Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #163160 in Books
• Published on: 1980-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 235 pages

Customer Reviews

Literary journal with juice
In writing her journal Anais Nin explained that she purposely recorded events as 'live' and as near to their actually happening, so that her perceptions were not distorted by time. It pays off! Like many of us today, Nin is on a dual quest for self improvement and self discovery and the immediacy of this has not waned in over 50 years. This journal has juice. Though, Anais is not just 'into' herself but includes the significant others in her life as an integral part of her narrative, demonstrating a cinematic eye for detail. She shows as much will to explain her friendship with Henry Miller as she does the relationship with her father. Her style is fluent and economical, and although she moved in elite artistic circles, any whiff of self-aggrandisement is under much self-scrutiny. Being a journal, this account is naturally one-sided but the author has such a rigorous insight into the nuances of her relationships and is so self-aware that you never feel that she is looking at life through one lens. Her liberal mindset and aspirations to live freely and independently as a woman are a sobering and welcome antidote to the contemporary female chick lit preoccupied with panicking about'Mr Right' and beating the biological clock. She could be described as the literary forerunner to Tracy Emin's unrelenting self examination as an artist,though she is not so blatantly 'confessional'. Nin presents an unpretentious, liberating and lucid insight into the notion of being an 'artist' and a woman. An inspirational read for artists and writers alike, or just an amazing, intimate journey into someone else's psyche.