Customer Reviews

The Gum Thief: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Douglas Coupland's astute observations and unique sense of humor shine through in The Gum Thief, a novel about a 20-something Goth girl (Bethany) who develops an unlikely friendship with an alcoholic, aspiring author (Roger) when she comes across his journal and starts corresponding with him.

Coupland is arguably one of the most inventive, entertaining, and perceptive authors writing today. The Gum Thief is made up entirely of documents written by characters in the novel including the journal entries, a novel in progress, letters, creative writing essays, and email messages.

The Gum Thief is a mature work about loneliness, growing older, and coping with life when things don't turn out the way you planned. It also speaks to the way we communicate with one another, and how we can express ourselves more openly with strangers or on the written page.

The limitation of the novel lies with its plot. There isn't much of one. The novel is about the growing bond between three central characters in the novel who rarely, if ever, talk to one another. Coupland, clearly feeling a need to wrap the novel up with some drama, has one of the characters make a choice that feels strangely false. While a friendship does develop in the novel, it isn't apparent that the characters change much as a result (particularly Roger, who remains in the same rut he started in at the beginning of the novel). There isn't even a sense that Roger and Bethany will move beyond their written correspondence and actually begin to communicate with one another in person.

The Gum Thief is breezy, insightful, and at times, laugh-out-loud funny. Sure, it hasn't got much of a plot and the ending isn't entirely satisfying but it doesn't matter much. The Gum Thief is one of the most entertaining novels I've read in a while. It has the humor of J-Pod, but with the heart of Microserfs.

Douglas Coupland is a damn good writer. Very smart, witty, and funny as hell. I feel like a lot of this book is just about him riffing on the modern world and it's a great ride. Makes you want to go back and find the parts that were so awesome.

I had the same problem with this book as with JPod, though. The novel has an interesting structure and fun characters, but it lacks depth. After a while it just feels like light fun, but I need more nourishment out of a novel. The ending tries to bring it together and provide some of what I see lacking, but it seems a little forced.

I think Coupland is a brilliant writer and I don't know of anyone out there today that provides that sharp wit and perspective into the little things in life, the absurdities, and maybe how to make good of it. I just wish I could say it hit me in the heart more.

The Gum Thief, in my opinion, is Coupland's best since Hey Nostradamus!, which means a lot since HN! is one of my favorite books of all time.

Every page of The Gum Thief is hilarious. I laughed out loud at least once on every page. As a writer, when I read a Coupland book, I get inspired, especially when it's as good as this.

Well, enough about what I think. Here's a quick plot summation so you can figure out what this book is about:

The Gum Thief follows Roger Thorpe, a mid-40's burnout working a customer service job at a Staples. He is divorced, still in shock from the death of one of his children, and trying to find meaning in a life that's over half gone.

In a strange way, he befriends Bethany, an overweight Goth co-worker of his. Their friendship consists of taking turns writing entries in Roger's diary, espousing their fears about life, death, and try to attach meaning to seemingly meaningless nuances. But Bethany makes the rule that they have to act like they don't know each other around the store.

The novel is in the form of written communication, whether it's Roger and Bethany's diary entries, letters from Roger's ex-wife, letters from Bethany's mom, Staples co-workers, or Roger's novel-in-progress, Glove Pond.

The Gum Thief is about looking for meaning in life, loneliness, the effects of growing older, and the way writing communicates more about our lives than we would say to each other in person. A work of amazing emotional depth, one that I will be musing over for days to come, and one that I will keep on the shelf to read again one day.

I opened this book as a fan of Coupland's previous works, and was not disappointed. I could identify very much with Roger, even though I rarely drink and don't have an ex-wife or former bar flings. I wanted so much for his life to improve over the course of the book, and for Bethany as well.

And yet, their lives barely improved. Sure, he reconnected with someone from his past, at least by written letter, and Bethany stopped acting out through her wardrobe, but all she did was act out in other ways instead. At the end, the only character who seems to have benefited from the few hundred pages of reading was Roger, but that's speculative at best.

I finished the book eager to find out what happened to the characters next, not just because I grew attached to the characters, but because there was no sense of closure. Did Dee Dee and Roger continue to be friends? Hook up? Rekindle their past? Did Bethany make any changes to become "normal" without harming herself this time? Do they still write? Did Roger get a job, or stop drinking? Too many unanswered questions, and it is not usual for Coupland to write a book that begs for a sequel. Another review alluded that he ran out of ideas and finished on autopilot, and I suppose there's a lot of truth in that.

Still, it's worth the read. Just don't get your hopes up for a satisfying ending.

This novel is fun, sincere, well-paced, and somehow timeless, despite Coupland's love of tech pop culture references.

Aging loser Roger has hit rock bottom: he's divorced, disappointed, and drinking through his days at Staples. He befriends drifting, frustrated goth chick Bethany, and together they mock their mediocre coworkers and support each other through several personal catastrophes. Roger is secretly writing a wonderfully terrible novel (where Coupland gets to play the book-within-a-book trick), which Bethany reads and encourages. And in the process they both discover they have made a sincere connection with another human being.

Many books in the trendy tech-age fiction genre focus on isolation despite technology, loneliness despite constant connectivity. Coupland has taken this theme and dropped it into a context that isn't savvy, sophisticated, or innovative at all. And yet it totally works: the result is that he has managed to distill this theme down into a few choice truths about the human condition. Wonderful!

One of Coupland's best books. The characters are very interesting and realistic, and the dialogue is spot-on. He's great at writing middle-aged men and teenaged girls. The book is often funny and often very touching, too.

The novel within the novel is entertaining, as well. You'll just be disappointed there's not more time devoted to it as the book ends.

Ever worked a dead-end, boring job? This book is all about that, and those of us who have struggled through the world of dull retail jobs can relate most to everything the characters go through. Ever had a failed relationship or felt like a loser to those around you? This book is all about that.

It's funny and it's tragic. Coupland at his best.

The Gum Thief is if nothing else different. The style and pace of the novel is a bit wonky and offbeat, and that is what keeps it interesting. The strongest section of the book is when the main characters are communicating via notes back and forth. It serves as a great narrative for the story and feels fresh and introspective. The main characters are not overly inventive or strong, but the actually storytelling method makes the story very interesting.

There is also the featured story within a story going on. This again provides a slightly more cryptic, but still interesting look at the main character's life. There also some oddball side characters that weave in and out of the story that provides some interesting moments. Overall, a fun and fairly light read.

This book is imaginative and poetic. Other reviewers mentioned a shallow plot but it was highly inventive and alluring as is. I especially loved Steve and Gloria. Hilarious. Did anyone notice Roger's novel was a play on Taylor and Burton in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?" This is my second D. Coupland and I look forward to reading all of his books. Coupland is an inspiring literary talent.

i love douglas coupland's work. i think i've read every one of his books (which is quite a long list at this point). this wasn't my favorite of his books, but i still completely enjoyed reading it.

the story unfolds through a series of first-person chapters written by the various characters in the story. primarily, this is a middle-aged semi-depressed guy who's working at staples and stuck in a miserable life of bad choices and waiting for something to happen. his young-20s goth-girl co-worker finds a journal entry he's written from her perspective, and is both intrigued and freaked by how accurately he's captured her; and she begins to write back. they develop a friendship of sorts through exchanged letters (while never acknowledging each other's existence in real life). she becomes a muse to him as he writes an extremely odd and quirky story about some drunk intellectuals (the chapters of this work-in-progress are also included).

ultimately, it's a story of a few people who are stuck, getting unstuck. it's about redemption, and about choosing how to respond to life.

Oh no, I thought when I was given this as a gift, some Gen X/Frazen kind of thing. But I had to admit the premise amused me and so I tried it. Glad I did. There is nothing in here that hasn't been said before, but trust me, its no retread. The characters and what they were going through were all real to me. There was no cutesey device (unless you consider the novel within a novel and I don't) to make us think the author is so very clever. And while I expected this to be a light and humorous book, it wasn't totally. There was humor in that 'irony of the world' sort of way, but there was also loss and regeneration. A quick read, but one thats still staying with me a while after I read it.

I've not read any of his other books. If some of his fans could let me know in the comment section which one I should try next, I'd greatly appreciate it.