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The Gum Thief

By Douglas Coupland

(66)

| Paperback | 9780747591887

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Critics

The Gum Thief

By all accounts - first and foremost his own - Roger is a loser: middle-aged, overweight, mean, alcoholic, messily divorced. He records his private misery, along with the drafts of his novel Glove Pond (imagine Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

The Gum Thief

Working at Staples, among the tons of Post-it notes and ballpoint pens, is not, if Coupland is to be believed, that much fun. Tired of their neon-lit, customer-dodging lives of frustration, middle-aged alcoholic Roger and pensive young goth Bethany f ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

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2 Reviews

2 people find this helpful

Ah, a novel in the epistolary tradition. It's been a while since I've read one of these, mainly because nowadays no one really writes letters anymore. Also, anyone who attempts to write a book based on email chains or God forbid SMS text messages brimming with txtspk shorthand, acronyms, ridiculous ... (continue)

Ah, a novel in the epistolary tradition. It's been a while since I've read one of these, mainly because nowadays no one really writes letters anymore. Also, anyone who attempts to write a book based on email chains or God forbid SMS text messages brimming with txtspk shorthand, acronyms, ridiculous abbreviations and smiley faces should be taken out, lined up against the nearest wall and shot.
Douglas Coupland is in fine form here. A touching, funny and clever novel about an unlikely friendship between 2 McJob workers in a stationery superstore - Roger, a middle-aged washed out alcoholic for whom, career-wise, the proverbial buck has obviously stopped here; and Bethany, a post-teenage Goth chick with an attitude, bad make up and a weight problem. They never speak to each other at work but instead write entries to each other in Roger's diary after Bethany inadvertently finds it in the coffee room - with an mock entry mimicking Bethany, a portrayal that cuts closer to her bone than she would like.
Roger's also attempting to write a novel, the awfully titled but entertaining Glove Pond whose cast of characters is not too far removed from the lives of the primary characters. Roger and Bethany start to exchange observations about modern life, and the strangeness and beauty of the unobserved world and the human condition that we take for granted, and share their insecurities, failures, hopes and dreams. We are reminded how true friendship can arise from the most unconventional and unexpected starts, regardless of background and age, and how it is comforting like the warm light of a candle in a dark room. Wonderful.

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Danelectrico said on Dec 7, 2007 | Add your feedback

The idea of writing a definitely DC novel as an epistolary novel where a hard-boiled 50s-alike novel is being written could have lead to a boooring bok - and it is not. This book tracks the lives of modern-day Staples employees but has always a tension to go somewhere else; the characters are lively ... (continue)

The idea of writing a definitely DC novel as an epistolary novel where a hard-boiled 50s-alike novel is being written could have lead to a boooring bok - and it is not. This book tracks the lives of modern-day Staples employees but has always a tension to go somewhere else; the characters are lively and the book is nice. Way better than JPod.

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Lenz said on Jan 26, 2008 | Add your feedback