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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Taste in erotica, just as in in sexual predilictions, is very individual. Nin writes about incest, rape, necrophilia and other practices which might make people squeamish but her languid and sensual prose is a treat. I felt like having a post-coital cigarette after reading this!
TW: sexual violence
This book highlighted the importance of reading a blurb before buying a book aka I didn’t realise I’d bought straight up “high brow” porn (nb: my cover didn’t have erotica written on it so how was I to know).
Anyways this is really well written and I don’t like smut like I hate written sex scenes, I think they suck buuuut Anaïs Nin knows how to do it (apparently this is what she’s kinda know for so quel surpris).
I have a general rule of thumb with this kind of thing which is quite difficult bc it falls under a subjective judgement of tone. For example, I think Lolita is fine because I don’t think it romanticises paedophilia at all, in fact the tone of the book actively condemns Hubert throughout. Comparatively, A Memoir of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez does not have any sort of tone suggesting that what the main character is doing is wrong or perverse in any way. For the most part, I felt Nin’s tone when a character was engaging in a perverted sexual act was judgemental and it told the reader she did not endorse that sort of behaviour. However, at other points I felt she was having a bit too much fun with things that literally just fell into the category of rape. To counter this, I know that most if not all of this erotica was written for a man who was paying for the work to be written in a certain way so perhaps Nin was just doing what she needed to do to get her money.
In sum, morally, I feel dubious about giving this book a high rating because at times I felt Nin wasn’t condemning paedophilia or rape when she should have been. In terms of writing, this was one of the best written books I’ve ever read. Does that cancel out morally questionable behaviour? No. Do I know how to rate books? Also, no.
I am just a girl.
This book highlighted the importance of reading a blurb before buying a book aka I didn’t realise I’d bought straight up “high brow” porn (nb: my cover didn’t have erotica written on it so how was I to know).
Anyways this is really well written and I don’t like smut like I hate written sex scenes, I think they suck buuuut Anaïs Nin knows how to do it (apparently this is what she’s kinda know for so quel surpris).
I have a general rule of thumb with this kind of thing which is quite difficult bc it falls under a subjective judgement of tone. For example, I think Lolita is fine because I don’t think it romanticises paedophilia at all, in fact the tone of the book actively condemns Hubert throughout. Comparatively, A Memoir of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez does not have any sort of tone suggesting that what the main character is doing is wrong or perverse in any way. For the most part, I felt Nin’s tone when a character was engaging in a perverted sexual act was judgemental and it told the reader she did not endorse that sort of behaviour. However, at other points I felt she was having a bit too much fun with things that literally just fell into the category of rape. To counter this, I know that most if not all of this erotica was written for a man who was paying for the work to be written in a certain way so perhaps Nin was just doing what she needed to do to get her money.
In sum, morally, I feel dubious about giving this book a high rating because at times I felt Nin wasn’t condemning paedophilia or rape when she should have been. In terms of writing, this was one of the best written books I’ve ever read. Does that cancel out morally questionable behaviour? No. Do I know how to rate books? Also, no.
I am just a girl.
Who commissioned this? Epstein? I'm not putting all that in my head
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation
Even under limiting circumstances, I could feel Nin's poetic voice coming through. Every story in this collection is winding, as if dreamlike, sometimes veering into absurdity - this is my first time reading a book by her, so I found myself often surprised, amused, and stirred by some of the crazy shit her characters get into. I loved her heady exploration of their various sexual inclinations, and the natural interlacing of romantic passion, brutality, and lust.
This read like Penthouse Letters, only with better grammar and more creative synonyms for genitalia. I was hoping for more story/plot but I should have known better. I'll give it 3 stars because the book itself isn't bad, just not what I wanted to read.