In Search of the Hermaphrodite: A Memoir
The quest romance is at its best when the outward journey reflects the seeker's inner landscape, and even better when it is rooted in a reality we can relate to, as it is in Richard Collins's memoir, In Search of the Hermaphrodite. As a young Fulbright scholar, the author set out to do academic research in the libraries and museums of Britain and Europe. Forty years later, the author, like Proust, goes in search of the time lost during that unfinished project. His research subject had ostensibly been the figure of the hermaphrodite in art and literature; however, in the pubs and bedrooms of Europe, he comes to discover a world of love and longing beyond art, so that it becomes obvious that the real object of his obscure desire is to be found within himself.
The romance of this quest takes a picaresque turn because this is no story of medieval errant knighthood but rather the confessions of a flawed and erring narrator firmly and frankly exploring the sensuous reality of the here and now. The book's generous illustrations give readers a taste of the wide range of art and literature, ancient and modern, that guides the author in his quest-not for a holy grail or a philosopher's stone-but for the meaning of a life thoroughly and truthfully examined from every angle-intellectually, sexually, and spiritually. Erudite without pedantry, Collins's search for the hermaphrodite is as entertaining as it is enlightening.
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"The author's amazing memory-gallery of femmes dances in the sky like le can-can over Toulouse's head as he painted them . . . sexcapades that are not tawdry, more like a ballet, so dancerly. What Flaubert said about Emma Bovary ("C'est moi"), Collins could say about his search for the hermaphrodite in museums and libraries (and boudoirs) where he absorbed, merged with, became one with those lovely, mythological-in-their-own-early-'80s-time-and-space modern living and breathing glorious goddesses galore . . . a fabulous fun read and fascinating erudite picaresque romp."
- Joan Jobe Smith, author of Charles Bukowski Epic Glottis: His Art & His Women (& me) and Tales of an Ancient Go-go Girl
"Richard Collins's engaging memoir won me over. Ingeniously written, rich in imagery, metaphors, and literary allusions, the author mixes memories of his youthful sex life with scholarly meditations on the nonbinary, androgynous, the in-between. A colorful cast of characters, in a variety of European cities, accompanies him on his journey. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip."
- Steven Moore, author of The Novel: An Alternative History
"In In Search of the Hermaphrodite, memoir and scholarship melt into each other in a kind of literary beast with two backs. Or more. For the deeper the narrative penetrates into the personal, rational, emotional, aesthetic, and literary mysteries of erotic life and theory, the stickier the subject matter itself seems. Which is just the way we all like it, whether we admit it or not. Every angle from which Richard Collins approaches the theories of his erotic life is a rush of a different kind. Henry Miller would have loved this book."
- Dana Wilde, author of Winter: Notes and Numina from the Maine Woods
"I read this book almost in one go while listening to Handel's Julius Caesar. And it worked perfectly because the book is like an opera. A dramatic performance. Yet so intimate. Sung with hand on heart. And the final pages about writing, the why of it all, is majestically well said: the author afraid he would never finish telling the story but also afraid that he would finish it and that the hallucinations of memory would cease. But most of all, whenever I think about this book, I break out in jolly laughter."
- Philippe Coupey, author of Zen Fragments: Teachings and Recollections of a Zen Monk in Paris
