Book Description

Reviews (20)

A Caribbean jeremiad
"A Small Place," by Jamaica Kincaid, is a nonfiction prose piece about the Caribbean island of Antigua. The author bio at the beginning of the book notes that the author was born on Antigua. A lean 81 pages, this is nonetheless a powerful text.

Kincaid discusses British colonialism, the corruption of the Antiguan government, racism, and greed. It seems to me a key question raised by the book is whether post-colonial Antigua is worse than colonial Antigua. The book is very much haunted by the spectre of New World slavery.

This book is a dark, angry jeremiad. I think it works better when seen as an extended prose poem rather than as an essay. As the latter, it could be criticized as full of invalid generalizations and undocumented claims. But as a poetic/prophetic text, it is chillingly effective.

Ultimately, Kincaid's vision of the human condition is extremely negative But her haunting, almost hypnotic prose really held me. I recommend the book to anyone planning a trip to a poor country for their own pleasure.

Spell-binding
Exceptional, breathtaking. I have never in my entire life witnessed a god-given writing talent like this.

Be Part of the Solution
This book is full of hate and racism on Kincaid's part. Would she have no tourists? What brings in the money? She should be a part of the solution not continue the problem.

Fascinating use of tense and voice
Like other reviewer, I was little put off by Kincaid's politics.

But the first thing that struck me about this book was the tense and voice. Second person (?you do this, you do that.....?) isn?t very common in literature, so when I see it, it has an immediate effect on me. Now, in one sense, I admire the choice of this tense. It allows the narrator to talk directly to the reader, informing him or her. It also gives the narrator some freedom to literally paint a scene in the reader?s mind. Instead of going to all the trouble to create the hundreds of details necessary to allow the reader to place himself or herself in Antigua, Kincaid can accomplish this in one sentence. Granted, she goes on to provide the details (she points out the cars, the roads, the hospital, the beach, the sun, etc.) but as she does this she has some additional room with this tense to comment on these details and actually point out their significance.

Using this tense also lets Kincaid convey her opinion of the typical tourist who comes to Antigua. Using the second person present tense makes the book flow more like a conversation, and as such, allows me to imagine one particular narrator, a very specific person who is telling me this story and painting these pictures in my mind, filling in the details and their significance as we go along. And if I am not a middle class or upper middle class white American who travels to other countries, this works very well. If I am not a middle or upper class Briton, this also works. But if I am, as are many of the people who buy and read contemporary literature, this would put me out a bit. In fact, it would pretty well alienate me to this narrator. Kincaid?s narrator pretty clearly says she wishes the tourists would stay home, she despises the English, she disdains the concepts of democracy and capitalism, and doesn?t think much of the people who do. Now on the one hand, using this tense and voice makes the narrator very real, very tangible as a character. We hear the narrator?s opinions on almost everything, so the voice becomes distinctive and individual. On the other hand, what this narrator says can be very challenging to some readers. Kincaid has obviously made some choices about what she has to say and how she sees her readership.

Starting in second person, the narrator focuses on building the scene in the reader?s mind, helping the reader see himself or herself in Antigua. The first sense we get of the narrator is from the asides (?Or worse, European?). The first time the narrator identifies herself is on pg. 10 (?of the people like me...?). I think this relates to the gradual change in voice that becomes evident at the beginning of chapter 2.

At the beginning of chapter 2 (after the illustration) the voice changes from a heavy second person to a slightly more traditional first person. Kincaid starts the chapter with ?The Antigua I knew....? and goes on to stay more focused on the first person voice. For me, this reinforced the conversational aspect of the book, the give and take as the focus moves from one speaker to the other. Even though it is always Kincaid?s narrator talking, the first chapter?s emphasis on the reader (you, you, you) is followed by the second chapter?s emphasis on the narrator (I, I, I). This more closely approximates the rhythm of a real conversation and keeps the essay relaxed and moving forward for me.

Small Place Section Stands Out Because of Voice Change Again

On page 52, the narrator changes voice again. In this section, the narrator stops talking primarily about herself and the reader and speaks in a more essayistic voice about Antigua as a whole. ?In a small place, people cultivate small events.? For me, this served to draw attention to this section. Not only because the voice changed, but also because the meaning of the book?s title is revealed in this section. The effect on me as reader is to keep my attention. The general feeling I come away with is an essay that starts with me, moves to the narrator, then moves to Antigua in general.

Last Section Entirely Third Person

The final change in voice occurs in the last section. The last chapter is totally in third person. The narrator has completely dropped the reader (you, you, you) and herself (I, I, I) and begins to speak in straightforward, third person omniscient point of view about Antigua. She even drops into the essayists questions (?What might it do to people...?) in this section. Ending the book in this voice, to me, lent credibility. If she had stayed in the first or second person voice all the way to the end, I might have more easily dismissed the book as biased or too personal. But slowly moving across the voice spectrum, ending in traditional third person, lends an aura of objectivity to the end.

All in all this was a fascinating change ue of tense and voice to tell a compelling story.

The selling out of the West Indies
Unfortunately, I had to buy A Small Place for my University of Michigan class on Latin America. I'm horrified that students and people will believe the West Indies is such a bad place from this book. Horrified. Believe me, I was born and lived in Barbados, an island close and similar in attitude to Antigua. Many everyday activities in Barbados that occur in Antigua are turned into Dateline "controversy of the week" issues. People, it's not that serious! What's worse, she doesn't even touch the real issues of the Caribbean. Not to mention, Jamaica Kincaid wrote the account as a longtime resident of the US. She doesn't even sound like a West Indian; she sounds like a pampered, naive North American who believes every nation that doesn't have a McDonald's on every block is third world, to exaggerate. White superiority is the myth this book perpetuates, and the West Indies is once again made out as a "Banana Republic." What's worse, half of the book's claims aren't even true, nor do natives consider them major issues. A warning to North Americans and Westerners alike; take this book with a grain of salt, most of this account is cornball, "what people want to hear" bull. Unfortunately, most people will believe this "tragedy." Please don't. I'm never believing anything Western media says about the rest of the world again. ... Read more

Amazon.com

The electrifying opening of James Frey's debut memoir, A Million Little Pieces, smash-cuts to the then 23-year-old author on a Chicago-bound plane "covered with a colorful mixture of spit, snot, urine, vomit and blood." Wanted by authorities in three states, without ID or any money, his face mangled and missing four front teeth, Frey is on a steep descent from a dark marathon of drug abuse. His stunned family checks him into a famed Minnesota drug treatment center where a doctor promises "he will be dead within a few days" if he starts to use again, and where Frey spends two agonizing months of detox confronting "The Fury" head on:

I want a drink. I want fifty drinks. I want a bottle of the purest, strongest, most destructive, most poisonous alcohol on Earth. I want fifty bottles of it. I want crack, dirty and yellow and filled with formaldehyde. I want a pile of powder meth, five hundred hits of acid, a garbage bag filled with mushrooms, a tube of glue bigger than a truck, a pool of gas large enough to drown in. I want something anything whatever however as much as I can.

One of the more harrowing sections is when Frey submits to major dental surgery without the benefit of anesthesia or painkillers (he fights the mind-blowing waves of "bayonet" pain by digging his fingers into two old tennis balls until his nails crack). His fellow patients include a damaged crack addict with whom Frey wades into an ill-fated relationship, a federal judge, a former championship boxer, and a mobster (who, upon his release, throws a hilarious surf-and-turf bacchanal, complete with pay-per-view boxing). In the book's epilogue, when Frey ticks off a terse update on everyone, you can almost hear the Jim Carroll Band's brutal survivor's lament "People Who Died" kicking in on the soundtrack of the inevitable film adaptation.

The rage-fueled memoir is kept in check by Frey's cool, minimalist style. Like his steady mantra, "I am an Alcoholic and I am a drug Addict and I am a Criminal," Frey's use of repetition takes on a crisp, lyrical quality which lends itself to the surreal experience. The book could have benefited from being a bit leaner. Nearly 400 pages is a long time to spend under Frey's influence, and the stylistic acrobatics (no quotation marks, random capitalization, left-aligned text, wild paragraph breaks) may seem too self-conscious for some readers, but beyond the literary fireworks lurks a fierce debut. --Brad Thomas Parsons ... Read more

Reviews (219)

A Powerful Read
At age 23, James Frey's life was broken into a million little pieces. He had skipped bail in four states, he was an alcoholic, drug addict and had managed to alienate pretty much everyone who ever cared for him. Yet, those who cared never fully gave up on him, because perhaps they could see the nugget of genius that gave us this powerful memoir. While I cannot speak to those who have lived through the horrors that Frey recounts as he goes through detoxification and rehab--this book may have a different effect for them and I have seen some reviews here who just aren't buying what he has to day--to most who pick up this work--this will be an amazing read. Frey's recount of his time in rehab is almost hypnotic, is addictive in itself. The writing is different, almost disjointed, but it works. At the beginning of the book, he recounts his experience getting root canal without pain killers--it is a powerful and evocative passage. There are several other sections of this book that I don't think I will ever forget, simply because of the power of his writing. I don't normally read memoirs--I picked this one up on a lark. It's a quick read, not quick because it is "easy", but quick because you will need to know how James got through rehab.

Harsh and Honest.
I'm typically not a memoir fan, but Frey's style has a stream-of-conciousness lyricism that I found poetic enough to keep me reading until I reached the point where I couldn't stop. Usually when book reviews quote mainly from the first chapter, I feel like the rest of the novel won't keep up (ie: The Lovely Bones). But in this case the narrative continues to bite the entire way through. And sometimes I found myself physically wincing.

What's most refreshing is the lack of irony. I loved Eggers as much as the next guy, but I can't help but feeling that 5 years from now, when I re-read Eggers' work, I'll be embarrassed that I did. Frey never attempts to attach his life to a grander meaning of the times we live in. That job is left (rightly) to the reader. Relating such gruesome facts so plainly is pure elegance. There's meaning in that alone.

This book is bigger than a memoir. It's certainly bigger than a addiction/self-help book. It's near great, in a way that makes me look forward to this author's next work, instead of dreading the ultimate disappointment of the usual second novel flop. It's coming from an honest place, which is the only foundation an author can build on.

Read it because of the press overload, or in spite of it, but i promise it's a book that'll be read for many years after the p.r. goes away.

Addiction is a CHOICE, and Frey readily admits it.
I do not believe in addiction. I believe we all make choices every day on how we want to live. I am not saying it is not a condition, but it is still a conscious choice. We all wake up everyday and choice what we want to be. Some people choose a job and a stable life, and some choose drugs and alcohol.

That being, said, I really like this book. The writing is unique and interesting and really drives the point home.

An overall great read.

This Book Rocks. Period.
Not being as eliquent with words as James Frey is, I struggle to communicate how this book has impacted my life. There is something about it. It is intriguing. It captures you from the very beginning, and I am easily distracted. The writing format keeps you interested along with what is being said. This gives NOTHING away, but he describes drinking coffee in this book to the extent that I ALWAYS think about his description everytime I have a cup of hot coffee - which is every morning. So I think about this book every morning. I don't struggle with addiction. I, of course, know people who do or have. It is just a fabulous book that really changed me. I love this book. Absolutely love it. Will read it again. But am letting it marinate for a while. Please read it. It will move you.

Possibly the best read ever
I don't think you can put into words what James Frey has accomplished. This simply is one of the most intense, heartfelt, and very often painful reads you will undertake. I was skeptical to pick up yet another book on addiction (most book stores have entire sections donated to the subject) but, make no mistake, this novel is exceptional, true, and wonderful. ... Read more

Book Description

From the shelter of a protective family, to the lessons of tragedy and independence, this is an indelible portrait of aharsh and beautiful country and the inspiring story of a remarkable woman's life. ... Read more

Reviews (38)

A book that will stay will me always.
"The Western plains of New South Wales are grasslands." Grasslands that with their vastness, their cycles of drought and bounty, and above all their isolation, shaped a little girl who would one day become Smith College's first woman president.

This book has been marketed as a coming of age story for girls. It's surely that, and a remarkable one. It is also (for this American reader, anyway) a fascinating look into a culture of many similarities - but with subtle, yet sometimes startling differences. Something else it ought to be is required reading for any young woman (particularly any gifted young woman!) trapped by a co-dependent relationship with her birth family. Read it, and think about what this world loses every time a woman capable of Jill Ker Conway's lifetime achievements subsumes her talents and sacrifices her dreams because the code of her childhood demands it.

A book that will stay will me always.

--Reviewed by Nina M. Osier, author of "Love, Jimmy: A Maine Veteran's Longest Battle"

Australia and America - are their histories similiar?
Jill Ker Conway is an excellent, focused, academic writer, now President of Smith College in USA. She grew up in the orange dust of the Australia bush with no children as playmates, yet remembers a wonderful childhood with an especial concern for her mother's life. She writes this book as a successful adult, reconstructing the steps that got her through the University of Sydney's very demanding late-1950's history department. At that time, university studies were open to women, but the focus was on males, both living and dead white men. It was British colonial history that was taught, and most educated people picked up an inferiority complex about being Australian. Near the end of the book she writes about how she shook herself loose of this view, became proud and fond of the outback, and finally accepted that she was a city person. NEar the end she lands a history-teaching position at the U. of Sydney while enrolled in a Master's level program there, and it all closes tantalyzingly with a successful bid for a position at Harvard in USA. I've noticed often as a tourguide that British, Canadian and Australian women on my buses are very well-read and discuss books as a matter of fact, as something that one should know. They speak in a crisp and exact way with reasoned opinions. This writer falls in that category, well at the forefront of course. She knows herself, her own mind, and knows injustice and sexism when she experiences it herself. Her widening eyes begin to grasp that Europeans have simply grabbed the land of the aborigines. As a historian, she starts to want to know their view. To me, as an American, it is a slippery slope. There is only one logical conclusion: that all the land should be given back. Since this cannot be done, and Asians are beginning to flood into Australia as well since the 1960's, then the best strategy of the whites, if guilt they do feel over this landgrab, is to donate of their own accord time, help, money, food, clothing or training to their own poor. Academics around the world are concerned with the rights of "native peoples", but to turn back the clock is impossible. The interlopers are here. I greatly look forward to hie'ing my white yet hairy flesh over to the library and looking for the sequel to her life story and changing views. May she come to some peace about her ancestors' plopping down on the abo's!

Mental claustrophobia of an era
I found this to be an uncomfortable read as I can totally empathise with the author, growing up in the same era and knowing the feeling of being out of sync with the older generation. I realise that this probably happens even now but at least these days, females have grown up knowing themselves to be the equal of males and without having to apologise for sometimes being smarter.Jill was fortunate to have a very good education but was also responsible for earning Australian government scholarships which are awarded solely on the good marks earned in exams( not by good luck as one reviewer implied).Even so, she was, not so subtley reminded that a woman's primary function was as a wife and mother and as a mere adjunct to her husband and even brothers. This state of affairs probably existed in all cultures at that time, and not just i Australia, but even as I read, that old feeling of suffocation was present...the feeling that you wanted more but of what, you couldn't say and your parents certainly didn't understand either.

Enjoyed it beginning to end
I found her story interesting and well written. I was interested in the culture and geography of Australia, as well as her story of finding her way in life. I quickly connected with her, and found her writing to be clear and honest. Contrary to what others may have said about this author, she had a tough childhood and adolescence, but thrived in spite of it.

Fascinating at first. Pedantic in the end.
At first I could not stop reading and was highly fascinated by both the content and the way this book was written. In the end the book became a bit pedantic and longwinded. ... Read more

Book Description

In The Last American Man, acclaimed journalist and fiction writer Elizabeth Gilbert offers a fresh cultural examination of contemporary American male identity and the uniquely American desire to return to the wilderness.

Gilbert explores what pushed men to settle the frontier West in the nineteenth century and delves into the history of American utopian communities. But her primary focus is on the fascinating true story of Eustace Conway, who left his comfortable suburban home at the age of seventeen to move into the Appalachian Mountains, where for the last twenty years he has lived off the land.

Conway's romantic character challenges all our assumptions about what it means to be a man today; he is a symbol of much that we feel our men should be, but rarely are. From his example, Gilbert delivers an intriguing exploration into the meaning of American manhood and-from the point of view of a woman-refracts masculine American identity in all its conflicting elements. Like Jon Krakauer's national bestseller Into the Wild, this book will find an enthusiastic audience among women, readers of American history, and those interested in nature and the wild. ... Read more

Reviews (62)

You have to read this!
I first read of Eustace Conway in the newspaper. I went to visit his Turtle Island Preserve in Boone, NC. I bought The Last American man and went to the author book signing at Malaprop's in Asheville and met Eustace for the second time.
I have read this book twice and think Gilbert has done an amazing job. The writing is sharp and witty and sensitive. I read pages aloud to my family on a recent vacation (the mule story) and they roared with laughter vowing to read the book.
Anyone interested in Thoreau or John Muir or Everett Ruess...if you care about the planet, living simply, really following your heart--You MUST read this wonderful book. It is so inspiring because it is true. Eustace Conway is a great example to humanity for his courage to live with integrity but Gilbert also shows his human failings and mirrors everyone's challenges in wishing to find true love. Read it and let it motivate you to live more fully.

Read, read, read this book!
I can't say enough good things about this book. (& yes, I accidentally put my review in for the audio cd!) A fascinating and complex subject handled with the perfect amount of admiration, objective analysis and humor. Eustace Conway's fervent attempt to lead Americans back to nature by setting an example - even if he tends to be so busy promoting that lifestyle that he doesn't always get to live it! - makes for a compelling read. I respect and admire not only his passion for what he believes in, as well as allowing so much of his character - good and difficult - to be made accessible to Elizabeth Gilbert. You might not be moved to go live out in the woods ala Conway, but this book will make you stop, think and evaluate your life. (Now if only he could sort out that whole girl thang...!!!)

Just a side comment on someone else's review: Narcissistic, ok, but I definitely didn't get that he self-medicated with alcohol. As a matter of fact, Elizabeth says he should loosen up a bit more. And yes, he had his Dad lend him the money to buy the land before it was too late, but nearly killed himself working to pay it back in record time.

As for Ms. Gilbert, I was so impressed that, midway through reading this, I purchased her novel "Stern Men" and look forward to reading her future work. I also hope she writes the follow-up in 20, 30 years or so! I could go on and on but I'll shut up and say, thank you Elizabeth, thank you Eustace for a gripping, inspiring story so well written.

A modern-day Daniel Boone. . .
This is one of those books that stir up strong opinions and heated controversy. Eustace Conway, the back-to-nature mountain man of the title, is someone you can see as a living American myth or a nut case. The author's portrait of him, full of ironies right from the title onward, lends itself to either point of view. And depending on how the book is read, you can see either admiration or skepticism in what she says about Conway.

Or you can see subject and author in all of these ways which, as I understand the book, is what the author intends. Eustace Conway is full of contradictions. He's both immensely appealing and stridently off-putting. A rigorous thinker, naturalist, and walking whole-earth-catalog, he is still a babe in the woods in knowing how to negotiate just about any kind of relationship with another human being - including the many, many young women he attracts. By the author's account, few men so lucky in bed have been so unlucky in love.

For every amateur psychologist the author provides more than enough back-story to puzzle over Conway's behavior. There's a tyrant father who heaps withering scorn on his son, starting at the age of two. And there's his great-outdoors-loving mother, who rescues him from his father by encouraging his unsupervised forays into the woods. By the time he is out of high school, he's already living in a teepee, beading his own moccasins, killing game for food, skinning animals, and hiking the entire Appalachian Trail wearing nothing more than two bandanas, weather permitting.

Meanwhile, his epic journeys on foot and on horseback and his pioneering in the North Carolina backcountry are mythic Americana. While our first reaction to all this may be admiration, Gilbert writes in a wisecracking tone that heightens the ironies and more than once made me laugh out loud. And she reminds us that if there's anyone to fault, it's not Conway but the gullibly romantic Americans who believe literally in their own national mythology and heroes. Looking back to Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, for instance, she reveals that they were in fact no different. Like Conway, they were supporters of the myths and legends that grew up around them and good old-fashioned American entrepreneurs and self-promoters.

Anyway, there's much to enjoy in this book. And it's full of surprises - right up to the last pages, as Gilbert tells a poignant story of how Conway touched the life of a troubled teenager who spent a week with him in the woods building a fence. And the author's closing image captures the spirit of the entire book - Conway getting out of his truck and shouting, "I love you!" at a buck deer that refuses to move off the road. The image is moving, ridiculous, or both; take your pick.

Broken
Read within these pages the effects of extreme mental and emotional abuse upon a child and the way it plays out as an adult. Eustace is a broken human. His unfortunate treatment at the hands of his father seriously crippled him. People who have suffered like Eustace are often over-achieving, perfectionists; unable to maintain relations with others; either oblivious to the needs of others or slavishly catering to the whims of others and they almost always come to closley resemble the abuser.

Big Eustace was a denizen of the office and the classroom- liked to write out long equations and ramble on to hear the sound of his own voice, so little Eustace subcociously chose a path 180 degrees away from father and becomes a creature of the forest but ended up rambling in his classroom just the same, just a different subject.
To me this was an eminently sad tale of a boy going to any length for father's notice and approval. Neither of which came at least by the conclusion of this book.
Eutace-walk away.

awful
It's too bad that Eustace Conway's story had to be told by Elizabeth Gilbert. She's totally immature as a writer, and she doesn't know how to maintain any sort of distance from her subject. Last American Man reads like you'd expect it would, coming from a city gal who has a little romp in the woods with an outdoorsman. She is completely clueless. She retells Eustace's stories without skepticism. She quotes liberally from the work of Richard Slotkin, a hip scholar -- perhaps to bring some heft to this otherwise lightweight work. I travelled to Boone, N.C., shortly after the book came out and talked to folks who knew Eustace, had him in a class, etc. They thought the book was a laughable piece of trash, too -- a not-very-accurate picture of the man, and certainly not an accurate picture of that corner of Appalachia. Don't waste your time. (I notice that most of the reviewers here focus more on whether they like Eustace as a person, and not whether the book is any good. Which it's not.) ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (9)

Worth reading
A bit long and occasionally dense, but overall, a worthwhile and insightful glimpse into the life of a remarkable, thoughtful writer in 1930s France.

The centerpiece of Anais Nin's controversial career
After decades of producing fiction that was rejected by mainstream readership and reviewers for being self-centered, exotic in prose, filled with psychological theory, and coterie in style, Anais finally found acceptance by integrating all of the above in this published version of her diary. Timing is everything, I suppose. The world of the 1930s-50s simply was not ready for her. The Aquarian generation of the 1960s was. When originally published this volume did not have a number in the title because no one thought it would sell enough to warrant a second volume. To the surprise of many, it would become the first in seven volumes - and then over 20 years later the unexpurgated versions of her diaries would be published, revealing that Anais was at the time having affairs with both Henry Miller and his wife. Eventually this material would be fashioned into the movie "Henry and June" (which I highly recommend). It would also pave the way for the re-issue of many of Anais Nin's long since out-of-print earlier fiction.

Anais Nin began a letter to her father, on the ship that carried her, her mother and brothers, away from him, away from Europe and to New York City. The letter was never sent (her mother did not think it appropriate), but instead developed into a diary she would continue to keep for decades. In this volume we meet Anais Nin living just outside of Paris with her husband, banker Hugh Guiler (who is barely visible in the diary, a point of contention for many who did not know that this was at his request). She has just published her study of DH Lawrence and is about to meet Henry Miller and his fascinating wife June (Nin's descriptions of June are among the most beautiful portions of her work). Her father soon reenters her life. This is a very exciting time in her life!

But what have I listed above? Nothing but a pile of facts. Facts are often boring, and seldom poetic - two accusations rarely leveled against Anais Nin. It was only after submerging myself in the history of this volume that I came to realize this: the linear history of this diary does not really matter; the accusations that Anais Nin lied about her life are immaterial. Anais Nin had a beautiful way with words and she was a master of crafting an image, of creating a persona. She was not truly the person she portrays in this volume, which she edited with Gunther Stuhlmann. But this is a beautiful and unique piece of literature that paved the way for many future artists, particularly female writers (Alice Walker has praised her work as profoundly liberating, and I can't help but think Maya Angelou took a cue from Anais Nin's concept of the continuous autobiographical novel). I have come to believe that it is not the possibility that she lied about her life that has upset so many people (some of whom refer to this as a "liary"), but that a woman should have such control over her own portrayal all the while defying so many of society's conventions.

Anais Nin may not have truly been the woman she portrays in this or future volumes, but it is the woman she wanted to believe she was - wanted the world to believe she was. I find that quite revealing, as revealing as any diary should be.

Andrew Parodi

Feminine thought
Every woman should read this book. It is rare to find something that so clearly illustrates the way a woman thinks and feels. It is as if Nin is saying, "I understand what you feel and have lived through that as well."

Read This VolumeTogether With Henry And June
Anais Nin's diary was an underground literary sensation before it was ever published.

Volume 1 of Nin's diary, covering 1931-34, was published in the late 1960s when Henry Miller, her lover during the time period covered by this volume and Hugo Guiler, Anais's first husband (whom she never divorced) were both still alive. As a consequence, there are many omissions and edits for the sake of discretion. Those omissions were revealed when _Henry and June_, also taken from Nin's diaries, was published after the death of all protagonists.

Consequently, a volume that appears to be frank and honest upon a first reading looks somewhat less so when compared with the alternative version contained in _Henry and June_, which contains material expurgated from the first year of this volume. Confused yet?

The more Anais Nin slips away from us, the more we seek her. When reading this volume I come to believe that there is something to be said for Nin's position that she sought to portray a deeper psychological truth and the objective facts were less important.

BREATHTAKING PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN!
I first read the diaries in the 1970's and have reread them several times since. Anais shows the world the mind, psyche, soul and intellect of a woman seeking to squeeze every little drop out of life that she can. And she does. Her writing is pure poetry and never fails to inspire me. I highly recommend all of her diaries and her fiction. Never before in history has a woman so completely documented her inner life and dreams. Some of the most beautiful writing I've ever read. ... Read more

Book Description

The most acclaimed European graphic novel of the last ten years is finally published in English. The most acclaimed European graphic novel of the 1990s, Epileptic is author David B.'s story of his brother's battle with epilepsy—but it turns into a penetrating and sometimes lacerating self-examination on the author's part, as he delves into his own complex emotions and his family's troubled history, as well as his own youthful fantasy life. Particularly pointed is his description of the family's journey from one attempted cure to another (including acupuncture, spiritualism, and macrobiotic diet), the book is drawn in David B.'s spare but detailed, straightforward but elegant style. We would have called this A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius if it hadn't been taken already.

One of the most extraordinarily well-received graphic novels in France and the winner of the French national cartooning award "Alph'Art," Epileptic will intrigue American readers with its sharp yet (mostly) sympathetic treatment of the '70s alternative-health milieu and its often harrowing depiction of a family under siege by this singular and devastating malady. Co-published with France's L'Association. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

well done, David B.
Very powerful and honest. David B. seems like he is really telling everything in his autobiography even though it revolves around his brother. His powerful narrative is helped along with the art, which although simple, conveys his ideas very well. One of the best graphic novels I've read, second only to Jimmy Corrigan.

Powerful.
David B., Epileptic (Pantheon, 2005)

Let's stop for a moment and reflect on the fact that the first two books in this review edition were both published in 2005, and I'm reviewing them in 2005. I don't think that's ever happened before.

That aside, here's Epileptic, a graphic novel from the somewhat prolific pen of L'Association co-founder David B. Originally released in six parts in France, stretching between 1996 and 2003, it's now been released in an English translation by Pantheon, so those of us on this side of the pond, not to mention the Brits and other English-speaking folk over there who don't know a lick of French (do any still exist?), can see what all the fuss is about.

What the fuss is about is, for the most part, the drawings themselves. That's what all the rave reviews harp on. David B. is an exceptionally talented artist, one who can integrate, interpret, and regurgitate just about any artistic school, or specific artist's style, to which he sets his mind, as well as having his own style, which is pretty uniformly dark and brooding. (Think of an illegitimate cross between Frank Miller and Rich Little. On second thought, don't, because I don't want to be responsible for you being struck simultaneously blind and insane.) There's also the storyline, but, I mean, it's a memoir, whether my library has it in the fiction section or not; there's a knack to writing about your family so that someone wants to read it, but when it comes right down to it, when writing a memoir, you don't have to go that far for material.

What most impressed me about Epileptic is that it's the first graphic novel I've read since Watchmen that really has a strong sense of time. It's not so much that it's linear; David B. jumps back and forth in time on a fairly regular basis. It's that you know what he's doing without needing any special tricks to proclaim it (though he does tell you every time he starts relating a dream). Even in David B.'s phantasmagoric world, the symbols are so deeply ingrained, and so well-rendered, that the reader can tell where reality ends and flashback (or forward) begins with no problem. There's none of the sense of impressionism that seems to have taken American graphic artists by storm. And thank heaven for that. Epileptic, as a result, is an incredibly readable piece of graphic art, and one that comes highly recommended from this camp. *** ½

Brilliant
To people who reject newer narrative forms, I have always said that genius surfaces in every medium.The graphic novel MAUS is a good proof.Now, I have found another one in this fine work by David B.Epileptic is the life story, actually, of the author/artist, and his family as they go through the profoundly moving events surrounding David's older brother's epilepsy.I must say that the casual cruelty to which this child was subjected by the community was shocking.While it is true that that is the basic core around which the story develops, it is also about David's coming to grips with his own personal fears and demons, along with his development as an artist.It was interesting to see how much quackery his family was subjected to -- the desperate parents who love their son so much that they try anything at all that seems to offer hope.At any rate, I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the subject, and also anyone who is interested in outstanding graphic work.

WOW!
This book is amazingly great!I want the next volume NOW!Order this if you want a really wonderful comic that is a great first exposure to the French expressionist comics movement.This is definitly a must own book.I really admire this guy, David B.Hopefully, my work will be able to match this man's, someday.Everything about this book is wonderful:paper, ink, art, story, etc., etc.An inspiration, scrible it down in your memo pad!

WOW!
This book is amazingly great!I want the next volume NOW!Order this if you want a really wonderful comic that is a great first exposure to the French expressionist comics movement.This is definitly a must own book.I really admire this guy, David B.Hopefully, my work will be able to match this man's, someday.Everything about this book is wonderful:paper, ink, art, story, etc., etc.An inspiration, scrible it down in your memo pad! ... Read more

Book Description

NPR commentator Hollis Gillespie's outrageously funny -- and equally heartbreaking -- collection of autobiographical tales chronicles her journey through self-reckoning and the worst neighborhoods of Atlanta in search of a home she can call her own. The daughter of a missile scientist and an alcoholic traveling trailer salesman, Gillespie was nine before she realized not everybody's mother made bombs, and thirty before she realized it was possible to live in one place longer than a six-month lease allows. Supporting her are the social outcasts she calls her best friends: Daniel, a talented and eccentric artist; Grant, who makes his living peddling folk art by a denounced nun who paints plywood signs with twisted evangelical sayings; and Lary, who often, out of compassion, offers to shoot her like a lame horse.

Hollis's friends help her battle the mess of obstacles that stand in her way -- including her warped childhood, in which her parents moved her and her siblings around the country like carnival barkers, chasing missile-building contracts and other whimsies, such as her father's dream to patent and sell door-to-door the world's most wondrous key-chain. A past like this will make you doubt you'll ever have a future, much less roots. Miraculously, though, Gillespie manages to plant exactly that: roots, as wrested and dubious as they are.

As Gillespie says, "Life is too damn short to remain trapped in your own Alcatraz." Follow her on this wickedly funny journey as she manages to escape again and again.

Reviews (25)

"Bad Neighborhood," good book
"Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch: Tales From A Bad Neighborhood" is probably the best title so far this year. And, unlike with many books, the contents live up to it. Writer/NPR commentator/translator/airline attendant Hollis Gillespie shares nuggets of her life (and razor-edged wisdom) in this offbeat, zany memoir.

Gillespie draws readers into her life, past and present: Her three best pals are Lary (who offers to shoot her sometimes), Daniel (a likably weird artist) and Grant (gay bartender/seller of porno-religious signs made by an angry ex-nun). She struggles with horrible bleach jobs, jars of teeth, imperfect German ("It would please me greatly to purchase medicine for my fluid nostrils"), and Myrtle the lesbian ghost.

She suffers the world's least dignified mugging, a visit to the Amsterdam red light district (rubber fists?), and the question of whether she flashed people when she was soused. At the same time, Gillespie deals with more touching topics. As the daughter of an alcoholic trailor-salesman and a kleptomaniac bomb-making mom who wanted to be a beautician, she describes her family's trials and distances, one of the last visits to her terminally ill mother, and how her young niece was hospitalized.

"Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch" veers between wacky and touching, past and present. Gillespie's stories are less like a memoir or autobiography than like a collection of columns, loosely strung together. She also has the unique knack of being able to take little experiences, ramble about them in an engaging way, and wrap it up without losing her way.

Gillespie comes across as real and a bit twisted, like the zany pal of yours who lives down the street. Life keeps swinging at her, and she keeps dodging. Her tone is honest, endearingly self-deprecating, with a dose of sarcasm to keep her observations sharp. Backing her up are her likably eccentric pals, who serve as her partners in crime (translation: in ear-piercing and drinking).

Funny and poignant and strange, "Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch" is a unique look at a witty woman who tells us of her personal storms. Wickedly delicious and highly recommended.

The recollections of a hellish gargoyle who talks on NPR
The fact that Hollis Gillespie is a commentator on NPR is more important to know than the fact that her name translates into "Hellish Gargoyle" because it provides a big hint as to how you should read "Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch: Tales from a Bad Neighborhood." I made the mistake of reading the book pretty much straight through on connecting airplane flights, which I thought was appropriate since Gillespie worked as a flight attendant as well as a foreign-language interpreter, but that proved not to be the case. There are several dozen commentaries in this book (you cannot really upgrade them to the status of either chapters or essays), almost all of which are in the two to four page range in terms of length. Consequently, the ideal way of reading this book is to put it on the nightstand and to read a couple of entries each night before you go to sleep.

Actually the best way of thinking of this book is as a collection of conversations. This makes a big difference because Gillespie tends to repeat herself from time to time in terms of phrases, descriptions, and events. If this was a paper written by a student I would make sage comments about not arguing the same thing in two different places, but if this is a conversation you just acknowledge that you have heard this part before and let Gillespie continue to tell her story.

As with any conversation some parts are better than others. For my money the first one, where Gillespie explains that her first name means "hellish" in bad German and that her translation abilities consist of massacred phrases pronounced perfectly, is the funniest in the entire book (plus it is a more accurate title than what she has, which was just a passing insult by a guy she was trying to run down with her car). This makes for getting off of the right foot, but it also suggests a way in which it is all down hill from here. That is not really the case, because there are some gems scattered throughout the book, such as "The Long Good-bye." Her relationship with the lesbian ghost in her house is interesting, but clearly not as important as her relationship with her dying mother. There is as almost as much pathos in this book as their is humor.

Those looking for a narrative theme have picked up the wrong book. Gillespie writes about her family and her friends, as well as the various trials and travails that assail a young woman in the world today. There are some photographs, taken by the aforementioned family and friends, scattered throughout the book and one of them seems particularly insightful. It shows Hollis standing next to her siblings and the family dog, Echo. Kim, Cheryl, and Jim and all wearing solid colors and standing up straight, while little Hollis in her plaid dress is standing wit her legs at an angle. If this is not a sight of what is to come, then I do not know foreshadowing.

However, the key psychological insult comes when Gillespie confesses she collects old pictures that she finds at flea markets and thrift stores. The pictures of her own family have long been abandoned and now just clutter the empty corridors of her memory, and she has replaced them with new ones. Reading that revelation it becomes clear what key roles Daniel, Grant, and Lary play in her life. This is one of those books where you can pick up a lot in between the lines.

Bleachy-Haired babe!
A friend got me this for my birthday and my only regret is that it isn't longer and she doesn't have any other books out...

When I grow up, I wanna be Hollis.

Had me laughing out loud!
This book was a real page turner! This collection of randomly assorted personal accounts by the author, really allows its reader to say to oneself, "I'm not so weird after all." Her collection of strange obsessions and proclamations makes even the most insecure freak, feel right at home. The term "freak", in a GOOD way. This book also emphasizes the value of the various human connections we make throughout our lives. The assorted adventures the author described sharing with her compadres throughout her book is almost envious. A definitely, highly recommended read.

Bleachy-Haired Honky (...)
One of the funniest books I've read lately, along with some heart-breaking observations. I don't know why everyone's hung up on the "chapters" not going in order; they're essays, not a narrative memoir. I liked it so much I just bought one for my sister, and I'll look for more by Hollis Gillespie in the future! ... Read more

Book Description

Drawing on his own incarceration and exile, as well as on evidence from more than 200 fellow prisoners and Soviet archives, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn reveals the entire apparatus of Soviet repression -- the state within the state that ruled all-powerfully.

Through truly Shakespearean portraits of its victims -- men, women, and children -- we encounter secret police operations, labor camps and prisons; the uprooting or extermination of whole populations, the "welcome" that awaited Russian soldiers who had been German prisoners of war. Yet we also witness the astounding moral courage of the incorruptible, who, defenseless, endured great brutality and degradation. The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956 -- a grisly indictment of a regime, fashioned here into a veritable literary miracle -- has now been updated with a new introduction that includes the fall of the Soviet Union and Solzhenitsyn's move back to Russia.

Reviews (69)

Fills in the historical blanks left from public education
Gulag provided for me a powerful and shocking history lesson I had never been taught in high school or college. So much has been taught on Hitler, but barely anything of substance on Soviet Communism. After reading this book, you'll understand the reasons for the so-called paranoia of McCarthyism. Ronald Reagan had it right when he called the Soviet Union an "evil empire." I found this book so compelling, though heart wrenching, that I went on to read "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" as well as a recent biography on Solzhenitsyn by D. M. Thomas called "Alexander Solzhenitsyn: A Century in His Life." I have come to the conclusion that nobody but a man like Solzhenitsyn could ever have written Gulag.

Someone has to tell the truth
This is probably as significant a book as has been published in the 20th century. Not because it changed the course of history or influenced a huge number of people. It did neither of these things. The history it deals with was already long passed and its size and severity kept it from being read by a mass audience. Still, it is significant because it tells a story that otherwise could not have been told. The full extent of what happened during the half century of Soviet rule to millions of Soviet citizens is the focus of this book and Solzhenitsyn's narrative, often numbing in the regularity of repeated cycles of arrests, 'trials', and imprisonment, seems to be his effort at repaying those who perished - at insuring that they are remembered and that those who subjected them to lives of torture are remembered for what they did.

Solzhenitsyn is a true hero of the 20th century. A military officer of the Soviet Union during WWII, he was imprisoned for writing a letter that included a joke about Stalin. During his time in prison he met numerous others who had been in different camps - different places and different types - and started piecing together in his mind the full scale of the vast Gulag enterprise which eventually consumed more of his contrymen than the total count of those of all countries who died in WWII. That the size and scope of this mass internment was kept virtually a secret to most of the world (and to most Russians)for so long is only part of the horror to which Solzhenitzyn is responding.

From his first book, A Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovitch, a small volumn about a single day in the life of a typical Gulag prisoner - smuggled out of Russia and published in the West - he has devoted his life to various tellings of his country's recent history. Most of it to do with the Gulag. This isn't pleasant stuff. It isn't tight fiction like Darkness At Noon. This is the real stuff with no prettifying. He feels that someone had to tell the truth. We owe it to him to listen.

An Incredible Work of Non-Fiction
This is an amazing book. It is long, but well written, despite the translation. It shows the pattern of injustices and tortures to the point of the reader's acceptance and perhaps understanding. For those of us who have never experienced such, it is a peak at something that seems important to understand.

One of the Best!
Review by Mike, Age 13

Solzhenitsyn does an excellent job of retelling the story of the atrocities of the Soviet Union. The Gulag Archipelago is a disturbing account of what happened inside the Gulag prisons. This is an account about the things hidden from the public and the things the Marxists wanted to keep hidden. And how he gave a first person account of prison life, well that was just amazing! His vivid descriptions about the kinds of arrests that took place I thought was very interesting and an amazing brainchild of a distorted Soviet Union!

How Stalin could turn an innocent gesture of two long lost friends being reunited into an arrest is beyond me. The Gulag Archipelago is an excellent book that unveiled an entirely new side of the Soviet Union and its perverted system of justice. It's a great book for historians and World War II buffs, or even if you are trying to find out more about the Soviet Union. The Gulag Archipelago is quite possibly one of the best books I've ever read! I would recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in the Soviet Union. (Content will be confusing for younger readers.)

Holy smoke!
After I read this book I bought a rifle! ... Read more

Reviews (23)

Metaphors of Horror
Wiesel commands the heart and soul of his readers in The Night Trilogy. There are a certain number of books that reach a person at the most elemental level and show them light and also unforgettable darkness. The Night Trilogy does this without pretense, without effort and without excuse.

Many people have read Wiesel's account of Auschwitz and Buchenwald through his short novel, Night. If anyone is going to read Holocaust literature they should not limit themselves to a concise focus on the camps, but also what happens to the survivors after the events.

When you combine Night, Dawn, and The Accident together, you as the reader can assemble a true and purer understanding of what Holocaust survivors went through and more importantly what they continue to go through.

The collection is a must read for anyone who considers themselves socially aware. The Night Trilogy is a work that you will go back to time and again. Readers will lend this out to friends not simply to be nice, but because they will feel a yearning for all those in their lives to know what happened and is still happening to Holocaust survivors.

Read this collection until your heart bleeds and pass it on to a friend so that compassion and understanding will bloom.

Symbolic suffering
Elie Wiesel gives you a wide range view of the Holocaust and the continuing lives of the survivors. The story Night was the best of the three stories in the book. Night was the best because Wiesel wrote the story with more passion and emotion. The horrific incidents described in the book were so real that reader could connect with the author's pain. "I've got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He's the only one who's kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people." These words were spoken by Wiesel because he feels that God abandoned him. Incidents such as the Holocaust lead Wiesel to speak these words and loose his faith in religion. Any book that can capture this emotion should be indulged.

Both Dawn and the Accident showed a great deal of symbolic meaning. They both made refrences to Night a number of times. This showed that even though the Holocaust ended, Wiesel still continued to suffer. An example of symbolism in the book is Wiesel's transformation from the death in Night and the rebirth in Dawn. If there is to be a book required to read in school The Night Trilogy should be it.

The Accident
The Accident
I recently read the first person narrative biography, The Accident, by Eli Wiesel. This novel is very real which leads it to be depressing. I am not real sure I liked the book. It was interesting, but it was never very happy. The main character, Eliezer, comes from a concentration camp to New York and tries to start his life over. He is soon afterwards hit by a taxicab and severely hospitalized in a body cast. He then reflects on his life up to that point as he lies in the hospital all day talking with his doctor about death, pain, and love. His doctor meanwhile tries to figure out if the accident really was an accident.

People interested in relationships or a person's psyche may be interested in this novel. The reader is invited into every thought that Eliezer has. It is very personal, and Eliezer is very depressed from a tormented past from concentration camps and the catastrophe that happens to his people. He contemplates all aspects of living after being so near death. I am not really sure anyone will enjoy this book. This book is more of an eye opener. This is a good book for people who enjoy realism and pessimistic symbolism.

An Outstanding Trilogy
This is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its' parts. Although all three books are very good to excellent, the way they fit together creates an excellent story from beginning to end. We start with "Night" which creates the understanding of the Holocaust through the perceptive eyes and ears of the youthful story teller. We then move to the book "Dawn" in which we find the main character as a young man who is involved in a moral dilemna. How he resolves the dilemna makes him realize that there is evil in all of us. His attempt to rationalize his actions are not sufficient to redeem himself in his own mind. We finish up with "The Accident" where we find the main character as a middle-aged man whose anger at the world makes him incapable of love. Certainly all that has preceded in his life helps us to understand his feelings but his anger is uncompromising and a dead end in and of itself. The problem resolves itself in a solution that brings an impressive closure to essentially all three books.

As a matter of clarification, each novel is a seperate story in itself. There is no "common Character" to all the novels. However, we get a sense that this all happens to one person. This is how well these stories fit together. Essentially, these works would appear to be autobiographical which adds to their meaning. Although Wiesel writes extensively about the Holocaust, there is certainly a special common thread to these stories. Read all three and make sure you read them in their proper order. Despite their brevity, it is as good an overall explantion, evaluation and summation of the Holocaust as you will find.

How I the rate The Accident
The Accident is a book that really makes you think about your life and how well you have lived it. When he gets put in the hosipital by this accident, he starts to think how well he lived his life. I liked how it went back and forth between when he was in the hospital and back to things that happened before the accident. This book has a really good moral, well this is the moral i got out of it. You should put the bad things of the past out of your mind and only keep the good, and live life to the fullest because you never know when it is going to end. there are little saying and conversations in the book that i like very much. there is a part in the book where the guys friend paints a portrait of him while he is in the hospital and the day he gets out he doesnt end up takeing the portrait home, insted he friend that painted it does something with. but over all this is a good book, well if you like books that make you think about yourself. ... Read more

Book Description

From one of America's most beloved authors comes a raw and unnerving memoir that explores the transformation of an angry young man into the bestselling author we know today.

When Victor Villaseñor stood at the podium and looked at the group of teachers amassed before him, he became enraged. He had never spoken in public before. His mind was flooded with childhood memories filled with humiliation, misunderstanding, and abuse at the hands of his teachers. With his heart pounding, he began to speak of these incidents. To his disbelief, the teachers before him responded to his embittered recollection with a standing ovation. Many could not contain their own tears.

So begins a touching memoir of an extremely angry adolescent. Highly gifted and imaginative, Villaseñor coped with an untreated learning disability (he was finally diagnosed with extreme dyslexia at the age of forty-four) and the frustration he felt growing up Latino in an English-only American school system that had neither the cultural understanding nor the resources to deal with Hispanic students.

Often beaten by his teachers because he could not speak English, Villaseñor was made to feel ashamed about his heritage, and even questioned the core values prioritized by his tight-knit family. Villaseñor's dyslexia, and growing frustration over not fitting in, fueled his dream to one day become a writer. He is now considered one of the premier writers of our time.

With his signature passion, his gift as a storyteller, and his own incredible story, Villaseñor allows readers into the soul of a young life touched by insecurity yet encouraged by a personal sense of artistic destiny. Burro Genius, a complex and inspiring coming-of-age story, is certain to become an American classic.

Reviews (3)

This is about ALL OF US!
I was born in America, like Victor. I am not Hispanic. I relate to this book because my ancestors were from Italy. They came to America with very little, and with no knowledge of English. They built businesses, some of which flourish to this very day! They worked hard - often much harder than the people for whom they worked. They educated their children, often with very little help from the American school system. They survived drought, hunger, abuse, unfeeling teachers, uncaring political leaders. This is about Victor. And it is about all the people who built America. It is about you, me, our friends and relatives, our neighbors. Please read this. And please read WALKING STARS with your children. You are, after all -- each and every one of you -- a Burro Genius Miracle Maker!

Villasenor does it once again.........
Burro Genius has been added to my list of favorite books, along with some of his previous work....

Learning about the way his teachers abused him and the way his classmates disrespected and hated him because he was Mexican made me feel helpless.....it made me wish many times through out the book that it would've been me who they'd disrespected and slapped around just so that I could do something about it.

It's an experience that makes him feel out-of-place and turns him into an angry child who, at one point, becomes ashamed of who he is and where his family comes from.

It's crazy how Villasenor, along with other Mexican kids, was forced to speak "English Only" and now that's all changed. America encourages and almosts expects of people to learn more than one language. Like a slap in the face....

Something very special
Victor Villasenor has written well before, but this is something completely new and special. It's his story, compelling, heartbreaking, and funny. You want to keep reading just to find out what happens to this kid, who is at once precocious, confused, and angry.

Victor's voice rings through the pages. Even if you have never heard him in person, you will know his voice by the words he writes. And you'll know him, in a more personal way than you probably know your neighbors.

The book is definitely psychologically and politically challenging. You can't help but wonder why his world is the way it is, and what you can do, years later, to change it. ... Read more

Book Description

This bestseller covers a single momentous year during Nin’s life in Paris, when she met Henry Miller and his wife, June. “Closer to what many sexually adventuresome women experience than almost anything I’ve ever read....I found it a very erotic book and profoundly liberating” (Alice Walker). The source of a major motion picture from Universal. Preface by Rupert Pole; Index.
... Read more

Reviews (25)

shockingly fabulous!
I have never read a book quite like this one. After I read "Henry and June", I read "Fire" and I plan to read many more of Anais' books. This is a must read for any young woman -- Anais is not afraid of her sexuality -- this diary describes her promiscuous behavior that is traditionally only acceptable for men. It is a truly liberating book. She emphasizes the importance of experience, and living life fully in terms of sexuality, creation and emotion. She was a woman ahead of her time. I highly recommend this book -- I could not put it down -- it describes emotions and desires all women have, but try to repress because of society's rules. If anyone lived their life to it's limits, it was Anais Nin.

The sexual awakening of Anais Nin
Anais Nin is the author of over a dozen novels and a very famous diary that is now available in "expurgated" and "unexpurgated" form. All of her works concern one primary theme: women attempting to understand themselves and to make themselves complete human beings after having been psychologically and emotionally stunted in early life. An understanding of Anais Nin's life reveals why this theme preoccupied her: she had a very painful childhood. Her mother married a younger man of lower social pedigree, the parents were in constant conflict (" ... in the house there was always war: great explosions of anger, hatred, revolt. War." - WINTER OF ARTIFICE), her father frequently beat the children and allegedly molested Anais Nin, and her parents eventually separated. The mother took 11-year-old Anais and her two brothers, and the four moved from France to New York. It was on the ship that carried them to their new country that Anais began her diary.

Anais Nin did not keep a diary in the conventional sense, jotting down things that happened to her on a particular day and then offering a few reflections and interpretations. Rather, she portrayed her life in her diary as an unfolding story, positioning herself as the main character of course. The diary became not a mere reflection of her life, but an intense focus of her life. It was as if things had not really happened until she had written them down and read them back to herself. Nin explained that viewing her life as a story made bearable occurrences that would otherwise devastate her. The diary therefore gave her a sense of control over her life (remember, this was the 1930s when women had far less control over their lives than they do now). And as with the fiction, the search for self-understanding and completeness dominated the story she told the diary.

HENRY AND JUNE, based on the diaries 32 through 36, finds Anais Nin in her late 20s and early 30s living outside of Paris with her husband, banker Hugo Guiler. Anais is bored with life and feels unfulfilled, for while Hugo's substantial paycheck can afford a glamorous home, what she longs for is excitement and to be a part of the literary world, not an ornamental and silent companion to social functions. Luckily, she soon meets an unknown writer named Henry Miller. He is opposite to her husband in just about every way: he's older, penniless, irresponsible, and like Anais he is interested in literature, as well as that other Nin preoccupation: sex. (A perhaps revealing detail is that Hugo, though well endowed, occasionally struggled with impotence.) In fact, Miller has been working on a manuscript for about a year. The rest, as they say, is history ... a history revealed in HENRY AND JUNE that I do not want to spoil for the prospective reader. You'll have to get the book. But I must suggest that while reading HENRY AND JUNE it may be beneficial to view the story in the context of Anais Nin's prime preoccupation: the search for completion after having been emotionally stunted in early life. Indeed, on the very first page of the book, Anais tells her cousin, "I need an older man, a father...."

Andrew Parodi

And I'm not even done...
I was really excited about reading this book, hearing good things about it. I started to read it and couldn't put it down. I am not done with it yet, but I had to write a review before then. The desciptions Anais Nin puts into her journal are so heartfelt and real, you can't help but feel it's you. Her portrayals of the people she meets are so honest and so enlightening...the only thing I could complain about is her ranting about herself, but other than that it is a journey into a time where you wish you were around in.

Rewarding Read
One cannot read this excerpt from Anais Nin's lifelong diaries without a measure of admiration and envy. It describes her "belle vie" in the early thirties in Paris. She has a lovely home, a loving husband, and a circle of intellectual suitors. While undertaking huge liberties and deceptions in the name of literature (she uses her writing as an excuse), she yet does so with an almost childlike need for love and acceptance. In explanation, the reader learns that she was infatuated with her father, who later abandons her. The irony of her seducing and manipulating the psychoanalyst who is also treating her husband and incestuous lover is humorous. The insights into her torrid affair with Henry Miller are fascinating. As in her fiction, she displays a knack for tasteful eroticism. She disarmingly admits to her propensity for embellishing reality. Anais Nin is narcissistic, but who could not be fascinated by a woman of such candor, talent, and complexity?--Sophie Simonet, author of ACT OF LOVE, romantic suspense (Fictionwise)

Lie on your bed and swoon....
Here are the feverish and impossibly romantic convulsions of a schoolgirl mind - but I mean that in a good way. Nin is unlikeable yet enchanting - she is some dreamy, exotic species of narcissist, and her constant fawning over herself has the perverse affect of making YOU enthralled by her, too. Nin's reality hovers exquisitely above the pedestrian, grimy one the rest of us inhabit, and if you give yourself over to her absurdly beautiful view of things, she will transport you. You end up feeling like a kind of sighing, envious voyeur as you read through these pages and wish you, too, were an eccentric beauty drifting amid some bygone literary demi-monde.
Lie on your bed and swoon...This is a fantasy/romance novel for those with vague intellectual pretensions... ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (2)

Possibly the greatest autobiographical work ever written
Virginia's genius is all over this volume, esp in A Sketch of the Past. From the first sensations of childhood (waves splashing against the shore) to the tragedy of the death of her mother and sister, it is the most revealing work of creativity ever written. You'll learn about her life, her work, and even how you might become a great writer. Examine the parallels with To the Lighthouse and you'll be amazed. Yes, this is how she come to be what she is; and her life and what she writes.

Woolf's most beautiful autobiographical writing
People who have enjoyed Woolf's novels or diaries will surely find her essay "A Sketch of the Past" deeply moving and helpful in illuminating her other works. In "Sketch," the longest essay in this volume, Woolf recounts her earliest childhood memories--both beautiful (hearing the waves break on the shore at her family's summer home) and sinister (her stepbrother's unwelcome sexual advances when she was a small child). She develops a theory about memory and about transcendent experience in this essay. She discusses her powerful drive to reshape and write about the past: "I feel that strong emotion must leave its trace; and it is only a question of discovering how we can get ourselves attached to it, so that we shall be able to live our lives through from the start." In this essay Woolf proposes that in moments of ecstasy we have a meaningful vision of the world itself: "it is a constant idea of mine; that behind the cotton wool is hidden a pattern; that we--I mean all human beings--are connected with this; that the whole world is a work of art; that we are parts of the work of art. Hamlet or a Beethoven quartet is the truth about this vast mass that we call the world. But there is no Shakespeare, there is no Beethoven; certainly and emphatically there is no God; we are the words, we are the music; we are the thing itself. And I see this when I have a shock." ... Read more