We're attempting to again increase book coverage in the community. Ruth's "A JOYOUS TRANSFORMATION: THE UNEXPURZGATED DIARY OF ANAIS NIN, 1966 -1977" went up tonight. It's the latest of the unexpurgated journals from Anais Nin. So Anais Nin was a very influential writer who lived from 1903 to 1977. You enjoyed THE SEDUCTION OF THE MINOTAUR.
Ruth: I did. It and A SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOVE are my two favorite novels by Ms. Nin. I think I like THE SEDUCTION best because we get Lillian having closure. A SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOVE, I love, but I do not feel that Sabina is healed or has found comfort at the end of A SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOVE. Anais Nin wrote about the human condition and was very unique. She also wrote erotica for money and it was later collected in the best sellers DELTA OF VENUS and LITTLE BIRDS. Her non-fiction includes her diaries and her journals. The diaries were published while she was alive and were heavily edited because she had to protect some secrets and because others were alive as well -- others who might sue -- Gore Vidal, for example, lied for years that he never came on to Anais Nin but, after both were dead, the truth came out. So the journals come out after Anais Nin has passed away, January 14, 1977, and they are unexpurgated.
Did you enjoy this volume of the journal?
Ruth: I did. But I really think it should have been broken up into two volumes. It was a lot to read. It took me several days and I enjoyed it but I think it could have been, for example, the length of HENRY & JUNE. That is Ms. Nin's best selling journal or diary. It is the first one to come out unexpurgated. The focus in it? Stronger because it covers a briefer time. I am a big fan of Ms. Nin's writing. But I think this should have been two volumes and it would have been better. As it was, knowing I needed to post my review for the community, I felt a pressure to get through it quickly and it was a lot to get through.
What's the primary thing going on in this volume?
Ruth: She is going back and forth between California and New York and back and forth between the two husbands that she is married to. She is forever fearful of being exposed as a bigamist and the husbands learning of it. For example, a friend writes a biography of Henry Miller. He knows Mr. Miller and Ms. Nin. He avoids going into any real depth about them -- they were lovers. But he does mention enough regarding the first man she married that Anais Nin feels she has to get them to edit out what was written. She implores Henry Miller to help her and he makes a request for edits and she tries to reason with the publisher of the biography and, when that does not work, she begins offering her famous diary -- dangling the chance that if he edited out the parts on her from the upcoming biography, she might let them publish her diary.
Any special surprises in terms of reactions to what you read?
Ruth: I really enjoyed her exchanges with James Herlihy -- the novelist who is famous for MIDNIGHT COWBOY. There is also a description of Rupert Pole -- his chest, his ears -- after they have had sex that makes it clear that she finds him desirable. There is nothing like that with regards to the other husband. If I were going to do a cutting from this volume to put in an anthology, I would use that.
Any thing else you wanted to note?
Ruth: Yes. I think it is amazing how dishonest people are. Even after someone's dead. I did not know everyone in this latest journal -- did not know of. So I would frequently Google. John B. L. Goodwin is an author I had not heard of. He died in 1994 at the age of 81. He pops up in Anais Nin's journal and he is gay. But if you read his WIKIPEDIA entry, he is not gay. He is not anything. You can search him online and find some sites noting that he was gay. But his official entry at WIKIPEDIA cannot be bothered with that reality.
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