From Library Journal
The wacky manic collectors in this raunchy little novel, first published in Great Britain in 1991, collect all manner of things: bad jokes; unrelated bits of ency-clopedic minutiae; sounds, including sexual indelicacies and death rattles; imaginary beer cans; women's knickers; classic cars, and the men who collect classic cars. The narrator, Steve Geddes, is a writer doing a book on collectors, especially those with "unlikely, bizarre, or exceptionally useless collections." His research leads him to the Havergals, a wealthy, eccentric couple. They "collect people"; that is, she does the "collecting" while he watches-"a bout of troilism," as Geddes calls it. By accident, Geddes learns that reclusive "cult author" Thornton McCain may have written a book that Geddes hasn't heard of. Geddes the observer becomes both obsessed collector and, for the randy Havergals, object to be collected. An insightful delight from start to finish; recommended for all fiction collections.

The narrator of this sometimes humorous and very quirky novel is Steve Geddes, an author who has been commissioned to write a book about collectors. But Geddes really is not interested in collecting and has a hard time continuing with the project. "I thought the collecting instinct was a form of grasping covetousness. People owned collections in order to experience the dubious pleasures of ownership. What were these pleasures? What pleasure came from owning, say, ten Faberge eggs, as opposed to only owning five? Then there were all those collections that somehow missed the point. People collected toys that couldn't be played with, plates that couldn't be eaten from, jewellery that couldn't be worn. That was insane!..." Anyway, his research leads him to a rather eccentric group including Victoria who collects lovers, Jim who tries to amass knowledge by memorizing a rather bizarre encyclopedia called The Books of Power, a collector of beer cans who may or may not actually have a collection, a collector of weird sounds, etc. All of this seems to be tied together by an obscure author named Thornton McCain who Steve sets out in search of including a mysterious novel that is mentioned in The Books of Power but may not actually exist.

I have read a couple of other novels by Nicholson: THE FOOD CHAIN and WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAYS. Both of these were also quite quirky but entertaining. HUNTERS AND GATHERERS was also clever and quite entertaining and I would mildly recommend it. Nicholson's writing also reminds me a little of Kurt Vonnegut who is one of my favorites.

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Read as part of the Oldest TBR Read and Release Challenge 2018.

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