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A review by mairispaceship
The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland
4.0
Gosh I LOVE Douglas Coupland books. But also I finish them with a sense of "yeah I don't know if I recommend that though".
The Gum Thief is, in my opinion, a clever story-within-a-story-within-a-story kind of novel. It's a back and forth dialogue between Bethany and Roger. Both of them work at the office supplies superstore Staples, and write to one another. Bethany is a young goth girl, and Roger is a fifty something divorced dad. Roger is also writing a book called Glove Pond about a carcrash couple Gloria and Steve who have nothing in the house except for Scotch. Between Beth and Roger, and flitting between passages in Glove Pond, other letters from other satellite characters, and occasionally an essay or two about toast (it's relevant, I promise), The Gum Thief tells the story of this small world and it's small people inside it.
It's a book about loneliness and the pressures of societal expectation and it's also a love letter to the 90s, in that kind of concrete drabness the 90s were in old photos. I didn't like a single character in this, and yet as an ensemble this was like watching a tragi-comedy play play out on a stage. You know it's going to end in disaster and yet you can't help but keep watch.
I really enjoyed this. Probably not my favourite Douglas Coupland book, but it was everything I wanted when I picked it up and more.
The Gum Thief is, in my opinion, a clever story-within-a-story-within-a-story kind of novel. It's a back and forth dialogue between Bethany and Roger. Both of them work at the office supplies superstore Staples, and write to one another. Bethany is a young goth girl, and Roger is a fifty something divorced dad. Roger is also writing a book called Glove Pond about a carcrash couple Gloria and Steve who have nothing in the house except for Scotch. Between Beth and Roger, and flitting between passages in Glove Pond, other letters from other satellite characters, and occasionally an essay or two about toast (it's relevant, I promise), The Gum Thief tells the story of this small world and it's small people inside it.
It's a book about loneliness and the pressures of societal expectation and it's also a love letter to the 90s, in that kind of concrete drabness the 90s were in old photos. I didn't like a single character in this, and yet as an ensemble this was like watching a tragi-comedy play play out on a stage. You know it's going to end in disaster and yet you can't help but keep watch.
I really enjoyed this. Probably not my favourite Douglas Coupland book, but it was everything I wanted when I picked it up and more.