of all those who ever got close to him). Her account of her own feelings is also economical for once, and we don't have to labor through over-written descriptions of her emotional condition in order to get to the point.

While the subject matter may not be to everyone's taste, I would argue that if you have any interest in Nin's work and times, this is the book above all others that you should read.

I have read this book a few times. I felt great anguish, and hope for this woman, and all she was going through. As a writer, I can perhaps understand a bit more why she would put herself in this position... and maybe as a woman, even though she explains her motivations, desires, and actions pretty good. I do not agree with the person who said she was just a sick person. To write about something so intensely personal and so shattering, I think she would have to have been very strong emotionally, or it would have destroyed her, which is clearly NOT the case. whether she became a better person for it, who are we to judge? she wanted, and needed to experience life to the fullest. who can say there is something wrong with that? isn't that what we are ultimately here for. the only thing she could not control was the pain and the things that were beyond her- but she understood that, and still progressed. I think she did have a lot of courage, and was a remarkable woman, who let herself stay open to the world and all it had to offer her. she knew herself better than anyone else did, and while she had faults, they only seemed to magnify her humanity and vulnerability more, rather than make her into someone negative and bitter, which she could have been. we are all imperfect, and sometimes, the imperfections are also beauty marks, and Anais had many!! for anyone who wants to know more about women and how they sometimes suffer for love and the trappings it brings; this is a must read. also for breaking taboos, and seeing that life is not over once we enter into those realms. we can all learn from this brilliant woman.

Her bold, honest observations and self-revelations as a woman were provoking. I tried not to judge her and frankly her affairs with numerous men while married, were with mostly other married people! Were they all unbalanced? Just human. She has a horrid abortion experience--all this in 1930s Paris while she is in her early 30s. Throughout she describes in moving detail her thoughts and feelings and confusion and self-analysis about all of this. The baldness of it is gripping. Her need to express herself is compelling. The writing is expressive. The first pages didn't really draw me in but I kept with it and found I couldn't stop reading it.

Anais Nin is selfish and human. Her ability to lie to everyone in her life strangely allows her to be more honest to herself--she herself admits that she is neurotic, but she is not deluded or insane. Her diary contains the documentation of her physical, intellectual, and spiritual explorations. "Incest" is fascinating because Nin is completely honest only in her diaries. In her inner freedom, she explores her femininity (how she becomes a "woman"); her relationships to men and the feminine/masculine relationship; and repression, oppression, and liberation. She constantly liberates herself only to find that she has succeeded in trapping herself again. Anais Nin's selfishness comes through in her diaries more honestly than most of us could manage, even in the safety of our own minds. She seems the most human, sane person on earth until one stands back to survey her life; she never lets the reader stand back while reading her diary.

Wow!! what a LOVELY review!! thanks K. for your boldness and clear audacity and intelligence! i haven't read this one yet but i will. Anais is a phenomenal being who brought to life the inner life so honestly. She should be studied as part of a way to be a better human in my oppinion...

Why???

Because it is only through deep reflection, through willing honesty that we can actually IMPROVE ourselves as human beings.... i.e. EVOLVE. She is an unending inspiration of self-acceptance and shear divulgence that can awaken our society to become more enlightened instead of hiding behind the lies of dominance birthed only by pathological insecurities.

Let us all write our own diaries so that we can see ourselves for what we are actually doing instead of hide behind pretense and the perpetuation of initimidation that keeps the secrets alive and in the shadows... out them through self-acceptance and the desire to change!

Read Anais Nin to know yourself better, even if you think you have nothing in common with what seems so outrageous. Many children are concieved in rape with their "lawful" mates... Wake up and understand humanity still further than you ever imagined!! ENJOY!!

Anais simply put was a grand master artist and her medium was words. I fell in love with her writing within the first two pages. She just lulls you, comforts you, titillates you and completely entertains you in this volume of her diaries.

I have read this two or three times in the past five years, and I never tire of Anais's breathless, poetic style and the amazing fluidity with which she exposes contradictory sides to her personality. This is a real diary written by a real woman, and memoirs and other published diaries seem diluted and prepackaged in comparison.

However, the sexual content here is highly charged and not for the squeamish. Only open minds need apply.