Customer Reviews

The Toy Collector

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I dont often write reviews for websites, in fact this is the first time i am doing so, however i feel that this novel deserves my praise. A friend passed it along to me and i enjoyed it so much that i inhaled it in one night and then read it again, but more methodically over the next few days. I dont want to beat a dead horse and say that it was a brilliant tragicomedy unlike anything else i've read, but it was, so much in fact that i bought five copies and passed them out to my friends. All of them loved it and one of them bought five copies and passed them out to his friends. Lets hope for a follow-up book from a very, very promising author.

Hilariously bleak and brutally sentimental, "The Toy Collector" does us all the favor of presenting the life of a modern-day screw-up in all its beauty, horror, humor and pathos without falling into the usual traps of preaching or overly glamorizing the protagonist's 'outsider' status. Honest, unflinching and deeply funny, you'll cringe and giggle the whole book through. Also, it has robots.

People have always told me never to judge a book by it's cover, but honestly that's the only reason I bought and read The Toy Collector and because an instant James Gunn fan. I'd never heard of the author till I saw his off-the-wall cover staring at me in the new paperback section of the bookstore.

His seamless transitions from chapter to chapter, from childhood to adulthood, from the real world to the toy world, from ultra-sexual to ultra-violent to ultra-sentimental kept me on my toes and engrossed from cover to cover. And amongst the chaos comes out some of the most beautifully thoughtful passages I've read all year.

Young James Gunn has just released this, his debut novel following his stellar work on All I Ever Needed To Know About Filmmaking I Learned From The Toxic Avenger. This story is alternately hilarious and harrowing, depressing and transcendent. It would make a great film, especially if they did some Toy Story-style animation for the apocalyptic action figure battle the agonized protagonist wages as a child. The best part is that it doesn't cop out with a easy redemption for our hero (also named James Gunn) at the end; he's still ....done. James Gunn, you're no flesh robot.

I loved The Toy Collector. It was better than Cats. It's at once affecting and funny and heartbreakingly sad. And completely unputdownable. Not to mention it's got one of the best first sentences in a novel that I've read in a long, long time.

James Gunn is a master writer who connects emotion and plot in a brilliant way. The novel elicits a reaction that begins at emotional imagery, veers into thought, and ends up touching your soul. This book is indispensable.

I raced through this novel. Couldn't put it down. I felt like one of the female characters in the book that falls in love with the sad and lonely misfit James Gunn. I couldn't get him out of my heart. Even when he is totally self-absorbed and abusive. Even when he sells drugs to finance his obsession with antique toys. Even when he begs to get the love of his life back, promises to get clean and then cheats again and again. This book is dark and hilarious. I loved the flashbacks to James' youth: The part when he is locked in a camper with the older and sexually aggressive daughter of his parents' mutual friends. The story of how he and the other neighborhood kids plan to run away and their adventures at the airport.

There is lots more but I'd hate to ruin it. This was my favorite book of the year.