A Spy in the House of Love by Anais Nin: book review

A Spy in the House of Love (2001) is set in New York.

A man, whose profession is a ‘lie detector’ meets Sabina in a New York bar: ‘she could not keep still. She talked profusely and continuously ... Inner chaos, like those secret volcanoes which suddenly lift the neat furrows of a peacefully ploughed field, awaited behind all disorders of face, hair and costume, for a fissure through which to explode.’ Sabina was wearing a cape, with ‘the toreador’s provocative flings.’

Thirty year old Sabina was married to calm, 35-year-old Alan, but she was bored and not faithful. She confesses to a stranger – the ‘lie detector.’ She is restless, and relentlessly seeks adventures outside her marriage. She wants to be somewhere else. She wants to be in Paris.

She describes herself as an international spy in the house of love. She has every intention of maintining her infidelities without consequence. But is this possible?

Sabina has lots of stories from around the world, stories of brief encounters with strangers and almost-strangers. ‘Certain roads one took emotionally also appeared on the map of the heart as travelling away from the centre, and ultimately leading to exile.’ Even with all of her brief encounters, she feels lonely.

This is a well-written exploratory and reflective passage of writing, and semi-autobiographical, making it personal, poignant, and sad, with its depiction of secrecy, lies, deceit, and unfulfillment.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international human rights, aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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