From Publishers Weekly
Though Alfred Kinsey has been in the spotlight recently, collectors of sex-related objects generally receive little attention, perhaps because they tend to be secretive, and virtually anything can be erotic to someone. Nicholson, author of 13 novels including the Whitbread-shortlisted
Bleeding London, defines "sex collector" so broadly that he includes those who collect printed material, art, films, sex toys and even fingernail extensions and Lotus shoes, worn by Chinese women with bound feet. Many readers will be happy to accompany Nicholson on his visits to various collectors, famous and not. In Florida, he finds a grandmother with a $5 million erotica collection, whereas in Paris, he tries to convince Catherine Millet, author of
The Sexual Life of Catherine M., that she is indeed a collector of erotic adventures. But serious erotologists may find this book dilettantish: sparsely illustrated with black and white photos and lacking an index and a list of collectors, dealers, museums and other resources. Nicholson is aware of these shortcomings: "I know it's partial, prejudiced, incomplete.... Exactly like any other collection. It's easy to imagine bigger, better, more inclusive, more gaudy collections. The only problem: they wouldn't be mine." 15 b&w photos
. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
In his exploration of the collecting of sexually oriented materials, Nicholson devotes much verbiage early on to a disquisition on what constitutes a sex collection and what constitutes and motivates collecting. His most useful conclusion is that there's a difference between commissioning and acquiring for one's collection. So much for salad. The meat here consists of describing various collections and interviewing the people who have accumulated them. Many interviewees possess sprawling arrays of visual art or printed works of the "A Man and His Maid" genre. One who doesn't is art critic Catherine Millet, author of
La vie sexuelle de Catherine M. (2001), who has collected sexual experiences rather than art. Other highlights include a discussion of whether the Vatican really secretly houses the world's largest collection of pornographic materials, the enumeration of interesting Web sites like Captain Cum and blogs like Librarygirl, and a mention of the initial feedback to Anais Nin's early attempts to create erotic writings for Henry Miller's erstwhile sponsor: "Leave out the poetry."
Mike TribbyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
