User:Crucibles of Passion

Crucibles of Passion, an erotic novella, can be described as sui generis, one-of-a-kind, for the select few, among other epithets. It has little plot, is picaresque in nature and adheres to no established formula. It resists comparison with other erotic works, except in the citation of it belonging to the confessional literary genre of authors like Frank Harris ("My Life and Loves") and Henry Miller ("Tropic of Cancer"). It relates the very personal adventures of Sid Fletcher, a sexually repressed and unhappy divorced father of two boys. The beginning of the book sees him leaving Paris where he has tried and failed to live the bohemian life he always aspired to and write the Great American Novel. He declares he has not been true to himself and considers himself a failure.

On the passenger freighter headed towards his home in the USA, he meets three carefree, happy-go-lucky guys who are on a sex tour of the world. They persuade him to join them in the next stop-over in Rome. The time period is the late 1990's.

An added companion, friend of the three original trio, joins the men in Rome. They witness and participate in several unbridled sexual experiences. Sid gradually grows disenchanted with the sexcapades of his buddies, and decides to travel alone to Japan to escape. For he is not only a sexual seeker, but also a spiritual one. In a passage from the book, he explains: "They (women) all look alike with their heads slung back in passion. It could be Marilyn or Cleopatra or the 19-year-old next door. So what difference does it make? And afterwards you want to be alone because something else is gnawing at you: the meaning of life."

Between visits to whorehouses and the practice of Zen, he meets a paralysed Japanese man who hires him to impregnate his wife. It is here in Japan that Sid finds a certain direction and purpose to his life, and eventually marries a Malaysian girl, twenty years his junior.

This well-written and intriguing work covers taboo subjects like menstruation, pedophilia, geriatric sex, bestiality, urolagnia and kinky personal fetishes of the narrator.

First published in 2000 in a privately printed edition by the author, Ronald Jones, it was subsequently published on Kindle in 2009, where it currently is available..

Despite its bold erotic content and unique take on the confessional memoir, it remains relatively obscure and little read, a neglected classic in the history of erotic literature.