Rating: 
Summary: Journeys of the Heart
Review: "When people get transplanted, it's exactly like plants; at first there's a wilting, a withering; some die of it. We're all at the critical stage, suffering from a change of soil." There are times in my life when only Anais Nin's writing can calm me and weave some eternal imagination back into my temporary existence on this planet. After packing up my entire house, moving and then finally getting situated again, one of the first things I wanted to do was read a book by Anais because it is such an escape from the ordinary. Her creativity is astounding and the way she writes can at times be like a series of conversations and experiences woven between a chaotic swirling of thoughts that tumble over the pages never really finding a permanent home. The erotica is mild and is mostly descriptions of nature which resemble sexual adventures. I read her work to find moments of absolute metaphoric bliss. Her descriptions show a variance in thinking you just rarely discover. Her vocabulary is always stunning. Anais Nin also had an overly developed awareness of the sensual. She seemed to live within a bubble of sensuous delights. What shocked me about this novel is how disorganized her thoughts seem. It is very difficult to read this book and keep track of all the male characters who swim in and out of her sea. "The strange, continuous, almost painful tension she felt away from him always dissolved in his presence, at his very door... The trust she felt in his evenly modulated voice, both warm and light, in his harmonious manners never sudden or violent, in his thoughts which he weighed before articulating, in his insights which were moderate, was so great that it resembled a total abandon of her self to him, a total giving." After reading her diaries, you can pick out descriptions which relate directly to her life. It is as if she gained some intellectual pleasure from revealing her true self in her writing and here she has immersed Sabina in her own experiences. When she talks about Sabina having a hole in her clothes, we think of how she so unselfishly supported Henry Miller to the point where she had to wear clothes with holes in them because she could not afford new ones. When she says "guilt is the one burden human beings can't bear alone," we remember how she enjoyed her visits to her psychologist to unleash all her thoughts and tell him her experiences or how she and Henry shared a private world where they could tell each other their dreams, live out their fantasy desires or embrace the future with hope because they supported each other in writing, love and life. Don't be surprised if you are slightly disappointed with this novel after reading the Anais Nin Diaries, however this novel will almost only make sense IF you have read the diaries.
Her father appears, her demanding mother, her husband, her lovers, everyone. They all appear in some form or the other or add to her emotional painting. You can recognize them rather easily in this novel. I would only recommend this work to someone who is already familiar with her diaries, for that very reason. If you love the way Anais Nin writes then you will be more inclined to step over the confusion to find the beauty. It is almost like walking through a barren desert and finding that small oasis of thoughts that quenches a certain thirst in your soul for this type of writing. This story begins with a telephone call from a bar to an anonymous number. After this the book simply goes on to describe one love affair after the other. The writing in her diaries is definitely better as she is able to more fully develop each character and show how the individual affects her life. Here we hardly get to know each character as they fly in and out of her life. Sabina is drunk on the attention each man gives her all while wishing she was giving herself only to the one man she truly loved. It seems she wishes all of her love could be with her one true love instead of being divided into small pieces she leaves strewn about her life. And each piece is almost like a leaf which can be so easily blown about by the winds of change. You come away with the feeling that Sabina will only be complete and stable when she can find the one man who appreciates her complexities and can put all her puzzle pieces together in one unified whole. Sabina might be a spy, but I don't think she ever finds the love she is searching for or at least she finally surrenders to the lie she is living and accepts her fate. I can recommend: Early Diary Anais Nin Volume 4
Henry and June
A Literate Passion
Diary of Anais Nin 1947-1955
In Favor of the Sensitive Man and Other Essays Writing this review while listening to Stevie Holland's CD called: Almost Like Being in Love and the words seem to fit in with the reading of this novel. TheRebeccaReview.com
Rating: 
Summary: This book is a pleasurable two-day read.
Review: Anais Nin delves into the sexual natures of women and men in this brief novel. The enduring feature of this novel is that it is not a social analysis of love but rather a pshycoanalysis. Ms. Nin, as many became aware of from her diaries, was a freely permiscuous woman despite her marriage which lasted most of her life. While Ms. Nin wrote this book in the third person, its main charector is clearly based on herself. She provides insights which are concise, though sometimes drifting into stream of consciousness type naration. She appreciates the complexities of people, which in my view is the only way to remotely be able to provide insights into why one loves. Her "analysis" of the various sexual relationships in the book has elements of Freudian thought though neither blindly nor exclusively such. Though Ms. Nin's charector, a restless "actress", appears to have her soul comforted at the end of the novel, there is no real resolution of any of the philosophical or psychological dillemas of her lifestyle. I would recomend this book to anybody as a "quick down and dirty" source of insight into the nature of love and sex
Rating: 
Summary: Refreshingly nonjudgmental tale of infidelity
Review: I actually owned this book for years before getting around to reading it, and then when I finally did I was kicking myself for not reading it sooner. "A Spy in the House of Love" is the story of a young woman named Sabina who, despite having a kind and loving husband, engages in adulterous affairs with men she barely knows. What is it that motivates Sabina? Is it a thirst for adventure? Lust? Resentment towards her husband or the roles society imposes on her? Instead of being a trite morality tale where the "sinner" is punished by facing horrible consequences (like the recent film "Unfaithful") this book explores, without judgement, Sabina's conflicted emotions and motives.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshingly nonjudgmental tale of infidelity
Review: I actually owned this book for years before getting around to reading it, and then when I finally did I was kicking myself for not reading it sooner. "A Spy in the House of Love" is the story of a young woman named Sabina who, despite having a kind and loving husband, engages in adulterous affairs with men she barely knows. What is it that motivates Sabina? Is it a thirst for adventure? Lust? Resentment towards her husband or the roles society imposes on her? Instead of being a trite morality tale where the "sinner" is punished by facing horrible consequences (like the recent film "Unfaithful") this book explores, without judgement, Sabina's conflicted emotions and motives.
Rating:
Summary: -
Review: I don't know what exactly to say about this book. It was fairly good. Actually, it was great. I could totally relate to the main character, Sabina. It's like Anais took my thoughts & put them into a book.
Rating:
Summary: No words to describe its beauty!!
Review: I just finished one of the most amazing book of the century gone by. I do not know why people always associate Anais Nin and her works to Erotica when there is so much more to it. Yes she did write a whole lotta sensous reading material but then again she was only portraying the truth, wasn't she? A Spy in the House of Love is all about a woman named Sabina and her life as she flows or rather drifts from one lustful experience to another. She lies, she deceives, she puts on an act only never to find solace in places where she looks for the most - in the arms of strangers but her own husband Alan. My feelings ranged like tidal waves while devouring this book. I felt like a thief hiding a secret and at the same time felt so connected with my emotions and responses to what my body demanded. Sabina as a character is so quite that sometimes her silence speaks volumes. The way she moves, the way Ms. Nin breathes life into her is absolutely a piece of art. Rising from the ashes and yet unforgiven. A true to life caricature of what desires can do and their power on our mortal lives.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: I really dug into this little book. I t does a good job of examining the psyche of a woman who can't remain faithful to the man she loves. While I might have previously considered the main character's behaviour an example of (wo-)mankind's endless ability to justify selfish acts, I got some perspective on aspects of the main character's psyche which was evidently much needed. This is sort of anti-existentialism, where people are small and subject to pulls from their gender, class, race, and age, never mind their impulses. It doesn't justify chronic faithlessness, at all, but it does present a certain disphoric reality where only the very strong can be responsible for the consequences of their actions.
Rating:
Summary: This was my first Anais Nin read...
Review: I was an Anais Nin virgin before reading this book... And now I am a complete fan of everything I've read by her so far...
Her writing is unique and she can use words in ways that I've seen no other writer use them - either male or female...
"A Spy in the House of Love" is about a young woman named Sabina who, despite having a kind and loving husband, engages in adulterous affairs with men she barely knows. It takes you to different places in the world through her adulterous affairs...
An aside... This book would make an excellent modern movie and the perfect leads for it would be Anna Piquin (from "The Piano) as Sabina and Leonardo De Caprio as her husband - Savannah Skye...
Rating:
Summary: The integrity of the confession
Review: The novel's protagonist, Sabina (likely an aspect of the author herself from Nin's own diaries) is an actress struggling to find artistic and sexual fulfillment without destroying herself. A Spy in the House of Love is one more piece in Nin's ongoing effort to explore the self-creation of women in response to social repression. The plot is undoubtedly autobiographical, written as it was during a time when Nin was developing a relationship with a California man and trying to divide her time with her husband in New York.
The novel explores the tension between the desire to break taboos and the inevtable guilt that arises from bucking societal mores. Sabina is a complex character who breaks the misogynist stereotypes of the nymphomaniacal woman and instead delves into the chains imposed on women by the linking of sexuality with love. Nin's prose is like reading hot butterscotch (if that were possible). This is a beautifully sensual poem about the nature of freedom. Sabina longs for "a love not concerned with possession of her, but of a complete understanding that would include absolution". And, tragically, she cannot find it while she constantly shifts roles -- and lovers. For Sabina, there is no absolution, only the integrity of the confession itself.
Rating:
Summary: Girlfriend problems?
Review: This book couldn't hold my interest if it had pop up cutouts. I've read alot of erotica, and I don't think this should be considered as such. It took forever to get to the good parts...if there were any!
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