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otl1987's review
5.0
My first Douglas Coupland. The plot is simple. Two very different people start corresponding through a notebook.
"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."
As they write to one another, they start to reveal personal stories and experiences from their lives and come to appreciate each other and care for one another.
From my point of view, this book adresses a very common fact. That we judge "a book by its cover". That we judge a person by the way they dress or the music they listen to. This book proves that rather often, we couldn't be more wrong. A stranger can't possibly know what another person is feeling, what he, or she, is trying to hide behind that specific way of dressing or that particular behavior. After that book, I always think what others may hide, what they don't want revealed and what they might be afraid of.
Every one of us have a secret little world inside of us and we keep it from others in different ways. And who knows, maybe that's for the best. Maybe that's the only way we can go on...
"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."
As they write to one another, they start to reveal personal stories and experiences from their lives and come to appreciate each other and care for one another.
From my point of view, this book adresses a very common fact. That we judge "a book by its cover". That we judge a person by the way they dress or the music they listen to. This book proves that rather often, we couldn't be more wrong. A stranger can't possibly know what another person is feeling, what he, or she, is trying to hide behind that specific way of dressing or that particular behavior. After that book, I always think what others may hide, what they don't want revealed and what they might be afraid of.
Every one of us have a secret little world inside of us and we keep it from others in different ways. And who knows, maybe that's for the best. Maybe that's the only way we can go on...
nikkigee81's review against another edition
3.0
Closer to 3.5.
Another Big Lots bargain bin find. Doesn't really fit my around the world theme as much, even though the author is Canadian; aside from one or two references, the book could be from the United States.
Laugh out loud funny, but also quietly incisive, the book is told in epistolary format, mainly between Roger, a walking midlife crisis, and Bethany, who has put on a facade of Gothic facepaint several inches thick. They both work at Staples. Bethany finds Roger's work in progress, Glove Pond, a very Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf shoutout in prose, which starts the two talking.
There are some sly winks to the reader here, if you catch them. I think I shall hunt down more of Mr. Copeland's work.
Another Big Lots bargain bin find. Doesn't really fit my around the world theme as much, even though the author is Canadian; aside from one or two references, the book could be from the United States.
Laugh out loud funny, but also quietly incisive, the book is told in epistolary format, mainly between Roger, a walking midlife crisis, and Bethany, who has put on a facade of Gothic facepaint several inches thick. They both work at Staples. Bethany finds Roger's work in progress, Glove Pond, a very Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf shoutout in prose, which starts the two talking.
There are some sly winks to the reader here, if you catch them. I think I shall hunt down more of Mr. Copeland's work.
moreadsbooks's review
2.0
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 a goth teenager), but I still found myself struggling to finish. Copeland doesn't quite do it for me the way he used to.
dfv's review
4.0
An easy and fun read - never dull and always full of surprises. A series of letters between some unlikely work colleagues undergoing their own struggles. Probably really tough to write and he made it look simple. Life affirming and just what I probably needed after a few heavy books. 4 stars.
hymyind's review
4.0
Even through the weird events and weird characters, I think Coupland still has a pretty amazing ability to tap into feelings (of confusion of what life's all about, sort of) that I can relate to. The Gum Thief is still clever enough to give me a degree of separation though, so it's a really enjoyable read.
davidscrimshaw's review
4.0
This book has a novel inside a novel and then... there's a novel inside the novel that is inside the novel!
I don't really know if that's a good thing. I was not very interested in the third level down. I cared about the characters in the main novel. Maybe it was deliberate that I wouldn't care so much the further levels down.
The main novel characters know each other from the Staples they work at. That was definitely fun.
And I'm happy to report that this book was in my big pile of books to read and now I can put it in one of the nearby little free libraries.
I don't really know if that's a good thing. I was not very interested in the third level down. I cared about the characters in the main novel. Maybe it was deliberate that I wouldn't care so much the further levels down.
The main novel characters know each other from the Staples they work at. That was definitely fun.
And I'm happy to report that this book was in my big pile of books to read and now I can put it in one of the nearby little free libraries.
offmessage's review
2.0
Bit of a let down, to be honest. Another tight focus close up, stories within stories type affair, with only a tiny twist to hold it together. Not his best work.
muninnherself's review
5.0
Another great book from DC. Roger is 43 and works in Staples, and Bethany is 24 and works in Staples. They become freinds when B reads R's diary where he's pretending to be her. So it's kind of epistolary, as they write back and forth, with interjections from DeeDee, Bethany's mother, plus chapters of Roger's novel, Glove Pond. I love Coupland's characters, and the characters invented by his characters are just as much fun. Hopeless but hopeful.