Customer Reviews

A Spy in the House of Love

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I just finished one of the most amazing book of the century gone by. I do not know why people always associate Anais Nin and her works to Erotica when there is so much more to it. Yes she did write a whole lotta sensous reading material but then again she was only portraying the truth, wasn't she?

A Spy in the House of Love is all about a woman named Sabina and her life as she flows or rather drifts from one lustful experience to another. She lies, she deceives, she puts on an act only never to find solace in places where she looks for the most - in the arms of strangers but her own husband Alan.

My feelings ranged like tidal waves while devouring this book. I felt like a thief hiding a secret and at the same time felt so connected with my emotions and responses to what my body demanded.

Sabina as a character is so quite that sometimes her silence speaks volumes. The way she moves, the way Ms. Nin breathes life into her is absolutely a piece of art. Rising from the ashes and yet unforgiven. A true to life caricature of what desires can do and their power on our mortal lives.

It takes somebody who has lived all those situations to write such a wonderful story like this one which is full of love & desire.I guess Anais Nin was meant to write it with such vulnerability & passion because she herself,was a spy in the house of love.

I actually owned this book for years before getting around to reading it, and then when I finally did I was kicking myself for not reading it sooner. "A Spy in the House of Love" is the story of a young woman named Sabina who, despite having a kind and loving husband, engages in adulterous affairs with men she barely knows. What is it that motivates Sabina? Is it a thirst for adventure? Lust? Resentment towards her husband or the roles society imposes on her? Instead of being a trite morality tale where the "sinner" is punished by facing horrible consequences (like the recent film "Unfaithful") this book explores, without judgement, Sabina's conflicted emotions and motives.

Anais Nin delves into the sexual natures of women and men in this brief novel. The enduring feature of this novel is that it is not a social analysis of love but rather a pshycoanalysis. Ms. Nin, as many became aware of from her diaries, was a freely permiscuous woman despite her marriage which lasted most of her life. While Ms. Nin wrote this book in the third person, its main charector is clearly based on herself. She provides insights which are concise, though sometimes drifting into stream of consciousness type naration. She appreciates the complexities of people, which in my view is the only way to remotely be able to provide insights into why one loves. Her "analysis" of the various sexual relationships in the book has elements of Freudian thought though neither blindly nor exclusively such. Though Ms. Nin's charector, a restless "actress", appears to have her soul comforted at the end of the novel, there is no real resolution of any of the philosophical or psychological dillemas of her lifestyle. I would recomend this book to anybody as a "quick down and dirty" source of insight into the nature of love and sex

I often find parallels between what I'm reading and what I'm watching and with A Spy in the House of Love I find an affinity between the book and a film, Dark City if that film were told from the point of view of John's "wife" and I also see an affinity with the anime series, Serial Experiements Lain. In all three cases they are stories of women struggling to find themselves among the artifice in which they live, whether it is self created or created by others. To put in terms the book uses, Sabina is like Duchamp's painting of Nude Descending a Staircase; she is a series of frames, a moment of action captured on canvas, but not a single destilled representation of that woman. No one will know what that woman looked like but they will know how she walked down the steps.

Sabina has memories of past loves, past adventures, past meetings but so current feeling of who she is. She is a name. She has a husband who loves her dearly but she is constantly running from him looking for love among her artist friends. There is also clearly a strong note of autobiography in the last third of the book where Sabina meets up with the artist's enclave in New York and that gives this otherwise sensuous tale a note of sadness.

This was the first book by Nin that I've ever read and although the writing was incredible, and even inspiring, the story was rather boring. It's a pretty short book though, so if you've got some time to spare and you want to read about lots of gorgeous men, depressive feelings and sexual desires described so interestingly and beautifully, then check it out.

After my introduction to Anais through reading "Henry and June," I adjusted to her casual style of writing in her diary and fell for her honesty and the intricacies of her mind. I wanted to find the same in this book.

There's no doubt that Anais's unique style, insights, and sense of description all appear in this work, but I think she left out the nitty gritty. She's capable of more. If nothing else, I'd love to see the book about 3 times or more this tiny length, enough space to really delve into Sabina's character, how she got to her breaking point, why she even chose that path in life.

For others considering reading "A Spy in the House of Love," I do recommend it as a unique look into the mind of a woman who's found herself leading separate lives for a single reason, who's in search of a happiness that alludes her, and never finds reason to really be herself, all of herself, at any one point in her life. The book is a psychological slice of a person...a person most of us are at one point in our lives as we seek to be our true selves in every moment, a lot of us never even reaching that point of complete freedom.

Anais also writes of the lure of sex, the psychological reasons why one may seek it out in any way possible, but the book isn't explicit in detail. That's left up to the reader's imagination as Anais only gives us the psychological details. There are many great insights here, most previously untold, but Anais is (was) capable of so much more. Looks like I'll have to turn back to her diaries for that.

The novel's protagonist, Sabina (likely an aspect of the author herself from Nin's own diaries) is an actress struggling to find artistic and sexual fulfillment without destroying herself. A Spy in the House of Love is one more piece in Nin's ongoing effort to explore the self-creation of women in response to social repression. The plot is undoubtedly autobiographical, written as it was during a time when Nin was developing a relationship with a California man and trying to divide her time with her husband in New York.

The novel explores the tension between the desire to break taboos and the inevtable guilt that arises from bucking societal mores. Sabina is a complex character who breaks the misogynist stereotypes of the nymphomaniacal woman and instead delves into the chains imposed on women by the linking of sexuality with love. Nin's prose is like reading hot butterscotch (if that were possible). This is a beautifully sensual poem about the nature of freedom. Sabina longs for "a love not concerned with possession of her, but of a complete understanding that would include absolution". And, tragically, she cannot find it while she constantly shifts roles -- and lovers. For Sabina, there is no absolution, only the integrity of the confession itself.

I really dug into this little book. I t does a good job of examining the psyche of a woman who can't remain faithful to the man she loves. While I might have previously considered the main character's behaviour an example of (wo-)mankind's endless ability to justify selfish acts, I got some perspective on aspects of the main character's psyche which was evidently much needed. This is sort of anti-existentialism, where people are small and subject to pulls from their gender, class, race, and age, never mind their impulses. It doesn't justify chronic faithlessness, at all, but it does present a certain disphoric reality where only the very strong can be responsible for the consequences of their actions.

A woman who loves her husband but has a need to sleep with other men feels guilty about these infidelities and does her best to keep them from him. In this way she feels herself split into different personalities and different people and discovers things about herself though this sexual odyssey.

If you've read my summary and felt "so what?" then you'll have been like me while reading it, thinking that the book has lost it's impact in 21st century Western culture because in the 50s and in the eyes of many people today, marriage and fidelity are things everyone should want and have and that the kind of sexual exploration and adventure seen in the book are things to be ashamed of. Not anymore though! Men and women frequently live lives where they are no longer tied down by conventional sexual mores and live differently (and happily) the lives they want to.

That said, I'm sure the book caused something of a stir when it was first published. The book also addresses the lack of feeling Sabina (the main character) has when she is in these extramarital affairs (hence the title) so it isn't totally risqué, there are morals presented.

While the book is little over 100 pages long, the writing style is at times laborious as Anais Nin likes to use a lot of metaphors, similes and descriptive words in her work, making a single moment stretch beyond it's use. Her characters, while varied, often fail to come to life and despite being told that they're exciting, vibrant people, I never felt this in Nin's writing. Her style leans toward the abstract which is more suited to concepts than people. The dialogue often felt too much like she wanted to make a point and so it goes from being artful to being unrealistic and turned the characters into ciphers.

The book tackles extra-marital affairs well even if the writing is at times tedious to read and the characters a bit colourless. I enjoyed parts of it and eventually finished it but overall felt it could have been better than it was. Not a great read but short. Of all the writers of this time - 40s and 50s - I wouldn't say Anais Nin is or was one of the essential authors to read and "A Spy in the House of Love" is quite a weak novella.