Hunters and Gatherers

by Geoff Nicholson

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 encyclopedic 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.

Genres: Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Geoff Nicholson was a British novelist and nonfiction writer. He was educated at the Universities of Cambridge and Essex.

The main themes and features of his books include leading characters with obsessions, characters with quirky views on life, interweaving storylines and hidden subcultures and societies. His books usually contain a lot of black humour. He has also written three works of nonfiction and some short stories. His novel Bleeding London was shortlisted for the 1997 Whitbread Prize.

Reviews

[Shovelmonkey1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I chose this book pretty much at random. The choice process was the literary equivalent of covering yourself in glue and running through your wardrobe and then wearing whatever sticks. This book was part of a five books for £5 offer at a local book store so in the interest of economy (time and finance) I grabbed five books off the shelf without too much thinking involved.

I did have my head turned slightly by the title as it is semi archaeological ( a large part of my university education involved writing about Epipalaeolithic communities of hunter gatherers; the people who existed, painted caves and chased things across the landscape before we bumbled in with our sedentary farming lifestyle).

This book has absolutely nowt to do with archaeology. The hunters and gatherers in question are people who seek to fill the void in their lives by collecting things; classic cars, beer cans, knowledge, Thornton McCain novels and souvenir underwear belonging to former lays. At first glance, it's not even that obvious that this novel is a novel. For the first ten pages I was wondering if this was some kind of partly fact based research/history style book and that I'd just got the wrong end of the stick and I'm not normally a fan of books which confuse me in this way... I may be easily confused but you normally know where you are with printed paper.

Anyway the novel progresses into a readable but not mind blowing story of people held together, not just by fate or the societal nomenclature of the obsessive collector but by the mysterious Thornton McCain. In that way, if you hold this book close it smells of Paul Auster's influence. I wonder if Nicholson was a fan? And if you're wondering what Paul Auster smells like, the answer is laundry soap and cigarettes.

[Glen Engel-Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a comedy novel about collectors, with an oh-so-perfect title. It begins with a long list of things that collect, in all manifestations of the word, then proceeds to introduce us to a weird cross-section of British society. There is the car wash man with a craving for knowledge who decides to collect the entire contents of "The Books of Power," a strange encyclopedia set, into his memory. His boss, the prototypical used car salesman, with the pitch perfected, and a collection of knickers from his one-night stands (funny, how knickers is so much more tame than the American version "panties," no?). The wealthy auto collector and his wife who collects sexual experiences. And, finally, the narrator, who is writing a book on collectors, and so finds himself ironically in the position of collecting collectors.

The plot is an intricate construction that links all of the above together. I found it almost exactly opposite of a mystery novel, in that you have to unravel the events to get to the point, whereas Nicholson works to weave his characters together to show you the mystery. The book has echoes a couple of other works that I had read in the past, but these are not conscious on Nicholson's part, I believe, but simply the baggage I brought with me. It is similar to Stephen Fry's The Hippopotamus, which should not be that surprising, as Fry's novel was also a British comedy about writers. It had some of the feel of A.S. Byatt's Possession, in that Nicholson continued to explore the theme of collecting much farther than I thought possible, and possession is an aspect of collecting.

It is a short book--only about 200 pages in the American edition--and Nicholson's prose style is breezy and vibrant, easily sped through. The only thing I could find to complain with was the strange narrative shifts early on when I had trouble placing the narrator in the sections told in what I had thought was third person, but later ended up being first person anecdotal. I've got Nicholson's earlier novel, The Food Chain, and I'm looking forward to spending three hours with it sometime soon.

[Randy Lowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...a large, official dinner was being given to mark the retirement of Charles de Gaulle. A great fuss was made of the General and his wife. They were well fed and watered and treated with the utmost reverence. Towards the end of the evening someone asked Madame de Gaulle what she was most looking forward to now that her husband was retiring, and she immediately replied, 'A penis.' A shocked, embarrassed silence fell on the table. Nobody knew how to react to her reply. Was it some saucy French joke? Then her husband leaned over and said wryly, 'No, my dear, I think you mean 'happiness.'


You may find this a good story. You may find it funny and revealing. I'm sure lots of people must agree with you because the story gets repeated quite often, but personally I don't find it a good story, and I don't find it funny and revealing because I don't believe a word of it."

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an intelligent, engaging novel, I wonder, yet again, why Geoff Nicholson isn't better known.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Katie Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

It seems that I don't have the right sense of humor to have appreciated this book.

[Jeffrey Knightly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh

[Mary Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Steve Geddes is writing a book about collectors. He meets several unusual collectors. There’s the girl who collects sounds, the beer can collector whose entire collection may or may not have been stolen, the married couple who collects sex partners, an encyclopedia sales lady, a used car cleaner and a professional comedian.
They come together in a variety of ways, and the author manages along the way to make sense about why people collect the things they do and why collecting can be an unhealthy obsession.
A few years ago, I read “Everything and More” by this author, and it ranks as one of my all time favorite novels. I’ve read a few of his books since and they are not exceptionally interesting. Perhaps I hold him to the high standard of the other book.
Television shows often feature stories without a plot. The goal is to develop the characters through a series of misadventures. This book is that kind of non plot.
If you like reading the unusual novel, Nicholson might be the author for you.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this at a yard sale and was drawn in by the subject matter, since I collect comics. I was disappointed. It's clear that he's a skilled writer, but I just didn't care to hear this story, and I felt like the book was written without any research into why people collect certain things. None of the characters seemed real to me, nor did any of their motivations. He could turn a phrase very well, but I just couldn't engage. And it wasn't as funny as it was obviously meant to be. Still, I could tell that it would have some charm to others, even if it wasn't to my taste.

[David Prybil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Intriguing themes are subverted by a cool, disaffected tone and meandering approach to the tale which takes far too long to ignite, then peters out with little to say about its apparent topic at hand.