A review by veryliterary
Ladders to Fire by Anaïs Nin

5.0

Wow! Some of the best prose I’ve read this year. Nin’s writing is emotionally intuitive, raw, and lyrical. I’m enamored by her style and psychological insight. Her writing is so genuine, the interior worlds of her characters so pronounced, it’s as if she were really putting her own emotions and innermost thoughts on the page (she was a diarist after all). She brings these women to life: Ladders to Fire primarily follows 3 women, all of whom are struggling to overcome some sort of emotional inhibition, to truly achieve happiness and self-contentment. She explores their feelings of love, jealousy, guilt, distrust, and fear, as well as their interactions with each other and Jay — a self-indulgent artist entirely concerned with his own fulfillment. I enjoyed the story but, again, her writing stole the show. Experimental and sensitive, I enjoyed how her prose beckoned me to inhabit the minds of her characters, letting me lose myself in their lives and emotional turmoil. I’m very excited to stay with these characters — as this is the first book in Nin’s five-volume roman fleuve, cities of the interior. The next four novels loosely explore and further develop the storylines of these characters as well as some of the themes from this novel.
Can’t wait to read on! Highly recommend this book — a new favorite.

-Read in 2020-