In lithe, sensuous colored pencils, this international
prize-winning, impressionistic graphic biography
traces the life, the affairs, and the artistic process of
Anaïs Nin, one of the best-known authors of women's
erotica in the 1920s and '30s.
Anaïs Nin, the author of works such as Delta of Venus and House
of Incest, is the patron saint of taboo-breaking pop culture sexual
iconoclasts. Not only is she an inspiration for contemporary figures
such as Madonna, but her oeuvre, which encompasses erotica,
autobiography, essays, short fiction, novels, and much more, has
been adapted into film (Henry and June), television (Little Bird),
and other media.
The cartoonist Léonie Bischoff traces the life of the prolific
writer in this lushly colored graphic novel. It begins with Nin struggling
to reconcile the man she married (who had artistic aspirations)
with the banker she finds herself living with in the Parisian
suburbs. Soon, her obsession with June Miller leads to inspiration. Nin's life and
art, the truth and fiction, are further intertwined as she recounts her many sexual
liaisons including those with Henry Miller (whom she and her husband subsidize
so he can write the controversial Tropic of Cancer), her psychoanalysts, and even
her father. Although Bischoff's drawing is largely representational, she occasionally
depicts Nin's sexual experiences in scenes as surreal as Nin's own written portrayal
of them.