Declare Regarding Books The Gum Thief
| Title | : | The Gum Thief |
| Author | : | Douglas Coupland |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 275 pages |
| Published | : | October 2nd 2007 by Bloomsbury (first published 2007) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Cultural. Canada. Contemporary. Humor |
Douglas Coupland
Hardcover | Pages: 275 pages Rating: 3.5 | 10056 Users | 717 Reviews
Explanation Supposing Books The Gum Thief
The first and only story of love and looming apocalypse set in the aisles of an office supply superstore.
In Douglas Coupland's ingenious new novel--sort of a Clerks meets Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf--we meet Roger, a divorced, middle-aged "aisles associate" at Staples, condemned to restocking reams of 20-lb. bond paper for the rest of his life. And Roger's co-worker Bethany, in her early twenties and at the end of her Goth phase, who is looking at fifty more years of sorting the red pens from the blue in aisle 6.
One day, Bethany discovers Roger's notebook in the staff room. When she opens it up, she discovers that this old guy she's never considered as quite human is writing mock diary entries pretending to be her: and, spookily, he is getting her right.
In Douglas Coupland's ingenious new novel--sort of a Clerks meets Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf--we meet Roger, a divorced, middle-aged "aisles associate" at Staples, condemned to restocking reams of 20-lb. bond paper for the rest of his life. And Roger's co-worker Bethany, in her early twenties and at the end of her Goth phase, who is looking at fifty more years of sorting the red pens from the blue in aisle 6.
One day, Bethany discovers Roger's notebook in the staff room. When she opens it up, she discovers that this old guy she's never considered as quite human is writing mock diary entries pretending to be her: and, spookily, he is getting her right.
These two retail workers then strike up an extraordinary epistolary relationship. Watch as their lives unfold alongside Roger's work-in-progress, the oddly titled Glove Pond, a Cheever-era novella gone horribly, horribly wrong. Through a complex layering of narratives, The Gum Thief reveals the comedy, loneliness, and strange comforts of contemporary life.
Coupland electrifies us on every page of this witty, wise, and unforgettable novel. Love, death and eternal friendship can all transpire where we least expect them รข€¦and even after tragedy seems to have wiped your human slate clean, stories can slowly rebuild you.
Identify Books In Pursuance Of The Gum Thief
| Original Title: | The Gum Thief |
| ISBN: | 1596911069 (ISBN13: 9781596911062) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Bethany, Roger |
| Setting: | North Vancouver, British Columbia(Canada) |
Rating Regarding Books The Gum Thief
Ratings: 3.5 From 10056 Users | 717 ReviewsAssess Regarding Books The Gum Thief
This book is comprised of letters between employees at a Staples; Roger, the older guy & Bethany the goth teenager. They write to each other in a notebook that also includes Roger's attempts at a first novel, a book called Glove Pond. Said Glove Pond is pretty spectacular & I can open almost any page in this entire book at random & hit some wonderful, lovely writing like, "I want it to look like I taste like almond paste," (which, coincidentally, was exactly what I wanted when I was(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)Like many writers of critical reviews, I too sometimes think about the idea of one day penning an entire book-long series of essays about a particular artist -- and of all the artists in history that now exist, the one I'm perhaps most qualified at this point to write an entire critical book about
Struggle to readI struggled reading and understanding this book! It never made any sense! I would not recommend this book at all!
Unlike the other Coupland books I have read, in this one I was saying "No, no, no" while reading the first chapters. I did not like, or understand, or even believe in Roger, the main character. Once Bethany gets her voice and things develop there are sparks of Coupland's ability to paint the grey boring parts of our society in a sharp contrast, and make us smile at them. But it is only in parts.It does not help that I did not like the "meta-novel" he interweaves with the main narrative, both in
This novel was just interesting enough to keep turning the pages, but just barely. I gave this one a shot because I had read another Coupland novel and saw promise in his writing, but now I'm starting to think he's just a very average writer. It's not that he doesn't do things well, he does, specifically when it comes to trying to show the internal ruminations of his characters, but that's not enough. In this novel we are really given 2-3 main characters and a handful of vague supporting ones.
A quite ingenious little epistolary novel by Douglas Coupland set in the drudgery of a Staples store, and also contains a novel-within- a novel "Glove Pond".
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