The Four Chambered Heart

Cities of the Interior #3

by Anaïs Nin

The Four-Chambered Heart is an autobiographical novel by French-born writer Anaïs Nin, part of her Cities of the Interior sequence. It is about a woman named Djuna, her love, her thoughts, her emotions, her doubts, her decisions, and her sacrifices.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Erotica, Romance, Literature, Novels, France

144 pages

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Writer and diarist, born in Paris to a Catalan father and a Danish mother, Anaïs Nin spent many of her early years with Cuban relatives. Later a naturalized American citizen, she lived and worked in Paris, New York and Los Angeles. Author of avant-garde novels in the French surrealistic style and collections of erotica, she is best known for her life and times in The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volumes I-VII (1966-1980).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana%C3%...

Reviews

[Khush · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rate her so high because I get so much pleasure reading her diaries, and now I am glued to her novel as well for the same reason. It is least like a novel though– not in traditional sense. The narrative primarily tells us the feelings of Djuna (Anais) and her relationship with the gypsy 'Rango.' Personally, I prefer a novel that does not have too many characters, unless the novel is Anna Karenina. Therefore, this novel is ideal for me.

Right from the first page, one cannot help noticing the language. It is not really the plot or the story that one turns the page for; one is deeply drawn to the poetic prose.

I quote from the novel:

''Their first kiss was witnessed by Seine River carrying gondola of street lamps' reflections in its spangled folds, carrying haloed street lamps flowering on bushes of black lacquered cobblestones, carrying silver filigree trees opened like fans beyond whose rim the river's eyes provoked them to hidden coquetries, carrying the humid scarfs of fog and the sharp incense of roasted chestnuts nuts.

Everything fallen into the river and carried away except the balcony on which they stood.''

Very often one sees beautiful images, inner feelings described in a silky manner. How through wonderful images she opens up new streaks of 'knowing' in one's consciousness. Writing about deep, personal feelings is a tricky business in writing. If it is not done properly, the whole thing turns ridiculous. But with Anais, she always delivers.

For instance, read this;

''…having attained all lovers' dream of a desert island, a cell, a cocoon, in which to create a world together from the beginning.

In the dark they gave each other their many selves, avoiding only the more recent ones, the story of the years before they met as a dangerous realm from which might spring dissensions, doubts, and jealousies. In the dark they sought rather to give each other their earlier, their innocent, unpossessed selves.''

I must say though that I love her dairies best. I do have some reservations about her novel. For instance, in this novel we hardly hear Rango speak. We know him only through Djuno (Anais). While we know Djuno very closely and understand her, her ways of knowing and looking at things, we don't know Rango the same way. This seems unfair. In fact, even when one admires Djuno's ways of looking, her grappling with her fears, her aspirations, but she seems unfair and rather annoying when she takes over Rango and describes him for us–in Her Voice.

Another remarkable thing about Anais' writing is that we know how much she has admired D.H Lawrence, but she really restricts herself not to get carried away and mimic his style. In certain descriptions of Anais, one can see the 'Lawrentian' influence, but one also sees Her. In its spirit, her writings are fiercely her Own. Else I would not make so much noise about her.

[Els Book Hunters · Rating 2 out of 5]

París, anys 30. La Djuna s'enamora perdudament d'un músic guatemalenc que toca la guitarra i que posseeix un atractiu magnètic, en Rango. Tots dos estableixen una relació amorosa apassionada que materialitzen en una barcassa a la riba del Sena. Tot plegat, no pot ser més idíl·lic. Però ai, en Rango és casat. La seva dona Zora, malaltissa i feble, depèn de les seves atencions, tot i que entre ells ja fa temps que no existeix cap atracció. Es van casar massa joves. La cosa es complica quan en Rango presenta les dues dones i convenç la Djuna de tenir cura de la Zora. El triangle amorós està servit. La guerra també.

Gràcies a LaBreu he pogut llegir una autora que feia temps que m'encuriosia. Anaïs Nin va escriure aquesta obra descarnada basant-se en la seva experiència personal. En menys de 140 pàgines tira per terra tots els tòpics de l'amor romàntic i ho fa plantejant un argument força interessant. Imaginar-se la situació d'aquest triangle de personatges incentiva la seva lectura. La Djuna és idealista, en Rango és feble d'esperit i està barallat amb el món, i la Zora és dependent i egoista. El còctel desemboca en desencís, en situacions violentes i en frustració. L'escriptura de Nin no és fàcil, tremendament intensa, altament dramàtica. La Djuna reflexiona sobre els ideals romàntics i les relacions personals, la toxicitat, la dependència, desgrana la personalitat d'en Rango i d'ella mateixa en llargues introspeccions que tenen caire de tragèdia grega. Reconec que m'ha costat una mica, tanta reflexió trava la lectura i tanta intensitat esgota. Li sé reconèixer mèrits, un argument atractiu, una escriptura intel·ligent, una protagonista determinada i culta, però m'ha resultat difícil d'acabar. Em caldrà insistir amb l'autora per decidir si fa per mi o no.

(SERGI)

[Joan Roure · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5
Brillant. La meva primera incursió en els universos de Nin no ha pogut ser més satisfactòria. M'ha sorprès gratament l'enorme capacitat que mostra l'autora alhora de transmetre emocions i sentiments, de ficar-se a la pell de cadascun dels personatges que conformen aquesta complexa relació amorosa a tres bandes al París dels anys trenta.

El nivell narratiu és de molta qualitat, i tot i que de vegades la intensitat i profunditat de la narració exigeix una lectura calmada i atenta, no qualificaria pas l'obra com una lectura complicada. Nin defuig els tòpics que solen acompanyar l'amor romàntic per tractar-lo d'una manera més real, descrivint-lo sense embuts, amb tot el dramatisme que li pertoca. Cal destacar també els diàlegs, on la francesa demostra, un cop més, un nivell excel·lent.

No em queda més que congratular-me, per fi, d'haver saldat el meu deute amb la Nin, tot trobant-hi en el camí a una gran escriptora. Afortunadament, encara em queda per davant molta obra d'ella per recórrer, i això és, sens dubte, una de les majors satisfaccions quan descobreixes un autor/a que et fascina.

"Somreia per la necessitat tan intensa que senten els homes de construir ciutats, quan era molt més difícil construir relacions, de conquerir països, quan era molt més difícil conquerir un cor, satisfer un nen, crear una vida humana perfecta. La necessitat d'inventar, de circumnavegar l'espai, quan és molt més difícil superar les distàncies entre les persones; la necessitat d'organitzar sistemes filosòfics, quan era molt més difícil entendre un ésser humà i quan les profunditats últimes de l'ànima humana encara estaven a mig explorar.
—He d'anar a la guerra —deia ell—. He d'actuar. He de servir una causa."

[Marta Porta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fa temps que tenia ganes de llegir Anaïs Nin. He connectat moltíssim amb algunes de les reflexions que fa l’autora, però a estones l’argument m’ha semblat una mica avorrit i els tres personatges una mica pesats. Tot i així, el recomanaria a les meves amigues, que segur que tindríem debats interessants❤️

[Mahika · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love as a path of revelation: that the seemingly magnetic attraction between people is based upon the sum of their past lived experiences, sorrow, growth, striving… that love is “the hothouse in which all the selves burst into their full bloom”… that we “love in others some repressed self.... shadows of our hidden selves in others…”

Rango seemed like a riff on Gonzalo from the diaries, at least how I remember him, with a desire to give himself to an abstract cause but not the woman in front of him. I watched La bohème the night before reading this, and I felt immediate parallels in how these works reveal the pitfalls of the Parisienne bohemian fantasy: “I don’t want any more of this literary credo about the romantic beauty of living desperately, dangerously, destructively…” Rango is inclined to sacrifice himself to ideas: representing the modern tendency of allegiance and single-minded devotion to a cause…

Djuna affirms an antithesis, an antidote, in the sanctuary and transformational field of personal, human relationships, the care and attention required to understand just one Other on a deep level.

“The enemy is not outside…”

“Everyone says: you must take sides, choose a political party, choose a philosophy, choose a dogma… I choose the dream of human love…”

“She smiled at man’s great need to build cities when it was so much harder to build relationships, his need to conquer countries when it was so much harder to conquer ones heart, to satisfy a child, to create a perfect human life. Man’s need to invent, to circumnavigate space when it is so much harder to overcome space between human beings, man’s need to organize systems of philosophy when it was so much harder to understand one human being, and when the greatest depths of human character lay but half explored…”

I remember from the diaries a particularly striking line: that, on top of a crumbling world, she identifies the task to which she ought to devote herself as the rigorous challenge of human relating. Could it be this is our real, our ultimate work: as Rilke wrote, “the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation...”?

[Jennie Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Not one but many Djunas descended the staircase of the barge, one layer formed by the parents, the childhood, another molded by her profession and her friends, still another born of history geology, climate, race, economics, and all the backgrounds and backdrops, the sky and nature of the earth, the pure sources of birth, the influence of a tree, a word dropped carelessly, an image seen, and all the corrupted sources: books, art, dogmas, tainted friendships, and all the places where a human being is wounded...
People add up their physical mishaps, the stubbed toes, the cut finger, the burn scar, the fever, the cancer, the microbe, the infection, the wounds and broken bones. They never add up the accumulated bruises and scars of the inner lining, forming a complete universe of reactions, a reflected world through which no event could take place without being subjected to a personal private interpretation, through this kaleidoscope of memory, through the peculiar formation of the psyche's sensitive photographic plates, to this assemblage of emotional chemicals through which every word, every event, every experience is filtered, digested, deformed, before it is projected again upon people and relationships."

yes yes yes. pure magic.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one centers closely on the triad of Rango, Djuna, and Zora, which made it the most readable of the continuous novels so far. All three are insane and terrible in some way, and it is all described in smooth, beautiful, but never flashy poetic prose. Themes: self-destruction through lack of self-awareness and putting other people's needs before your own, duality and balance, being who you are by being all your previous selves, different people fulfilling different needs/harmonizing with different elements of yourself. Probably if you liked Joanne Harris's novel Chocolat, you should read this one, but steel yourself for lots of hella racist descriptions of Rango, Guatemala, and native people there.

[ciel · Rating 3 out of 5]

all in all a fascinating analysis of the married couple with mistress dynamic, really can see anaïs obsession with threesomes and affairs come out. prose was beautiful as always with anaïs. the book's element water is wonderfully woven into the narrative with the life on the seine, compliments for that.

multiple djunas: this djuna didn't really resemble the last djunas to me, which was both annoying as i liked the prior ones better but also works from the angle of multiple self anaïs is so keen to investigate.

the entire ménage à trois is set up as a failure and i love that even djuna's endeavours of sinking the barge and breaking free fail. some passages did feel a bit too long, though.

[Roser Sebastià · Rating 5 out of 5]

He entrat a l’univers Anaïs Nin amb aquesta meravella de novel·la i crec que ja no en voldré sortir més. Quina destresa dibuixant atmosferes angoixants, però també aprofundint en els caràcters de personatges constantment en tensió entre l'essència que els defineix i el lloc cap on l'entorn se'ls emporta.

És capaç de descriure tots aquells sentiments que habiten les cambres del cor -gens fàcils de traduir en paraules- i fer-los aflorar amb llum reveladora i màgica. Hi he trobat moltes frases subratllables, però en destaco dos:

«Estimem en els altres les ombres dels nostres jos amagats.»
«Hi ha una culpa que no és pels actes que s’han fet, sinó pels pensaments que s’han tingut.»

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book because it analyzes the relationship between lovers from its highest point to it's downfall. Obviously, in doing this it also analyzes the individuals and we see exactly how the main characers became such pathetic failures. The story and the writing is mediocre. It was the dissection of people and relationships I found worth while.

[Mighty Aphrodite · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Le quattro stanze del cuore” è il libro che mai mi sarei aspettata da Anais Nin, ma di cui – allo stesso tempo – avevo incredibilmente bisogno.

Da una scrittura passionale e ardente come quella di Nin si attende sempre il fuoco, il desiderio, quel brivido segreto che scivola lungo la schiena e distrugge ogni certezza. Troppo abituati alle fiamme, abbiamo dimenticato cosa voglia dire essere cenere, covare in noi il calore, la pazienza, darsi la possibilità di fermare il tempo per analizzare nel profondo cosa ci muove davvero, cosa siamo diventati.

Continua qui: https://parlaredilibri.wordpress.com/...

[S/Faye · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. love anaïs and there were some beautiful pearls as always, but i caught myself drifting a few times ,, may revisit when im less tired & can devote more brain power to imagining the surreal

[Lejla Džanko · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tried reading her erotica (Delta of Venus) but didn't really care for it. However, Anais always held a certain promise: her exotic name, her non-conventional life, the fact that she lived in the '20s Paris, and most importantly the quote which I found here on GR:

"I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living".

Ah. I felt it on every level: emotionally, aesthetically. I really wanted to love the book this quote was taken from.

It took me a while to convince myself to read it but in the end I did it in one sitting. I loved it. It was like a breath of fresh air in a stale library full of books that didn't excite me in the slightest. It has a plot which flows naturally enough but does not overpower or take the central role. It holds a lot of her thoughts and emotions without being too philosophical and self important. It resonated with me. It enchanted me from the very first page and this quote:

Toward this ambulant Rango, Djuna leaned to catch all that his music contained, and her ear detected the presence of this unattainable island of joy which she pursued, which she had glimpsed at the party she had never attended but watched from her window as a girl. And like some lost voyager in a desert, she leaned more and more eagerly toward this musical mirage of a pleasure never known to her, the pleasure of freedom.

I recognized in her musings a lot of my own thoughts.

She was invited to bring her good self only, in which Rango believed utterly, and yet she felt a rebellion against this good self which was too often called upon, was too often invited, to the detriment of other selves who were now like numerous wallflowers! The Djuna who wanted to laugh, to be carefree, to have a love all of her own, an integrated life, a rest from troubles. Secretly she had often dreamed of her other selves, the wild, the free, the natural, the capricious, the whimsical, the mischievous ones. But the constant demand upon the good one was atrophying the others.

Like so many of us women, Djuna wants to be free to be herself, as she is. Free of everyone else's expectations, free of her own desire to please, free of this inherent kindness women are expected to have. She wants to be someone dark, deep, selfish and whimsical. Like a mermaid.

Djuna had wanted a life of desire and freedom, not comfort but the smoothness of magical happenings, not luxury but beauty, not security but fulfillment, not perfection but a perfect moment like this one…

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This remains an average read. As is explained, Djuna is likely actually Nin and this is based on real-life events, but it does very little to add who Djuna (as a fictional character), is. The whole story is about her relationship with Rango, who is in a "Fraternal relationship" with Zora (even though he's been married to her since 17.) Zora uses her "Sickness" (Hypochondriac) to influence both. Much of the book is Djuna explaining away Rango's behavior (Which makes some sense, and is explained, but just drags on a bit too much, pretty much to the extreme.)

I don't know that Djuna ever gets a fair shake in any given novel: Sabina does before all is said and done, as does Lillian, which is probably makes Djuna's stories so irksome; she always ends in her stories sort of "floating" in an Alfred Hitchcock ending sort of way. The story isn't bad, but the lack of any culmination in the novels, whatsoever, other than a chance being "hinted at", has never really worked for me.

[Jonatan Södergren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sensual and heartfelt account of a doomed ménage à trois. More essentially, it poetically describes various intricacies (enchantment, jealousy, duty, etc.) of a human relationship.

[Kels · Rating 5 out of 5]

“This is the witchcraft of love. You can take sides in religion, you can take sides in history, and there are others with you, you are not alone. But when you take the side of love, the opium of love, you are alone. (…) even your lover will not make the perilous journey with you. Hang your dream of love on the mast of this barge of caresses, a flag of fire.”

-

“The potion drunk by lovers is prepared by no one but themselves.

The potion is the sum of one's whole existence.

Every word spoken in the past accumulated forms and colors in the self. What flows through the veins besides blood is the distillation of every act committed, the sediment of all the visions, wishes, dreams, and experiences.

All the past emotions converge to tint the skin and flavor the lips, to regulate the pulse and produce crystals in the eyes.”

-

“Their first kiss was witnessed by the Seine River carrying gondolas of street lamps reflections in its spangled folds, carrying haloed street lamps flowering on bushes of black lacquered cobblestones, carrying silver filigree trees opened like fans beyond whose rim the river's eyes provoked them to hidden coquetries, carrying the humid scarfs of fog and the sharp incense of roasted chestnuts. (…) and soon the balcony tipped their shadows into the river, too, so that the kiss might be baptized in the holy waters of continuity.”

-

“It will break your heart, (…) your heart will fracture with a sound of wind chimes and the pieces will be iridescent. Where they fall new plants will grow instantly and it is to the advantage of a new crop of breakable hearts that yours should fracture often, for the artist is like the religious man, he believes that denial of worldly possessions, pain, and trouble will bring not sainthood but art, will give birth to the marvelous.”

-

“(…) all the exhalations of the sea tempted her out again, and she returned to the port and sat at the same table where she had sat with Rango and watched the gaiety of the port as she had watched that first party out of her window as a girl, feeling again that all pleasure was unattainable for her. (…) Every porthole, every light, seemed to be watching her dance with reproach.”

-

“To love he brought only his fierce anxieties; she had embraced, kissed, possessed a mirage.”

[Kubilay K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nin, İçsel Kentler Serisi adını verdiği biricik nehir romanının üçüncü sapağında bilinçaltının yükselen sularında kaybettikleri benliklerini zihninin kıvrımlarından kalbinin odalarına uzanan yolda aramaya devam eden kadınların hikâyelerini anlatmaya devam ediyor. Günlüklerinden damıttığı mürekkebiyle yarattığı kaleydoskopik anlatı nehri, gerçeklikle ve kurgu arasındaki belirsiz sınırlarda dolanan bir periferik anlatı biçimine göz kırpıyor. Nin, Dört Odalı Kalp’te İçsel Kentler’inin kendine en çok benzeyen renklerle boyadığı kadın karakteri Djuna’nın, serseri ruhlu Rango ve onun eşi sansasyonel dansçı Zora ile olan karmaşık ilişkilerini anlatırken de aslında kendi hayatında önemli izler bırakan iki figürü aynanın içinden geçiriyor: “Latin bohem” kültürü figürü Gonzalo Moré ile kültürlerarası dansçı Helba Huara. Bu prizmatik bakış açıları arasında kendine has bir kurgu türü yaratan Nin, okuruna her zamanki gibi ritmik bir üslup ve düz yazının müzikalliğini de sunmaya devam ediyor. Yaratısının tarihteki konumu da tam bu noktada belirginleşiyor: Nin, yalnızca D. H. Lawrence’lerin at koşturmasına izin verilen bir erotik tandanslı anlatı geleneğini kadın egemenliğinde yeniden oluşturuyor. Bunu yaparken patriyarkal erotikanın zirvesine yerleştirilmiş devrimci, saldırgan ve kibirli Byronik karakterlerin karşısında, üzerlerine yapıştırılan Femme Fatale’lik ve “kutsal” annelik etiketleri arasında seçim yapmak zorunda hissetmeyen “Lilithyan” kadın figürleri yaratarak edebiyat tarihinde kadının temsili meselesinde önemli bir kırılma noktası yaratıyor. Nin, kalıplara sığmayan gerçek kadınlara hayat veriyor, Seine alevler içinde yanarken Nuh’un Gemisi Djuna’nın Gemisi’ne dönüşüyor, bir gitar sesi geliyor uzaklardan, bir bale figürü tekrarlıyor, Pandora’nın kutusu ortalığa saçılıyor, tekne su alıyor. Kalbin odaları dünyaya açılıyor, İçsel Kentler Serisi akmaya devam ediyor.

[Alex Bergonzini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este si que es una historia de sentimiento y pasión. Mientras leía, me parecía como contemplar un cuadro, encontrando cada uno de sus matices, los que había pintado la autora y los que yo intentaba comprender, pues en cada capa de su pincel, existen más detalles que a primera vista se escapan. Uno tiene que sumergirse por completo en el sentimiento, para reconocer la pasión, la lucha y el dolor de sus personajes.

La autora escribe con maestría las percepciones de los personajes. Es capaz de transmitir de una forma poco normal, como viven su pasión. Comparable a la auténtica necesidad de respirar, pues han encontrado el uno en el otro la propia vida. Establece una simbiosis tan bien relatada que muchas veces cuesta seguir el relato, pues te pierdes entre metáforas y párrafos enteros, ajenos al habitual romanticismo, pero desbordando por cada una de sus palabras.

Luego llega la fase de la verdad, donde la pasión comienza a revelar las verdaderas máscaras de los personajes. Si antes era todo pura pasión y culto al otro, ahora se vuelve celos y abnegación por encontrar el camino de regreso. Se pierde la ilusión y florece la realidad. Dos personas que comienzan a distanciarse, encontrando sus debiliades.

Es una impresionante historia. La autora juega muy bien con las palabras y las descripciones son soberbias. Te emborrachas y te sientes vivo entre sus páginas, bailando un jazz, porque en todo momento, la música va cambiando.

[Aylin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5.

Djuna'nin Zora hakkindaki psikolojik tahlillerini okumak buyuk haz verdi. Onun disinda ise benim icin cok cazip bir kitap degildi. Rango'nun tasvirine asla anlam veremedim zaten; ne bu adam bohem mi, neandertal mi, fakir mi, sirk muzisyeni mi, cingene mi... vs. Cok sacma sapan bir karakter olmus. Ayni sekilde Zora da. Kocasinin corabini giyip ucuna pamuk tikan, hediye gelen mayoyu sokup bastan diken, freak bir karakter tasvir edilmis. Bir Djuna'nin zerafetine bakin, bir de Rango ve Zora'nin freak'ligine... Kitap boyu anlam veremedigim bir boyun egme oldu dolayisiyla Djuna'ninki. Sonu da fazla siirseldi, o kadar siirsellik de bosa gitti sanki. Bu dizinin diger kitaplarini da mi okusam demistim ama yok, net vazgectim.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My introduction to Nin and I am ashamed I'm just getting to her. WOW. The prose is so beautiful, it's like Proust, you find yourself not caring that the plot hasn't advanced, or that things are happening off-camera, or that all the rules of what you thought fiction was supposed to be are being broken, because the delight of the language carries you forward.

That said, unlike Proust, she does move things along, and quickly. The funny thing is, wanting to go back and find a favorite passage, I had no trouble flipping almost exactly to it. It's like the story is so compact and so itself that its shape can be held in the mind, whole.

My favorite bit is the bit where she talks about the many layers of being and compares it to Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase.

[trinidad]

"...abandonaría su cuerpo para que discurriese hacia otro más amplio que el suyo, como fue al principio, y volvería con otras muchas vidas que desplegar..."

[M Johana Areiza · Rating 4 out of 5]

"El amor nunca muere de una muerte natural. Se muere porque no sabemos cómo reponer su fuente. Muere de ceguera, errores y traiciones. Muere de enfermedades y heridas; muere de cansancio y de marchitamiento."

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to read this after stumbling on this quote from the book a few days ago.

Nin on one hand writes with poetic and fantastical force, sculpting 3-D images out of 2-D words, and then on the other it makes me laugh out loud at times because it's so embellished, grandiose, and preposterous.

My island of joy! It is filled with a thousand sighs of long lost birds of paradise shadowed in the ancient lovers now long forgotten in the waters of the Seine!

I just made that up besides the "island of joy," but yeah, it can be silly like that at the very beginning, but doesn't stay silly.

I can't help but read the barge captain's dialog in pirate:
"I was the captain of a pleasure yacht once. The yacht blew up and I lost my leg."
LOL. Yep, a one-legged captain captaining her love boat.

"Djuna, you're...like a real mermaid."
"I must be a mermaid, Rango."

Hehe.

But then the silliness ends at this point and suddenly but effortlessly becomes very unsilly, and an unstoppable fluidity of tragedy, sadness, and analysis between the dialog carries the pace until the cryptic, dreamy end that I'm still trying to figure out.

It is the silly innocence of the beginning juxtaposed against the bulk of the unsilly realities that exposes growth and depth. Many passages I bookmarked for their exquisitely described truths written with eloquence. It kept me fascinated and I read the entirety of the book in one sitting.

The illustrations are also very nice.

[El · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another part to Nin's larger Cities of the Interior collection. We meet Djuna again in Paris, this time with her lover, Rango. He has a boat on the Seine which is where most of their trysts take place. However, in typical Nin fashion, Rango is already married to the questionably mad Zora, and the proverbial crap hits the proverbial fan when Zora discovers this affair.

I like the way Nin creates a fiction surrounding her life, the way the words flow just so off the page. She was by far no literary genius, but an important contribution to literature nonetheless.

Now that I've read the second and third books in Cities of the Interior, I have to get around to reading the first, fourth and fifth. I will say that I do not feel that I have missed anything by reading her "continuous novel" out of order.

[Adrienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read into the insights of human nature and emotion, continuing the story of Djuna we take up with her as she becomes involved with Rango a seemingly simple straightforward guy whose personality is affected by how he sees the world, and later his wife Zora 'professional' victim and attention seeker whose manipulative personality is repulsive. I love the way Nin writes about the foibles of human nature. Reading this is a litle like peeling back the layers of a bulb with each layer a little more is revealed to us until we are left with nothing but an emotional void, a revelation, these are people we all know!


Not an erotic read, highly intuitive literary read into the working of the human personality.

[Bob Arbogast · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my introduction to Anais Nin, and if first impressions mean anything, I like her. The book is not a novel in any real sense, but an exploration of a relationship from lust to dust. Ms. Nin writes with an emotional honesty that is both frightening and refreshing. This book should resonate with anyone who has loved: desire, compromise, hurt, it's all here, and stated very eloquently. I have always enjoyed Japanese love poems and this book shares much with that genre in both content and style. I look forward to renewing my acquaintance Anais Nin in the near future.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent narrative looking at a three pronged pronged relationship...love and the complexities therein.
I had read a collection of short stories by Anais Nin in the past but that ill prepared me for this book which although very short is thoughtful and explores desire and how holding on can sometimes hasten it's demise.

[Nate D · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I initially read this, I'd mucked up the phases of Nin's life, and thought at first that this was the fictionalized version of her time with Henry Miller and his wife June. Turns out, it's not, but Nin seems to have had a bit of a propensity for destructive triangular relationships.

[DonutKnow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got a bit confused with some of the extended metaphors, but I was thoroughly intrigued by the manipulative villainy of Zora, and the complexities of the relationship between the three protagonists.

[S · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found it hard to engage with the story: I don't understand jealousy, and I didn't want to read another word about
how Djuna (Anais) was going to fix her already married lover.