I’ve never read another novel like The Collection. The protagonist is filing away mental images of the anonymous sex she is having, and the sex is divorced from any opposing gaze or truly even a presence beyond, well, what the cover suggests, fully centering the female protagonist’s urges and desires in this very wild way. Wow. What an experiment.
— From StephanieWINNER OF THE PRIX ANAIS NIN
Jeanne moves from room to room. In the anonymous hotel bedrooms of Paris - Hotel Agate, Hotel Prince Albert, Hotel Prince Monceau, Hotel Coypel, Hotel Nord & Champagne - she undresses man after man, forgetting faces, names, pleasures, thoughts, and all physical attributes but one. In her head, a palace of memories is being built, image by new image, lover by new lover.
There is no pathologizing Jeanne; she resists it. There is no way to impose a story on Jeanne; she escapes it. There is no pitying Jeanne, no lusting after Jeanne, no uncovering the secret to Jeanne; she won't allow it. Jeanne moves from room to room.