John Colleton (1907–1993)

This book marks the first time I've been able to read one of the fourteen Cloris & Amy books of John Colleton following on its immediate predecessor (The Delights of Anna, in this case). I was surprised to find that the narrator had changed! The other books I've read all had Bill Benton--actually absent and only occasionally mentioned here--as the narrator. This book is "written by" John Dellmore in the way that the others I've read have been by Bill. Other than a brief detour to New York City, it takes place entirely in Charleston, and it is centered on John's relationship to his aunt Amy. John is back from Oxford and about to embark on an unpromising academic career, but he is drawn into the "charmed circle" of Amy, Cloris, and their lucrative and lubricious projects.

The story proceeds with the help of many embedded texts, primarily Amy's diary, in which the reader is offered the frisson of seeing through John's eyes Amy's private accounts of her early encounters with him, as he both indulges his own curiosity and uses the content as material for a screenplay. The screenplay draft itself is another component. There is also a snippet from a Bill Benton book (one of the other Cloris & Amy novels?) and various pieces of media reportage. Colleton flaunts some esoteric erudition with throwaway references to the Hashishin and Jakob Boehme in rather surreal news reports (214, 218).

Colleton succeeds in giving John a different voice than Bill, and I think I preferred it on the whole. John is conscious of his own unfortunate tendency towards dry academicism and defeats it fairly well. This younger narrator is however no less preternaturally fortunate in winning the attentions and affections of the women in the story. The eponymous Cindy is a former competitive diver and Las Vegas dancer who is being groomed as a candidate for public office, but she doesn't even get a mention until past the midpoint of the novel. As is typical for these books, a subplot (superplot?) makes hay out of moral hypocrisy in politics, and the ending is comedic with some incidental violence helping to tie up the loose ends. Published in 1981, it definitely reflects the US culture of its time on a variety of levels.… (més)

This eleventh installment of the 14-book "John Colleton" series of erotic pseudo-memoirs has for its settings Charleston, Madrid, and Rome. I've previously read only the second and the seventh books, which made the early chapters of this one a little bewildering for me. They do take for granted a fair amount of prior character relationships, and narrator Beauregard "Bill" Benton seems disinclined to supply context rather than witticisms. He does occasionally fill in details retrospectively--often with block text that looks like it might be quoting earlier books.

This short book is not psychologically profound, nor morally responsible. In The Pleasures of Cloris, Bill had already shown a lack of confidence in his abilities as a writer, and that note is sustained here, nine books later. In addition, he declares, "As must be evident by now, I am not comfortable with myself. I am bothered always by conflicting loyalties, mixed emotions, mixed emissions" (127). I can't say that I judge his adventures admirable, but I do find them entertaining.… (més)

The Italian geography of this debauched little novel isn't the only thing that reminded me of Casanova's memoirs, but our protagonist Bill is the patient rather than the agent of this book's principal seductions. Only in the surprisingly plot-loaded finale does he take significant initiative (quietly, even so); otherwise, Cloris leads the dances.

Erotic cinematography is a chief cultural concern of the book. There are some curious allusions to esotericism, such as a quick pair of references to Pico and Plethon (128, 130), and Lord Cholmondeley's duties with the Knights of Malta.

The quasi-autobiographical tenor of the book involves a lot of authorial introspection. Bill often mentions his anxiety that he wasn't writing about his adventures, or observing them astutely enough to write about them later. But the novel is full of dry wit along with the wet sex, and the pacing is both relaxed and inviting, even with troubles shadowing the main characters.… (més)

John Colleton was the nom-de-plume that Robert W Marks adopted for the sequence of fourteen erotic paperback novels he published late in his life. ‘The Delights of Anna’ is the eleventh book of the sequence. The books are partly erudite and witty travelogues expressing the author’s love of Italy and Spain, amongst other European countries, and of South Carolina, where much of the action takes place, and partly erotic accounts of the art film industry in the 1970s. Many of the characters resemble real movie stars such as Sophia Loren, and the erotic undertones appear to suggest involvement of the author in unconventional multiple-partner liaisons. Much is also made of the difficulties encountered by an author in maintaining a tasteful erotic influence throughout a sequence of novels. The plots of the sequence are strongly linked and related via common characters, locations and motivations, and this example describes the first unsuccessful attempt at a new approach to a well-worn movie subject, including a temperamental Italian actress who has mafia and other sinister connections. As an erotic novel it is perhaps less inspired than its predecessors, but it is still an entertaining read.… (més)