Ladders of Fire by Anais Nin

 This short novel is collected in a volume with four others, the collection entitled Cities of the Interior. This first one is brief, 128 pages.

This first one introduced four characters.

This is not a plot heavy, hero’s or heroine’s journey through conflict story. This is not the aim of this type of work. The bohemian characters float in and out of one another’s lives in the organic way of reality without the artifice of dramatic events to build a story around.
Life is not made of dramatic events. In this way the novel is deeply realistic as it drifts through the dream-like interior world of the characters, the women characters.

It centers on three of them Lillian, Djuna, and Sabina. We look inside them. They react to exterior male characters Gerard and Jay. we don’t go inside Gerard and Jay. He hear about what they do, what the women think and feel about their behavior but not of their thoughts or feelings. This is not a flaw in the book, but it is a fact of its style and approach. This is a woman’s novel and boldly so.

Lillian is married to Gerard in the beginning and she, they, have children.
Nin presents possible plot drama in the relationship of Lillian and Gerard, but instead of bringing us directly into the dramatic story of their relationship and breakup, we overhear Lillian telling Djuna that they split because she expressed her feelings, what was inside her, and it is left at that. Gerard and the children are forgotten, dropped away, with a sort of bohemian ruthlessness that we might only expect men of that time or any time to selfishly manifest.

Next we meet Jay, he is a painter. Lillian is a pianist. Jay is presented as a wild spirited artist. He consumes the world and those in it with a type of infection exuberance. Soon Lillian and Jay seem to be cohabitating.

Jay being wild brings Sabina into the situation.
Sabina is another bohemian, with disregard for even how she dresses, presents herself. This is indicative of her wild free spirit. Sebina is a match for Jay as a bold assertive lover, one who goes after what she wants and drops them when she is satiated.
Sabina and Lillian have a scene together. What really goes on there we are partly left to imagine.

It all ends in a party scene.
This is an interesting read for people who want uniquely approached character studies in their social settings.