Anaïs Again
Review of the Fantagraphics hardcover edition (2023) translated by Jenna Allen from the French language original "Anaïs Nin - Sur la mer des mensonges" (2020), a graphic novel adaptation of "Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love": The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1931-1932" (1986) and "Incest: From "A Journal of Love": The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1932-1934" (1992).

I read the French language original back in 2021 and reviewed it (in English) as On the Sea of Lies. This was a re-read which confirmed my initial impression that the art work in both its design and detail is exquisite and its methods of telling the story are well chosen.

I'm not going to repeat the earlier review here, but am including the related extra links posted in 2021 below.

Trivia and Links
The Fantagraphics website for the English language book does not provide any preview pages, but you can view the first 5 pages of the original French language graphic novel at the publisher Casterman's official page for the book here.

Author/artist Léonie Bischoff is interviewed about the original French language edition Anaïs Nin: sur la mer des mensonges at a YouTube video here (the video is in French, but you can autogenerate subtitle translation in various languages, including English).

Author/artist Léonie Bischoff discusses her interest in Anaïs Nin and demonstrates her drawing with a head portrait at a YouTube video here (the video is in French, but you can autogenerate subtitle translation in various languages, including English). ( )

Intense and sexy. Exquisite four-color colored pencil illustration. ( )

Tiraillée entre la fidélité à son mari banquier et son attirance pour Henry Miller et June, son prof de danse, un cousin, ses psys, son père, ses fantasmes… Anaïs se cherche, se découvre…

Un dessin magnifique qui exprime bien plus qu’un texte ne l’aurait pu, on découvre une Anaïs double, fragmentée, indécise, perdue, créative, torturée, artiste, culpabilisée, aimante, amante qui se cherche sans jamais parvenir à trouver celle qui se reflète dans son miroir. Mais aussi, une autrice infatigable qui ne cesse d’écrire dans son (ses) journal.

Une bande dessinée fascinante, superbe, onirique et sensuelle ( )

On the Sea of Lies
Review of the Casterman original French language paperback edition (2020) of a graphic novel adaptation of "Henry and June: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1931-1932" (1986) and "Incest: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1932-1934" (1992)

In the early 1930s, Anaïs Nin lives in the Parisian suburbs and struggles with the anguish of her life as a banker's wife. Several times uprooted, she grew up between two continents, in three languages, and struggles to find her place in a society which relegates women to supporting roles. She wants to be a writer, and since childhood has invented a loophole: her diary. It is her drug, her companion, her double, the one who allows her to explore the complexity of her feelings and to perceive the sensuality that simmers within her. It was then that she met Henry Miller, a revelation that proved to be the first step towards a great upheaval. - translation of the French language synopsis.

Although my French is very basic, it is good enough for reading books on subjects about which I already have a large amount of previous knowledge, such as Julien Teyssandier's travel/music non-fiction Arvo Pärt (2017) and Philippe Girard's graphic novel Leonard Cohen. Sur un fil (2021). It was while I was browsing the webpages of Girard's Belgian/French publisher Casterman that I noticed Bischoff's graphic novel and that it had won the 2021 Audience Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.

In the case of Anaïs Nin, I didn't have that much familiarity. I only knew her from the Philip Kaufman film Henry and June (1990) and from having the 1989 Harcourt paperback edition of its source book (which I suspect that I didn't actually finish reading at the time, as it seemed too tedious). I now re-read the book in parallel with the graphic novel.

Regardless of one's belief in the truthfulness of Nin's diary (I'm particularly doubtful about the paternal incest parts (yech!), and suspect some Freudian fantasy fulfillment about the father who was mostly absent from her life), there is no doubting the beauty of Bischoff's art work which explores Nin's life and her adventurous sexual world. The real and/or imagined lovers range from the husband Hugo Guiler, writer Henry Miller and his wife June Miller, her father Joaquín Nin, her cousin Eduardo, her dance teacher Francisco Miralles Arnau and two psychoanalysts: René Félix Allendy and Otto Rank.

The beauty and variety of the art pages for the love scenes are particularly well done and range from flowers and butterflies themes for passionate encounters to a black background and "black light" neon lines to heighten the darkness in the "incest" scene. The graphic novel concludes with the celebratory air of the first publication of Henry Miller's notorious Tropic of Cancer (1934), which was funded by Nin. There is a cameo appearance by writer Lawrence Durrell at the end as well.

This is an outstanding graphic novel by Léonie Bischoff and it will be interesting to see what her future works will be. There are further diaries by Nin, but I suspect that Sur la mer des mensonges has already covered the most dramatic part of her life quite thoroughly.

Trivia and Links
You can view the first 5 pages of the graphic novel at the publisher Casterman's official page for the book here.

Author/artist Léonie Bischoff is interviewed about Anaïs Nin: sur la mer des mensonges at a YouTube video here (video is in French, but you can autogenerate subtitle translation in various languages, including English).

Author/artist Léonie Bischoff discusses her interest in Anaïs Nin and demonstrates her drawing with a head portrait at a YouTube video here (video is in French, but you can autogenerate subtitle translation in various languages, including English). ( )

Anaïs Nin. Op een zee van leugens. Door Léonie Bischoff.

Anaïs Nin kende ik al, een beetje, wie niet? Maar Léonie kende ik nog niet, blij dat daar verandering in is gekomen. Haar striproman over het leven van dagboek- en romanschrijfster Nin is prachtig! In een wervelende, kleurrijke, poëtische en sensuele stijl weet zij de essentie van Nin en haar leven in prachtige veelkleurige potloodtekeningen treffend weer te geven.

Anaïs worstelt met haar identiteit als vrouw; ze wil schrijven als een vrouw, liefhebben zonder grenzen en bovenal zijn wie ze diep vanbinnen is. Maar ze leeft in een tijdperk waarin een vrouw zich moet schikken en braaf en stil zijn.

Ze heeft 2 dagboeken en die dualiteit zet zich door in haar echte leven. Bij de ene persoon is ze zus, bij de andere zo. En soms komen haar twee kanten in conflict; Bischoff weet die worsteling raak weer te geven. Met haar kleurrijke beelden kan zij Nin tot diep in haar kern raken en die voor ons tot leven brengen. Met enkel woorden had het effect nooit zo groots kunnen zijn.

Ik heb enorm traag gelezen, om van elke minuut, elke pagina, elke prent ten volle kunnen genieten en ik heb zin om weer van voor af aan te beginnen. De laatste tijd las ik wel vaker biografieën in striproman-vorm, het medium leent zich er uitstekend voor. Ik las ook al vaker graphic novels van vrouwen en vond ze bijna allemaal geweldig. En toch steekt Léonie er bovenuit, ik ben fan! ( )