Book Review: "Anima" by Marie Buchanan

Anima by Marie Buchanan (or published as "Greenshards" in 1972) is a very creepy book; fascinating in a multitude of odd, subtle ways ( the kind of thing that fascinates me). Well, maybe creepy isn't the right word, eerily mysterious maybe. Anima translates roughly into the spirit, or 'animus' the unconscious mind or the will of the spirit or super-conscious.

Anyways in addition to the story itself what's strange is that when I first found the book and started reading it (more than 10 years ago, I just finally picked it up again and finished it recently) my good friend who had moved out-of-state told me on the phone one day that he also had picked up the book and was reading it. Which was wierd because it was spontaneous - it's not like I told him to read it he also happened to have found it (its a somewhat obscure book from 1972) and picked it up. (Well I guess the band Tool's album Ænima was big in our minds at that time, which the book made us think of obviously , so maybe its not too strange).

Back to the book itself. It takes place in the English countryside with two couples and a nanny as the main characters. One house is owned by Megan and her husband, with his sister Olive living there as the keeper of the house/nanny. The other house is called Greenshards and it's where Olive and her brother lived as children.  The husband living in Greenshards is much older than his wife, and compared to old photographs, Megan doesn't think it's the same woman at all (because she's still young looking). The mysterious older gentleman seduces Olive (or vice-versa decide for yourself) and a strange set of events ensues.

It's hard to nail down what Anima is about exactly, but that won't stop me from trying. It's about the power of the mind, the power of the will, the will of the spirit and the malleabality of everything you think you know around you. The couples hold séances at Greenshards during which Olive becomes entranced, but the real plot (without giving too much away) is the battle of willpower occurring between the mysterious gentleman and Olive and also the battle of will between herself and her own anima. The second half of the book is told through Megan finding Olive's diary and creates as many questions about the whole thing than it answers.

The question becomes - who is manipulating who? What is it that everyone is after exactly? and even - whose spirit is in what body? Mysterious and intriguing on many levels - Anima is a short but powerful book that challenged me to relook at the world in ways I hadn't done since I was a child. A very mystical, intuitive work that evokes one to examine the spiritual nature of reality (not faith, but the realness of the spirit), and of the power of intention and will.