the toy collector

i reread The Toy Collector by James Gunn over the weekend. i needed something i could count on to restore my love for good story-telling after the bitter taste of that other book.

this book is full of nostalgia. not that sappy, sentimental nostalgia, but that stinging sadness of trying to hold on to a life and time you know is slipping from your grasp. it's about the forged friendships of your youth, the indestructible connectedness between playmates who served as a surrogate family.

there's beauty in loss. there's rage born from impossibly tender innocence. there's savage and sadistic wit to enlighten achingly raw vulnerability.

it's so precious with its heartache and humor, i hate closing on its pages.