Anais Nin – A sea of lies HC

Anais Nin – A sea of lies HC – Anaïs Nin, the author of works such as Delta of Venus and Houseof Incest, is the patron saint of taboo-breaking pop culture sexualiconoclasts. 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 Parisiansuburbs. 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.

In lithe, sensuous colored pencils, this internationalprize-winning, impressionistic graphic biographytraces the life, the affairs, and the artistic process ofAnaïs Nin, one of the best-known authors of women’s erotica in the 1920s and ’30s.