The Toy Collector [Hardcover]

James Gunn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2000

A tragicomic novel about nostalgia, addiction, and 1970s action figures. The Toy Collector is a wickedly funny portrait of a young man who sells stolen pharmaceuticals to finance his growing addiction to memorabilia. An orderly at a Times Square hospital, James Gunn (also the protagonist's name) buys his toys at exorbitant prices, searching the familiar tacky plastic for his childhood dreams in a perverse effort to avoid adulthood. As the story switches from the make-believe world he creates with his childhood friends-populated by Scrunch-Em, Grow-Em Dinosaurs and toy robots-to the grown-up pleasures of sex, drugs and alcohol, James falls in and out of love, and stumbles through New York City in search of dubious redemption. At once raucous, sentimental, and hilarious, The Toy Collector is a novel about the lasting strength of childhood, the responsibilities of adulthood, and the repercussions of a generation nursed on TV shows and action figures.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the summer of 1995, a 25-year-old orderly named James Gunn starts pilfering drugs from New York City's Saint Dominic's Hospital to finance his addiction to buying the retro toys he loved while growing up in St. Louis. When he's not on one of his frequent, blind-drunk benders, having sloppy sex with random women, Jimmy basks in the magnificence of Charlie Barlow's antique toy store, where he spends thousands of dollars on TV paraphernalia, action figures, robots and games, in an attempt to recapture the few moments of beauty in his mostly horrifying childhood. Jimmy and his younger brother, Tar, survived delusional parents, cruel peers and the suicide of one of their friends by sticking together, with creative violence and wit. Those moments, sensitively told in flashback without the burden of sentimentality, often involved the boys' favorite toys, like Scrunch 'Em, Grow 'Em Dinosaurs. His pack growing up included Tar; Gary Bauer, the awkward misfit; and Nancy Zoomis, who played "I'll show you mine" with Jimmy. As the Gunn brothers matured, Tar became responsible and respectable, able to cope with his rage and bitterness about his parents and about society. But Jimmy is still an immature wastrel, who gets blotto daily and has tantrums that ruin his intimate relationships. As Jimmy attempts to heal old wounds by recollecting his painful past, he must face what his toy collection represents: a nostalgic coverup for his life's disappointments, a "longing for innocence" to quell his "rage and sadness." Author Gunn succeeds at the tough task of making Jimmy an engaging protagonist, and the hero is indeed alive, pathetic and witty. Readers will root for this outrageous loser because Gunn has given him a hilarious personality that shines through his misery and despair. (May) FYI: Gunn wrote the script for the forthcoming movie, The Specials, and stars in the film along with his brother, the actor Sean Gunn.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Children of the 1970s were raised in day care and weaned on television, but what really distinguishes that generation from earlier ones is toys--they eschewed sports and games for a multitude of rubber and plastic alter egos. Surrounded by such icons of consumer culture, Gunn, in his first novel, introduces a fictional James Gunn, a 20-something college dropout, fluctuating between childhood, adolescence, and adulthood while working as a hospital orderly in New York City. Bill, his dissolute coworker, gets James hooked on collecting toys from their childhood, now pricey collectibles. With the aid of a gullible pharmacist, the pair sell drugs from the hospital to fund their habit. Their world is a tragicomic nightmare reminiscent of Samuel Beckett. The two stumble through life in a haze of pills and booze, waiting for redemption and going nowhere. The toys reunite James with his childhood fantasy world where he escaped his dysfunctional family with his brother Tar and friends Nancy and Gary. Gunn is a virtuoso prose stylist, alternately funny, tragic, erotic, and violent. Ted Leventhal
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (NY); 1St Edition edition (May 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582340811
• ISBN-13: 978-1582340814
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 8.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #613,055 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Gunn was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. At the age of twelve he began his filmmaking career with an eight-millimeter camera.

Gunn is known primarily as a cult and horror film writer and director, having written 2004's "re-imagined" Dawn of the Dead and written and directed 2006's SLiTHER, two of the most critically acclaimed horror films of the past ten years. SLiTHER, in particular, was named by Rotten Tomatoes as one of the "Top Ten All-Time Best Reviewed Horror Films", it was named "The Best Horror film of 2006" by Rue Morgue Magazine, and James Gunn won a Saturn Award and a Fangoria Chainsaw Award for his work on the film. Gunn's other film work ranges from the cult classics "The Specials" and "Tromeo & Juliet" to mainstream fare such as the live-action Scooby-Doo movie franchise. In 2004, Gunn became the first screenwriter in cinema history to write back-to-back #1-for-the-weekend box office hits, with "Dawn of the Dead" on March 19, 2004 and "Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed" on March 26, 2004.

Gunn has also been a trailblazer in the world of New Media. In 2008, Gunn created XBOX LIVE's first-ever original content, producing seven comedy shows by horror directors, and creating his own, "Sparky and Mikaela." He wrote and directed the mega-hit web series "James Gunn's PG Porn," for Spike.com, which has garnered over ten million views to date. His website, www.jamesgunn.com, is a top destination for lovers of esoteric art, comedy, and music.

Gunn is also a judge and directing mentor on the VH1 reality show SCREAM QUEENS.

Gunn is currently working on an independent movie project with Office star Rainn Wilson. He lives in Los Angeles with his dog, Dr. Wesley Von Spears.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't Put it Down, September 29, 2003

By 

Wes (Carson, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Toy Collector (Hardcover)

I just moved in with some new roommates. When we were unpacking I found The Toy Collector by James Gunn. My new roommate kept insisting it was the best book he had ever read. He went on to say that the book was like a slice of his life and no book had ever spoken to him the way this one had. I started reading and I couldn't put it down. I was a little scared to think that my new roommate was anything like the main character James Gunn but I completely understood when he said that the book spoke to him. The book is funny and heartbreaking and dark and makes you cringe sometimes. It also has a lot of love for humanity. Even the dark places and the people often times overlooked. Thank you for a great book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read. Period., July 27, 2000

By 

S. Atman (Southern California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Toy Collector (Hardcover)

I was cautious about reading this book, having recently bought too many stuffy, boring, and poorly written novels given excellent reviews. But "The Toy Collector" is wonderful. Though the story is like drunken romp through murky alleyways, the author manages to leave a light on.

Everyone I've passed the book along to agrees they can identify with the lead character in one way or another. A beautifully written novel that evokes laughter, guilt, and nostalgia -- emotions that appeal to The Toy Collector in all of us.

Just plain fun.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Toy Collector, September 29, 2002

By 

The Escapement (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Toy Collector (Hardcover)

When I learned about the process of how this book was written, I became relatively sure that James Gunn would either, a] never write another novel, or b] take a REALLY long time for a follow up. On one level I got rather upset, but upon second thought it truly makes The Toy Collector, for lack of a better term, special. James Gunn has made available to the public what appears to be a part fiction, and part non-fiction story that is funny, sad, & flat out brilliant. The humor is scathing, the situations graphic, and the story tragic. This is the best book I have ever read.