A Spy in the House of Love

Moglie dolcissima e mite, amante appassionata e bugiarda, Sabina, la protagonista di Una spia nella casa dell'amore, è una donna dalle innumerevoli sfaccettature che cerca la propria identità inseguendo contemporaneamente molti amori. L'unione con il marito le dà sicurezza, ma non la soddisfa appieno, perché un solo amore non riesce a far vibrare in lei le infinite corde della sua sensualità. Durante le molteplici peregrinazioni amorose, Sabina ritrova negli altri uomini il riflesso del suo io spezzato che però non le corrisponde mai esattamente.

I often find parallels between what I'm reading and what I'm watching and with A Spy in the House of Love I find an affinity between the book and a film, Dark City if that film were told from the point of view of John's "wife" and I also see an affinity with the anime series, Serial Experiements Lain. In all three cases they are stories of women struggling to find themselves among the artifice in which they live, whether it is self created or created by others. To put in terms the book uses, Sabina is like Duchamp's painting of Nude Descending a Staircase; she is a series of frames, a moment of action captured on canvas, but not a single destilled representation of that woman. No one will know what that woman looked like but they will show more know how she walked down the steps.

Sabina has memories of past loves, past adventures, past meetings but so current feeling of who she is. She is a name. She has a husband who loves her dearly but she is constantly running from him looking for love among her artist friends. There is also clearly a strong note of autobiography in the last third of the book where Sabina meets up with the artist's enclave in New York and that gives this otherwise sensuous tale a note of sadness. show less

Anais Nin in an “iridescent” fashion describes the immense guilt an affluent woman in a post-WWII man's world must endure. Posing as many people and taking on new roles to fulfill this obligation, reading house of love is like sauntering through promiscuity. Most likely why so many musicians were taken by the book, namely the Lizard King himself who made a pansy out of Dionysus, Mr. Jim Morrison. Born ten years earlier, the two would have pulsatile lovers.

[i] "The new self she offered him, created for him, appeared intensely innocent, newer than any young girl could have been, because it was like a pure abstraction of a woman, an idealized figure, not born of what she was, but of his wish and hers. She even altered her rhythm for show more him, surrendered her heavy restless gestures, her liking for large objects, large rooms, for timelessness, for caprice and sudden actions. Even her hands which were sturdy, for his sake rested more gently upon objects around her." [/i]

If this reads like a new-age romantic novel, you're probably right, it just might be that but the opening paragraph about surveillance and the desire of a criminal to be caught intrigued me.
A Spy is a constant reminder of a woman's "flirtation with justice," the ultimate neuroerotica tale for those of us who want absolute autonomy and don't understand sexual monotony. Or, as Nin would say, "a joyous, joyous, joyous, joyous impaling of a woman on man's sensual mast." show less

This book was written in the late 1950s and I can understand why it must have been quite shocking at the time. I also believe it stands the test of time well....maybe not shocking any more, but still a story that is relevant today.

Sabina is married to Alan. She loves him and feels protected and loved in their relationship. She is, however, compelled to fall in love with strangers and has a series of affairs. In each one, she becomes a different person. She takes on roles to give her partners what they need or want from her. She lives with feelings of guilt and remains restless and unfulfilled.

The book explores Sabina's thoughts and feelings. It is sensuous, interesting and ultimately, sad. I subtracted half a star because the last show more paragraph didn't make sense to me. show less

Sabina is married to an average great guy but she is restless and seeking meaning and identity. Her husband thinks she is in the theater which requires her to be away from home a lot. In reality, this is a cover for a secret life where Sabina roams the streets and jumps from love affair to love affair. Which each lover she learns a little more about herself. Juxtaposed with Sabina's need to roam both lovers and the city is her deep need for her husband and the routine, comfort and regularity the relationship brings. She partly lives in the tension between her forays with others and the need to keep her secrets hidden so that her marriage stays together.

I was enthralled by Nin when I was a young, self consciously poetic college girl (we hadn't quite yet insisted that we were women, that came a year or two later). And I devoured her novels, slender and self consciously poetic things that they were, and her many, many diaries, with their poignant narcissism. Of the novels I think this is my favorite, or was, as I strolled the back alleys of Venice, forever in love and forever sad.

I picked this up as I am going through a feminist classic lit phase. I have to say I don't think this qualifies as either classic or feminist.
While it may have been socially shocking at the time to write about women who have affairs and like sex, I found it neither shocking nor particularly sexually explicit.
It is the story of a woman searching for passion and acceptance - the trouble is she cannot seem to accept her own actions and is plagued by guilt for both the betrayal of her long term lover (husband?) and her inability to give her lovers the commitment or other emotional support they want.
The presence of the "Lie Detector" speaks about that guilt manifesting in a mental breakdown.
I found this story to be more about mental show more health than sexual licence.
The language used in the story created another barrier to understanding to me - there were so many references to poetry, musical styles and (what I am assuming were) 1950's/american cultural icons that I frequently had to re-read or stop and look up words / people/ places so I could understand how they related to what was going on.
I'm sure this will remain a literary classic for its poetic language and descriptive prowess( it seems to be just the hard to read nonsense the literati love, but I'm not sure it holds feminist and / or shock value in a post Sex and the City world. show less