Spy in the House of Anaïs Nin

De: Kim Krizan

Narrado por: Rachel Music

Nin's importance as a feminist and visionary is finally revealed. Based on a new examination of long-buried letters, papers, and original manuscripts held at UCLA and found in Nin's Los Angeles home, Spy in the House of Anais Nin takes a penetrating look at Nin's incredible life and famous diary. Firmly placing Nin in her historical context as a feminist and visionary, this collection of essays lifts the lid on the origins of Nin's secrets and lies, gives voice to her husband via an unpublished letter, reveals Nin's real politics, and discloses the truth of Gore Vidal’s feelings for Nin via an unearthed love letter from Vidal to Nin. With this book, author Kim Krizan serves as the ultimate spy, conducting deep background on Anais Nin - the notorious, rule-shattering diarist who was the self-proclaimed Spy in the House of Love.

©2019 Kim Krizan (P)2019 Kim Krizan

A MUST HAVE to Compliment Your Nin Collection

Equally revered and reviled for her brave commitment to living a life by her own design, Anais Nin was, in many ways, a pioneer. Anais Nin lived a life of her own design in a time when women were expected to fall into very specific roles. Her diaries could be considered ahead of their time -- a template, if you will, for fashion bloggers and Instagram Influencers everywhere who also wish to live a life by their own design.

Nin wrote of taboo subjects, erotica and of her "quest for self" during a time when women writers had nom du plums to get work. And though she was often misunderstood by her contemporaries, her greatest works of art, her personal diaries, now serve to inspire countless dreamers to this day. Indeed, just open Instagram on any given day and you are likely to see Nin's words splashed across the platform in beautifully designed memes.

It goes without saying that Nin lived a complicated life --in a time when divorce was unheard of and families remained intact despite relational issues, Nin's father abandoned his family for a young lover, forcing her mother to uproot and move them to America. This would be the catalyst for Nin's writing as self-exploration.

Later, Nin would support herself by writing erotica (unheard of for women) in the 1920s and 30s. She had multiple affairs with men and women and was even a bigamist for the last 25 years of her life (seemingly "using" one husband's money to finance her self-indulgent lifestyle...) She documented this 60+ year journey in her diaries, which upon publication in the 90s, came under equal acclaim and plausible question. Nin was called a liar after it was revealed she kept two diaries - one of the harsh realities of her life and the other a vision of her "life created."

Have I mentioned that Nin lived a complicated life? Don't get me wrong, I'm a super fan of Nin, but I've often struggled to reconcile my own immense love for Nin's craft against my extreme discomfort over her personal choices. I listened to Kim Kirzan's "Spy in the House of Anais Nin" in the hopes that her analysis of Nin's life would fill in some blanks, and I applaud Kirzan for going deep into the task of dissecting the double life of Anais Nin!

A Spy in the House of Anais Nin brings compassionate inquiry for the underpinnings of Nin's true motivations. For instance, in our modern day, its a (very sad but) common reality that many people suffer from the trauma of abandonment. If one has a perceived personality flaw, we just understand that person is "dealing with abandonment issues."

This was not necessarily the case for people during Nin's childhood and in the chapter, "What to Wear to a Childhood Abandonment," one comes to understand how "ahead of her time" Nin truly was --in all regards. One feels the fullness of Nin's passion for fashion, understanding her lifelong need to beautifully adorn herself was more than a desire to indulge in pretty things, but a "rebuke against her father's disinterest." Fashion was not merely a self-indulgence, but a way to heal her broken heart, a way for Nin to cloak herself in beauty (as she attempted to do with every aspect of her life), and to safeguard herself from possible further rejection.

We also come to understand how deep her psychic wounds of childhood abandonment influenced practically every decision Nin made in life --from what to wear, to how she used fantasy as an escape from her pain, to how she showed up in her relationships.

Kirzan explains that Nin did not want to inflict this same pain onto her husband, Guiler, and so instead of divorcing him, chose to maintain a relationship that felt (by both Nin's and Guiler's accounts) unfulfilling. It was thus she became a bigamist.-- Nin would not leave Guiler and married Rupert Pole (the "love of her life".) She maintained these bi-coastal relationships for 25+ years, mostly in secret!

I also particularly like how Kirzan dispelled the myth that Nin was indulgently vapid as "evidenced" by the lack of accounts of current events in her diaries (such as Kennedy's assassination, for example.) Kirzan uncovered layers of Nin's personality that were previously unexposed in her expurgated diaries, revealing a modern woman who was not only very much into current affairs but who also expressed her passionate political views in letters to her contemporaries and within the pages of her diaries themselves. Unfortunately, these accounts were not originally published, lending to the misunderstanding.

Kirzan uncovers Nin's motivations for creating a life by her own design with an articulation of a depth psychologist, avoiding judgement or shaming, and just laying bare the facts from Anais Nin's diaries, letters and archives. (Oh, to hold these diaries in one's hand, thumbing through the pages, smelling the paper, feeling the texture against forefinger and devouring the words bit by bit... I can only imagine the thrill to be that close to the heart of a woman whose work deserves to be explored more deeply than a mere Instagram quote meme... !)

Anais Nin has inspired countless women everywhere to follow their dreams, no matter the seeming discomfort or suffering involved. Indeed, the suffering is part of the beauty and anyone who has enjoyed Anais Nin's work will definitely appreciate Krizan's analysis of Nin's life and work.