The Four-Chambered Heart: V3 In Nin's Continuous Novel (1959) - Plot & Excerpts
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.
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.
What do You think about The Four-Chambered Heart: V3 In Nin's Continuous Novel (1959)?
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.
—Adrienne
