SOURCE: Theroux, Paul. “Very Wayward Miniatures.” Washington Post Book World (26 November 1972): 4.

In the following essay, Theroux discusses Collier's place in literary tradition.

The critical reaction was mixed in 1931 when John Collier's first novel, His Monkey Wife; or, Married to a Chimp, was published by Appleton. Books called it “an extraordinary first novel” and The Boston Evening Transcript said it was “unique and thoroughly entertaining satire.” The Nation regretted that it was not so deft as David Garnett's Lady Into Fox; The New Republic said there was in it “less humor than artifice” and The Spectator concluded that it was “a good dish spoiled in the cooking.” There was, even in the reviewers' praise, a great deal of shy euphemism. But that is understandable—after all, it is the story of a man who copulates with a chimpanzee, and monkeyshines of this sort still have the power to shock...