Nin [Paperback]

Cass Dalglish (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2000

Fiction. NIN is a mystical, mythical, magical fable set in the high-tech, modern-day world of air travel, telephones, computers, and the World Wide Web. Nin Creed is a feminist poet embarking upon a quixotic journey to recover the lost writings of her late mother, a scholar and linguist, who died the day she was born. Traveling from Minnesota to Israel in search of her mother's life and work, Nin finds herself accompanied upon her pilgramage by a few of the legions of women writers who lived and wrote centuries ago and whose work, too, was lost to future generations of writers and readers. NIN reassures us that women's literary lineage is vital and unbroken. As we follow the heroine's search for her mother, we discover with her a host of spiritual mothers eager to befriend and empower us. They ask only that we be equally imaginative and daring -- Diane Wolkstein.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"We are back from some sadness," the narrator's father says at the opening of this novel of reclamation, remembrance and fantasy. Poet Nin Creed, born to a scholarly mother the day she died in an auto accident in Israel, decides as an adult in Minnesota to reclaim her mother's legacy. Raised in Vermont with sister Annie by her father and wise cook Aurelia, at age 11 Nin reads in an old Haifa Israel English Gazette of the circumstances of her mother's death in 1951. She learns that her father was invited by a Father Louis to teach at a college of theology in Haifa, but the truth proves more complicated: it was Nin's mother, not her father, who wanted to relocate to Israel to pursue scholarly research "looking for patterns, gestures, repetitions" that might lead to the Grail. However, much of what her mother had assembled was lost in a mysterious fire ("the ultimate editor of history"). As an adult, Nin establishes herself as an "aerobic poet" who gains notoriety for penning verses on command; she returns to Vermont and, later, Israel. What unfolds is a literary and spiritual detective story. Nin's scholarly sleuthing turns up a garland of female writers across time, including Christine de Pisan and Marguerite Por te of the 14th century, who act as Nin's guides, and together they try to make sense of the fragmentary clues Nin manages to uncover. Though some of its New Agey mysticism is facile, this book raises compelling issues of gender and history, and of the ways in which both influence representations of truth and meaning. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

A poet, novelist and former journalist, Dalglish studied Summerian hieroglyphs to find women's earliest writing and translate Nin-Me-Sar-Ra the earliest signed poem (2350 BCE) in history. She holds a PhD from Union Institute and is an associate professor of English and Chair of Women's Studies at Augsburg College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 302 pages
• Publisher: Spinsters Ink; 1st edition (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1883523397
• ISBN-13: 978-1883523398
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,615,204 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Other Dead Poets, December 10, 2000

By 

D. Green (MN, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nin (Paperback)

Cass Dalglish has created an entertaining hybrid of academic satire, the novel of ideas, and mystical feminist fantasy. The title character Nin (short for Nina and a whole lot more) is a poet who teaches at a university in Duluth, where free-speech issues arise at a yearly remembrance of protests in 1971; who returns to Vermont to celebrate the publication of her father's magnum opus, a new translation of the works of St. Thomas Aquinas; and who undertakes a journey to Israel to visit the graves of her mother and grandmother. Along the way, we are treated to a rousing satire of the excesses of political correctness on campus, a comic but loving portrayal of feminist eccentricities, a serious debate about the anti-woman tradition in philosophy and theology from Aristotle through Thomas Aquinas and beyond, a witty encounter with women writers of the past, and even the vagaries of internet chat houses. "Nin" successfully combines Catholic theology, feminism, Sumerian antiquities, and Jungian psychology. Best of all, it's a great read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Inspirational Book, November 5, 2001

By 

Lisa R. Dietz (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nin (Paperback)

"Nin" is thought-provoking and inspirational. It is a life-changing book. After reading it, I feel exhilarated with a new interest in what women have said before, I have renewed hope for women's voices, I feel inspired to add my own words to other women's and know that, in doing so, there is meaning (if only in the act of doing it).
The work is obviously well researched and well thought out. The writing style is tight and inventive. It is an advanced work of fiction.
I will read the book many times.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Newest gem in feminist literature, December 20, 2000

By 

Sharon G. Mijares, Ph.D. (Cardiff by the Sea, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nin (Paperback)

Nin is truly the newest gem in feminist literature. Dalglish has done a fine job of interweaving history and fiction, oftentimes with tongue in cheek. What a treat to enter a realm where women writers throughout history are dialoguing on the world wide web and confronting the philosophies belittling the place in women in creation; for example, those of Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle and Plato. This adventure is an act of genious and one of the best novels I've read in years.