- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Random House Canada; First Edition edition (Sep 25 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0307356280
- ISBN-13: 978-0307356284
- Product Dimensions: 22.1 x 14.7 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 386 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #166,003 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Two misfits find common ground and a unique, surreal friendship via unspoken words in Coupland's latest (after JPod), a fine return to form. In the two years since his wife's (nonfatal) cancer was diagnosed, Roger Thorpe has devolved into a dejected, hard-drinking, divorced father and the oldest employee by a fair margin at Staples. A frustrated novelist to boot, Roger considers himself lost, continually haunted by dreams of missed opportunities and a long ago car accident that claimed four friends. His younger, disgruntled goth co-worker, Bethany Twain, one day discovers Roger's diary—filled with mock re-imaginings of her thoughts and feelings—in the break room. She lays down a supreme challenge for them both to write diary entries to each other, but neither is allowed to acknowledge the other around the store. Through exchanged hopes and dreams, customer stories, world views and cautionary revelations (time speeds up in a terrifying manner in your mid-thirties), the pair become intimately acquainted before things unravel for both. Running parallel to the epistolary narrative are chapters from Roger's novel, Glove Pond, which begins having much in common with the larger narrative it's enclosed in. Coupland shines, the story is humorous, frenetic, focused and curiously affecting. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Relentlessly contemporary Coupland helped explode the Gen-X mind-set, and now follows his specimens as they stumble into their inevitable midlife crisis. Roger, a forty-something alcoholic washup and aisle-jockey at Staples ponders the unlikelihood of escaping one's pitiable little life. Another soul trapped in the sterile confines is Bethany, a goth girl with her own private disaster of a life. The two form an unlikely friendship in this cleverly crafted, bitterly funny epistolary novel, while at the same time Roger works on his own novel, a Cheever-like exercise wherein bitter couples lob witty insults at each other while drowning in Scotch and failure. When the Roger and Bethany story lags and meanders, it is this gloriously bad novel that keeps the reading so mightily entertaining. Chronicling life's crises that don't only happen in the middle, Coupland mostly coasts along on being clever—and he is almost always very clever—rather than heartfelt as his creations slowly tick off the things that they will never become. But just because it's intentional doesn't change the fact that this is about as warm as fluorescent lighting on goth-whitewashed cheeks. Chipman, Ian
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Smart Writing!,
By
This review is from: The Gum Thief (Hardcover)
The Gum Thief was a truly interesting book to read. Douglas Coupland has an ability to take ordinary things from everyday life and show them through the eyes of others using smart and funny language. The main characters of Roger and Brittany could be anyone you meet, any day you are out in the world, any stranger totally unknown to you. Looking into their lives through the eyes of the author was by times sad and ordinary. Perhaps it was the "ordinaryness" of their lives that appealed to me most. Everyone has demons and dreams that no one ever even know exist. The novel that ran inside this book, Glove Pond, was just as enthralling to me as the rest of the book. The mirror image of how the characters from the two stories blended was brilliant. I really enjoyed this meeting and will seek out future works from Coupland.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A pleasant read...even if it shouldn't be,
By
This review is from: The Gum Thief (Paperback)
I guess I should start by saying that I discovered Coupland's works belatedly and am really "into" his stuff right now. Anything short of publishing his grocery list would work for me. So I guess I'm a bit skewed.The fact is, I really enjoyed this book. I thought the setting was spot on, the cultural references were usual Coupland, that is to say perceptive and disconcerting at the same time, and the characters, though depressed themselves, were just too plain funny to depress me. I also really appreciated the novel within the novel--a kind of parody of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" (which brought me back to my undergrad days, when I was shown the movie in class :-) ) What you shouldn't read this for? Plot, suspense, story, climax, resolution. It's got none of these things. Yet, strangely, I found it very entertaining. Basically, you read it for Coupland's unique observations about today's civilization. I've said it in another review, Coupland is the closest thing we have to Vonnegut these days. And just like Vonnegut, he has written some very good novels, and a few ordinary ones. If you like Coupland's style and wit however, even the more ordinary ones are great reads. Perhaps one disclaimer: if you aren't in a really good place in your life right now, or have trouble taking the ugly side of life with a grain of salt, or you work a dead end job. This book could mess you up even more. Just sayin'
1.0 out of 5 stars
Most Depressing Book Ever!!!,
By
This review is from: The Gum Thief (Paperback)
I found this book to be well written, with a clever idea of conveying the characters thoughts and experiences through a journal they share. The down side is that the characters are total losers that are stuck in a rut and cannot escape it. This normally wouldn't bother me, except they struggle to escape their mundane lives, and both find it impossible, which I found original, but totally depressing. The overall message to the story could be summed up as: if you were born a loser; you will die a loser, don't bother fighting it. If you are some one who is easily depressed or border line suicidal, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK, it will put you over the edge. If you are perpetually upbeat and want to read something completely original than this may be for you, but consider yourself warned.
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