Last Days of the Transitional Objects Institute

I'm going away in a few weeks and I've been using that as an excuse to skate by on doing reads. This site does facilitate the creative process in that I keep inventing reasons not to read. Lately, I find that everything I approach makes me want to look almost anywhere else. But I started reading your book on a whim this afternoon and before I knew it I'd read the entire thing.

I really feel that its a remarkable piece of work - brilliantly concieved and executed, beautifully written. I had a notion you might use the story to draw parallels with society and I expected those conceits to be shoehorned in awkwardly. But its all done with such subtlety and consumate skill (I'm thinking here of the Santa God and Mr Finkle's memories of the dizinfektion camps) that it never feels incongruous. In chapter after chapter, you just quietly go about the business of breaking the reader's heart again and again.

With that in mind, I was pleased to find ultimately redemptive character arcs for Bobo and Bixie. But all the main characters feel fully realised (an odd thing to say when they are mostly toys) with even such potentially one-note characters as the Directrix and Hal given fleshed out backstorys that explain their demeanours.

Oddly again, for a book about toys, it feels like the most humane book I've read on this site. And its certainly the very best. I'm going to add it to my shelf where I can gaze at it adoringly, like one of those blue haired old ladies that Dooley managed to elude.

So there I was, minding my business, looking for a good read.

When suddenly.

I can’t think of anything more beautiful than this is. Readers who broke off in a weep after a few chapters should try going the distance; I dare you – it gets more intense. If chapter sixteen leaves you with no lump in your throat, you aren’t human. Maybe you don’t have to be, anymore.

When I was around five, The Velveteen Rabbit broke my heart – so I was immediately minded of it, and tickled to see it mentioned here. This is a more grownup Rabbit, but I felt the same huge guilt. I dreamed of these toys last night, and woke in a child's sweat.

My husband collects Teddy Bears. After I finished reading this, I went in and looked at them, deep into their shiny glass Steiff eyes. I felt their ears, and I wondered.

…maybe.

I have just decided I'm going to have to give up writing and become a publisher instead - specifically to be able to publish this book. It's a wonderful, wonderful read - every second sentence is a joy (this is me turning into a gushy authonomite again , but just occasionally you really have to). I have enjoyed all I've read - particularly the lifttle lifts to get the clients up to the desk and then Dudley's various suicide attempts. It is the unexpectedness of it that make it such a pleasure to read and the acute use of language - and such language (I too loved the 'gladdened waddle'.) Backed and on my shelf, Jaye

This is utterly, and genuinely, heart-breaking.

I started off, charmed by the original premise, and delighting in the poetry of lines like: "... an unnaturally large bear with a moderate speech impediment", "hapless cries escaping him", and "gladdened waddle", but then was completely undone by the bear's breakdown, and the horror of the wires ("dey hoit my neck and my paws") stringing the poor bear to the grille of the "gobbitch" truck. I don't know when I've ever read anything so tragic.

Could there be a sadder line than "Bear w.Cap. Defective"?

I couldn't read any more than two chapters without compromising my stiff upper lip, although I longed to know how it turned out, so I beg the author to tell me this has a happy ending, and let me off the emotional hook.

Backed, with -- I confess -- tears in my eyes.

Andrea, I was led here by the brilliant title, the wonderfully eccentric rundown on the 1952 origins of the Institute, and Richard Maitland’s touching response. I wasn’t disappointed.

Your prose is solid and unfussy, but occasionally challenging (in a nice way – I had to go and look up ‘perfuse’). The descriptions of the city and the park when the bear takes a walk are marvellous – I specially liked his take on the sunlight, ignoring everything. And the accent (Brooklyn?), I love it!

After 3 ch’s, I was well immersed in the spirit of the piece. It’s drenched in pathos, but there’s this stubborn sense of hope running clean through it too.

I can quite understand that the world doesn’t know what to do with this. Unlike some of your other readers, I couldn’t imagine reading this out to a child. YA maybe, but even that is pushing it. It has adult humour, adult conceptualisations and adult themes. It is for me an allegory of human indifference, human brutality, human kindness. That its subjects are toys, and in making it clear early on that they are sentient beings, is in some ways a distraction from that central premise, perhaps makes some people shoot straight for ‘child’. But your anthropomorphism is a million miles from the likes of Disney and Toy Story.

I’ll confess I went watery-eyed on more than one occasion. That bear – with his impediments and handicaps and tragic life – just has so much goodness in him. Beautiful. Don’t give up.

Pete

I have no idea how to describe this book except wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Very satisfying to read and think about.

Initial thoughts:

Outstanding characterization of plush & stuffing! Your characters feel more human than most folks I know. You have quickly created a world where the reader is allowed to supend dibelief in order to connect with your characters.

I am in love with the pharase describing Miss Maisie's repsonse to "Bobo's" outburst: "...eyes glazed with professional forbearance..." Ha! Marvelous.

I will continue my reading. For now, highly starred. Great job.

~Lucas
http://www.authonomy.com/books/41102/capritare-the-cycles-begin/

Andrea, after reading the first chapter I have real admiration for your writing. What I found so impressive was your ability to move the reader, but at no stage was anything 'forced.' There's such an understated empathy in the way you're telling this highly original story, and I was enthralled by the array of such well thought out characters. This is a fabulous exercise in fantasy forming parallels with reality, and it was engrossing to read. I'd love to put this on my shelf in the near future to show my support, but in the meantime a full array of hugely deserved stars. It's invigorating and uplifting to read work of such quality, and I wish you every success.

Pete

Hi Andrea,

I really enjoyed reading your book. It is an original and clever way to use toys to talk about our society.
I wish you all the best.

Carolina
See the World through my Eyes.

I'm going away in a few weeks and I've been using that as an excuse to skate by on doing reads. This site does facilitate the creative process in that I keep inventing reasons not to read. Lately, I find that everything I approach makes me want to look almost anywhere else. But I started reading your book on a whim this afternoon and before I knew it I'd read the entire thing.

I really feel that its a remarkable piece of work - brilliantly concieved and executed, beautifully written. I had a notion you might use the story to draw parallels with society and I expected those conceits to be shoehorned in awkwardly. But its all done with such subtlety and consumate skill (I'm thinking here of the Santa God and Mr Finkle's memories of the dizinfektion camps) that it never feels incongruous. In chapter after chapter, you just quietly go about the business of breaking the reader's heart again and again.

With that in mind, I was pleased to find ultimately redemptive character arcs for Bobo and Bixie. But all the main characters feel fully realised (an odd thing to say when they are mostly toys) with even such potentially one-note characters as the Directrix and Hal given fleshed out backstorys that explain their demeanours.

Oddly again, for a book about toys, it feels like the most humane book I've read on this site. And its certainly the very best. I'm going to add it to my shelf where I can gaze at it adoringly, like one of those blue haired old ladies that Dooley managed to elude.

This story of toys is not Toy Story. It starts out like something I might expect to read in New Yorker, but develops into something much deeper. There is an understanding here of the self-actualizing aspect of spirit that informs more than the invisible existence of toys. Far more. That, plus a consistently high quality to the writing makes it superbly, believably readable. The movie will not be as good as the book.

love it!

This book deserves a warm hug. I find it completely unique and marvelous. I wish you the very best!
Backed, Jed Oliver (French roast and Lingerie)

Still sobbing after chapter 14. Boy do you know how it is to come back from the dead. And boy are the Arps the sweetest parents ever. I love the image of this frog-pair - he so big and brownish, and she so small and supergreeeen.
I want this book to never stop.

Andrea, did I tell you that I have a LONG professional background i n working with puppetry? I taught drama for a while to master students - and what i loved the most was to make the students give life and soul to objects, making them into "puppets"
I still remember a very soulfull romance between a pair of scissors and a bunch of keys. Used my own puppets and masks a lot in therapy sessions too -...I made a particularly nasty handpuppet who really brought forth the anger in people - he was really useful for the timid ones. The strange thing was,. that the same puppet brought forth even the same language in the patients - the same antics - like they just allowed him to speak through them.
So I really think you are into something vitally important here :-)
leelah, looking forward to chapter 12 tomorrow

chapter 11:
"We are a monetary institution" (said to a piggybank) - "we cant change the rules just because you have a face -"
Oh that bowled me over.

Gems from chapter 10 - after crying deeply over Bixie's story with a Jekyll and Hyde-father...all the psychological components are here, and for me, at last, much more touching by given to toys.
Wonderful sentences: The little Bixi-pig crossing the motorway -"the artery of certain death."
And the description of sweet mrs Arp: "Mrs Arp was a diminutive rubber bath frog with a sqeaker. A natural poet in a meaningless tonge, Mrs Arp was a species of one."

Oh I still love it! The brochure is fabulous. And I managed to find time to get through chapter 7. I want the movie! Just imagine showing it for discussion at a faculty meeting, or people just entering grad school. I've got to sort through my bookshelf and make room for this.

Mrs. Job (Mona)

Andrea,
Just started to read this.
It's certainly a cut above a lot of the writing in this site. Well done. I'm really looking forward to the read.

Chapter 7: "And all of these pink polyester animals that want to be somebodies"
ahh. What an utterly perfect metaphor. These glimpses of gold are everywhere.
I remember I commented before that this would be great as a film - it would - but as book, it is even better. now I get to make all the images, smell the smells.
What a wondrous time you are giving us

Andrea, I am saving a chapter for each day to emerge myself in this story. I have rarely felt such a pleasure since I read Lolita by Nabokov
- his glittering words, spinning us into a web of poetry - you have this talent too. I find myself reading slowly to make it last. if it was published, i would buy it instantly, and probably buy it to all my friends for birthdays and Christmas.
The suicide of the horsey is still in my nervous-system. What you succeed in doing by describing this is far more(in my mind) effectual than all the gory-describers in horror-literature: we identify wiht all your figures, and so there is LOVE going on.
What a lover your must be, Andrea, ( no, not talking about sex)
Love
leelah
I am in love
Leelah

I have finished chapter 5. Loving it, seeing the movie, appreciating your writing craft. A delight to read. I'll be back soon.

Mrs. Job (Mona)

I can't wait to get back. Leelah never steers me wrong, and she was certainly right on this one! What a pleasure to read someone who really knows the craft -- no bumping into annoying grammatical and stylistic hitches. The premise is wonderful, as is the writing. As a psychologist, I'm feeling right at home at the institute already. I know from reading the other comments that I'm in for an amazing, very moving, ride. As I said, I'm anxious to get back. For now, I'm putting this on my watch list.

Mrs. Job (Mona)

Hi, Andrea. There is very little I can add to the various comments. I read 1 and 2 and there is no doubt you are totally in control of your writing and the story. You have a very light touch and a crisp, dry style. I love the New York Yiddish (?) speech and the way you have rendered it phonetically. As I moved through the narrative, I kept thinking of more and more animal-related books and films. I think it's rich without being derivative, at least as far as the first part is concerned. I did think of Toy Story quite a bit but perhaps it's not as sentimental as that. I also think it could go in so many directions, plotwise. (Typo: 'undfolded'). Good luck with this. (The title, btw, is fantastic: it has a touch of Peter Carey to it that matches the content.)

Originality - so rare, and such a delight when one finds it.

Congratulations on this concept, and for backing it up with impressive writing skills.

I found your book sitting next to mine on Jane Alexander's shelf, and I have to say I'm flattered.

Diana
Pascual's Birthday

Originality - so rare, and such a delight when one finds it.

Congratulations on this concept, and for backing it up with impressive writing skills.

I found your book sitting next to mine on Jane Alexander's shelf, and I have to say I'm flattered.

Diana
Pascual's Birthday

Good Morning,
So I've started reading 'Last days of the transitional objects institute' and I'm hooked. Is there any chance you could email me a PDF version that I could read on my kindle, would make it so much easier... Then I can come back on here and comment when I've finished? I'll keep it on my shelf still.
Let me know, Amie

Good Morning,
So I've started reading 'Last days of the transitional objects institute' and I'm hooked. Is there any chance you could email me a PDF version that I could read on my kindle, would make it so much easier... Then I can come back on here and comment when I've finished? I'll keep it on my shelf still.
Let me know, Amie

Sad story about not getting this published. Have you tried the smaller publishers? I would think they'd be keen on anything with this much "quirky" (I loathe that word applied some places, but here it seems appropriate) viral appeal. The "beancounters" (Powerpoint "geniuses" is my preferred term) boost so many dead-on-arrival works of fiction, it seems incomprehensible they wouldn't gamble on something that could conceivably arrest people's imaginations like this.

I'm not sure if this would induce me to weep, as the other commenter says--but I read the first two chapters and see most clearly how populist this could potentially be.

From the Malcolm Gladwell angle, have you thought about writing another book with similar premises? I gather though you've been writing your entire life, this is your first novel. It's conceivable you might find publication and even popular success--I'm talking about actual money, which you can't say for most "literary" novelists, whether they're geniuses or not--with another book.

So there I was, minding my business, looking for a good read.

When suddenly.

I can’t think of anything more beautiful than this is. Readers who broke off in a weep after a few chapters should try going the distance; I dare you – it gets more intense. If chapter sixteen leaves you with no lump in your throat, you aren’t human. Maybe you don’t have to be, anymore.

When I was around five, The Velveteen Rabbit broke my heart – so I was immediately minded of it, and tickled to see it mentioned here. This is a more grownup Rabbit, but I felt the same huge guilt. I dreamed of these toys last night, and woke in a child's sweat.

My husband collects Teddy Bears. After I finished reading this, I went in and looked at them, deep into their shiny glass Steiff eyes. I felt their ears, and I wondered.

…maybe.

I saw this on Wednesday’s one to watch. Six stars.

“He knew all about garbage trucks”

Of course, a bear that knows all about garbage trucks, like all toys eventually. Like all of us. How sad and brilliant. I suppose this is a reincarnation novel, to coin a new genre, and having just been away on the autumnal south coast scattering ashes into the English Channel, this worked perfectly on me. Very well done. It reminds me of the surprising and effective emotional shift in Toy Story, where the bear is finally cast off and left behind the sofa, or under the bed, as the child grows and leaves “childish” things behind. The autumn leaves of childhood...

By the way, my second novel is out in the wild: THE MARQUIS OF QUEENSBURY RULES, OKAY, an uplifting comedy about four London nutters who take a backstreet boozer on the road, believing in the mantra: ‘For instant friends--just add alcohol’.

I absolutely and totally love this book! I love the concept, the pitch, the writing, all of it! Why is it lingering around rank 303? Plug this book hon! It's brilliantly refreshing, original and a total pleasure to read. I haven't finished reading it yet, but no one's stopping me coming back to this! It's a real find for me on here. Starred to the max and backed! Go for the top spot! I believe this book can easily achieve it!

I know you haven't put Young Adult as part of your genre, but I wonder if you'd like to take a look at our reading group and join?

I confess, when I read others comments on this and the pitch I was unconvinced. What a fool! This is a classic in the making. Looking forward to Jaye becoming a publisher and snapping it up, or HC. If they don't then it's genuinely their loss. Backed with pleasure.

Hi Andrea,
I came to have a read after seeing this on One to watch Wednesday.
I don't have words really to describe how brilliant I think this is.
I've read some really fantastic stories and great writing on this site, but I think I've just read the book I'd benchmark as the best written.
I'm so sad this can't be published purely due to marketability. They should make a niche for it.
I'd love to own a copy of this. I'd love to buy copies and give to my family...
So very well done,
Jacoba

I'm sorry for all those toys I threw out without a thought!

Elegant, preposterous, iconoclastic storytelling of the very, very highest order. Thank you deeply for not giving a shit what anybody ever told you not to write. You are fantastic.

Hi Andrea, check out the authonomy blog via the homepage today.
Your story is today's (Wednesday's) choice. Best Luck, Pia

'What's a metaphor?' ... It's for whatever you make of it, kid. This tale -- Andrea Levin's Last Days of the Toi -- is, I guess, a lament for lost keepsakes and forgotten sensibilities. Love melts, damn it. Becomes displaced.

'So waddya do?' ... Rebuild. Reconsider. Read a good book now and then. And no one, far as I can see, writes vernacular surpassing Andrea's for pathos or for charm.

The Last Days of the Transitional Objects Institute

Hello Andrea,

This is fun, quirky and written with a lovely laconic undertow which makes sure we are on the right side of the joke. I've not been around for a while and I'm sure I've reviewed this before, but this morning on the hunt for books to support for this next week I was drawn to this again. Original, certainly, clever, yes, you have a lovely turn of phrase. A story and an idea of delicacy, it will draw readers in search of a particular taste I think, a marmite book if you will, you'll either love it or you'll not get it, be left outside the joke. I happen to love marmite and your writing too, very well edited too, I can hear your lovely narrative tones right now and our teddy bear is just the star. The very best of luck with this.

Best wishes and good luck
Andrew W
Benevolence

I have just decided I'm going to have to give up writing and become a publisher instead - specifically to be able to publish this book. It's a wonderful, wonderful read - every second sentence is a joy (this is me turning into a gushy authonomite again , but just occasionally you really have to). I have enjoyed all I've read - particularly the lifttle lifts to get the clients up to the desk and then Dudley's various suicide attempts. It is the unexpectedness of it that make it such a pleasure to read and the acute use of language - and such language (I too loved the 'gladdened waddle'.) Backed and on my shelf, Jaye

Wow- I love this so far. You have been blessed with a gifted imagination and the talent for putting it into words. One of the my favorite most unique reads here. Shelved for a while.

Liz
The Cheech Room

This whole story was quite an experience. After reading all of these chapters, it may safely be said this story has some potential. The crutches of this story are as well its strengths. Bobo and Bixie each are enchanting main characters, but this story seems to delve everywhere. From Mr. Jinks, to poor Mr. Dooley, even the Directrix toward the end, finally showing the reader why she turned out the way she did.

The story is actually about the Institution and its patients, not about one particular character. Is this good or bad? We don't know, however it continually brings the spirit, beliefs, and how we treat everything into perspective. The insertion of N.Y.D.O.O.M envelope and eventual repeats caused great foreshadowing. We also knew their purpose could not have been well as they had the 'piggybank' moment. Still a bit in disbelief in this. Why would two grown human men really take a pig and start emptying it out, especially on the streets? Perhaps actually taking the pig and discussing splitting it up would achieve a better effect. Also, it would be that more detrimental to the piggybank as the audience wonders how they would retrieve the money.

It's great to see how Bobo turned out, and how Bixie seemed to have gotten better. Well, at least a little. The epilogue Snow was also decent, but it still feels like something is missing. You said in your note for the 'placeholder' you might filter this out into some kind of trilogy, so it's hard to comment on it overall, or if Bobo will in fact be back for Buddy.
This was a fantastic story, very entertaining, but that ending is certainly of wanting. We know you're trying to figure out how to tie it up effectively, and you may be close. Just remember some key things for your readers. They have come to know this institution as well as Bobo. Where was he in the final scene with the N.Y.D.O.O.M. ? If they were only checking out everything, did this ultimately result in the close of the Institution because they didn't like what they found? And why did Ramanujan lose his ability to 'see' towards the end? Wrapping this up very nicely would make a great ending.
Overall, this was a story which made us all think a little about what we are doing as humans ourselves.

DG Publishing

This is not a children's story, neither would it fit in with YA. This is a solid story about life's experiences, even if the basis is inanimate objects. Does everything have a soul? Your explanation of why children could not 'see' the actualized toys from the dead and inanimate plays with our recent societies lust for video games, tv's, movies, and the lack of imagination generations had before us. Is magic real? Are toys real? You make us question all.

We don't quite understand how previous viewers would say comedy or children's. This is no children's tale. You have kept everything real, even to the details of the report of Bobo. His speech impediment and lower lying IQ have charmed us and even made us think.

The bonfire scene addition was well done, and the lady grabbing the poor elephant while we heard his pain? Another world below what we think it is. And Dudley, the reason for the bonfire. Sad, but not too sad. No one knew him as closely, but the sheer determination to leave and end it. Boggling.

The only thing we could think to watch out for is the level of exclamation points. We don't necessarily mind them, but when they are used in excessive amounts, the meaning loses it's touch.

We wish you all the luck with Bobo and we hope he recovers safely. Yet the title intrigues and the synopsis shows there is so much more that we haven't read yet. We will be visiting soon again, and will give a comment when we've read everything here. May take time, but this is a story worthy of some attention.

DG Publishing

What a delightful imagination you have and what a cleverly written story this is. There's comedy, yes, heaps of it but also pathos and a disturbing picture of man's thoughtlessness at times.
How many times have I seen some pathetic old toy hanging lifeless from the grill of a garbage lorry. From now on, I shall view with much more vision, thanks to your story!
You have written a lovely story with a fine insight into the minds of toys. Starred and for my shelf shortly. Margaret.

Check the message I sent to you. Pia

I may have to open my own publishing house! This is entirely superb. Putting this on my book shelf now that I have finally worked out how to do it. Best of luck with this. Irene

An excellent premise, and very well written. At times I found myself skim reading because the slow pace of the long opening chapter, which was largely character introduction and scene setting. It would be nice to have a plot in there too, maybe in the style of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series, and then I would be very happy to back it. Until then, all the best with it, and keep writing. :)
NaomiM

Andrea -

Last Days of the Transitional Objects Institute - Fantastic.
… ‘You related?’ … Not by manufacture or retail. We’re part of the same – how shall I say it – collection.’ …
The client report had me in stitches. Bobo suffers from very understandable PTSD. So touching, when he walks into the street the day after having been offered residency – he felt he belonged in the world.
… ‘Why can some people see me, and some people can’t?’ … He receives a lecture on the imaginary process of projection, both necessary and intrusive, seen from the perspective of the toy: it energizes the toy, but it also obscures from him his True Nature. …
Hilariously funny, clever and deeply touching - a parable about attaining reality with amazing characters, told as a thrilling story.
With your unique dialogue, I see the story as an animated film - embraced for its genius by all.

I commented here over 10 months ago. This book one of the highlights on this site :)

Pia (Course of Mirrors)

A good writer can bring anything to life. You did that and made me care about your characters. Backed with pleasure.

I really hope you don't recast this as YA.

I see the YA phenomenon as a major signifier of much that is wrong with our culture today and I'd hate to see it devouring all that is right, snuffing out the lights of originality wherever it finds them and turning them into more adolescent pabulum to feed the solipsistic guts of the young and generate more self-centered infantilised adults.

But that's just me. Any sign of that last chapter at 20 yet:?

This is such a clever concept. I love your brilliant use of words. This book is engaging and completely different to my usual read, but I loved it. Your talent is showcased well here, and I hope there will be more books to come. Backed. Eunice - The Temple Dancer.

Toy rights! Why not. A wonderful and original idea.

A fine story! At first it sounds like a childrens story, yet beneath the surface lies a seething and bubbling cauldron of sharp observational humour; the interpretation of the most basic of our childhood necessities as viewed through a particularly dark lens! The writing is crisp and poetic and the characters are perfectly observed and have an Orwellian feel in their descriptions. This is literary fiction at its best: making us look and making us question. A truly superb story.

Backed with confidence, best of luck Andrea.

Jack Hughes
Dawn of Shadows

Love the black comedy and the fact that you turn toys into real living breathing 'people'.. delightful premise, action packed - it's all here - enough to delight all ages - Backed !
Diane
Good Blood

So imaginative... I love how you make the reader feel so much for a stuffed bear. BACKED.. one small nitpick. Double check your paragraph that reads 'Children are to be feared...' Some of your sentences slip into present tense.
Cheers and good luck with your writing, Jennifer - A MATTER OF CONSCIENCE-