From the Bookshelves

"I have been able to both love him and lie to him. I see myself wrapped in lies, which do not seem to penetrate my soul, as if they are not really a part of me. They are like costumes. When I loved Henry, as I did those four days, I loved him with a naked body that had shed its costumes and forgotten its lies. Perhaps it is not so with Henry. But love, in all this, trembles like a spear in a sand dune. To lie, of course, is to engender insanity. The minute I step into the cavern of my lies I drop into darkness."

-Henry and June, Anais Nin

I enjoyed Anais Nin's Henry and June immensely, largely due to Nin's beautiful writing style. Her words are very lyrical but still grounded in a sort of realism. And honestly, if it were not, I don't know if I would have been able to get through it at certain parts. It's very . . . indulgent. The affair between Henry Miller and Anais Nin seems to me very passionate, yes, but also very indulgent. It's almost like teenagers . . . everything is dramatic, everything is intense, everything is earth-shattering. Also, she seems cruel to the men in her life, and she knows it!

But then I remember that this is a time when women did not have power in their relationships, and that Nin's sexual awakening is a very new thing. And that leads me down very interesting thought paths, which I haven't really been able to fully figure out yet. At least not in a way that makes sense.

It's also very interesting to see her portrait of Henry Miller, an author that has quite the reputation to us Americans (so does Nin for that matter . . . I blushed a bit when I read the book in public coffeeshops). Overall I recommend, but not for anyone under the age of . . . . a mature 15, and not for the faint of heart!