Collages

By Anaïs Nin

Book Overview

A transplant from Vienna to Malibu who is driven by her urge to observe and depict those around her, Renate is, as one of her friends describes her, "the freest woman I know." Living in Malibu, working at the Paradise Inn restaurant, she encounters a series of people whose stories make up a larger collage: Henri the chef; Count Laundromat; Varda the artist and his teenage daughter, Nobuko the actress; the French Consul in the Hollywood Hills; an aged lifeguard with a spiritual longing for the sea; and Bruce, the intimate with an unnerving secret. First published in 1964 and now reissued with a new introduction by Anita Jarczok, Collages showcases Ana s Nin's dreamlike and introspective style and psychological acuity. Seen by some as linked vignettes and by others as a novel, the book is a mood piece that resists categorization. Based on a close friend of Nin's, Renate is the glue that holds the pieces, by turn fragmentary and full, together. One character absorbs a lesson from the Koran: "Nothing is ever finished." With each of Renate's successive encounters, we take that message to be true.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804012245
• ISBN13: 9780804012249
• Release Date: October 2019
• Publisher: Swallow Press
• Length: 170 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A must read...

For me this book read like a collage of images strung together seamlessly by a multitude of characters in differing places... Places that Renate traveled to, lived in, loved in and much more... Once again, with Anais' mellifluous word usage, I felt like I was right there traveling with her - Savannah Skye...

Her best fiction

I can't reasonably express how beautiful this book is. It was my first Nin reading and remains my favorite among her fiction. In my opinion, her prose and story in Collages is at its strongest and most moving. This work shows the heart of a poet.

.......

This book left me speechless....a whole new mode of thinking...