Essay Questions

Why does Anais grow tired of Henry Miller as a lover?

To be fair to Miller, he was not the only lover whom Anais grew bored with fairly quickly. She had an insatiable appetite for being loved and however many men she was involved with there never seemed to be enough love to assuage her incredible need. When she first meets Henry and his wife, June, she becomes fascinated by them as a couple. She then becomes fascinated with the idea of Henry choosing her over his wife. Their affair begins whilst June is in New York and they are able to spend as much time together as they want. As the affair continues, she does not tire of him as a writer, but becomes more jaded by the man himself.

Anais begins to find Henry increasingly irascible, emotionally erratic, and downright egotistical. These are not attractive qualities and so her obsession with him begins to wane. However, this is not entirely due to Henry's difficult personality. Anais is also very difficult to have a relationship with because no amount of love is ever enough for her. Like all of her lovers before - and after - him, Henry becomes boring to Anais, and her passion for him quickly fizzles.

Although the first volume of Anais' diaries is based in pre-war Paris, there is barely any mention of the war itself. Why is this?

Today, Anais would be considered socially and politically tone deaf. The war was what happened to other people; to the little people above whom she considered herself both socially and intellectually. The war was not mentioned in the diaries because as far as Anais was concerned, it was but a footnote in her life. Paris was hugely affected by the upcoming war, but it was also a place where the Golden Age was still bright and shiny, and where those who were revered in the arts could live above what was happening, by becoming a collaborator, just like Coco Chanel and Maurice Chevallier, or by living the high life and schmoozing politicians or those in power. This is the route that Anais decided to take.

When war was declared, and austerity was inevitable, Anais left Paris for America, and never returned.

How did Anais' relationship with her father affect her life and her relationships with other men?

Anais' relationship with her father was deeply disturbing, and all the more disturbing because she saw it as a romance rather than an example of incestuous abuse. Their sexual relationship endured, but Anais did not consider herself a victim of sexual abuse. She considered herself a willing participant, a sexual experimenter, an equal. She called their sexual activities "love making" rather than rape or abuse. Anais felt that she was in a romantic relationship with an older man to whom she was definitely attracted. She considered her father one of her lovers, not an abusive parent. The relationship actually makes her feel as though she is redressing the balance of power between them in some way.

Anais was never ashamed of the sexual encounters with her father. She admits in the diaries to enjoying them. Another of her lovers suggests that she have sex with her father and then dump him brutally afterwards to get revenge on him for leaving her so brutally as a child. This suggest that she has been deeply affected, and emotionally broken, by his abandonment and his absence, and that she feels having the upper hand in her relationship with him now is somehow going to avenge that. When they begin to sleep together she believes that it is a sign of his love, because to Anais, sex and love are the same thing. However, her father's abandonment of her is the root of her insatiable need for love, and the reason for her feeling that there is never enough.