book data
1,222 ratings,
3.46
average rating, 280 reviews
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published
October 2nd 2007
by Bloomsbury USA
binding
Hardcover, 275 pages
isbn
1596911069
(isbn13: 9781596911062)
description
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—...more
In Douglas Coupland’s ingenious new novel—...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1,865)
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5 stars (151)
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4 stars (469)
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3 stars (431)
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2 stars (128)
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1 star (42)
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avg 3.46
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in January, 2009
recommended to Michelle by:
Deleted Member
When are Otis & Co. going to implement half stars? Because I'd like to give this book four and a half stars.
I loved this book. It's not often that a book makes me laugh out loud, and this book consistently made me laugh out loud. Peals of laughter. Giggles. Cackles, even. I’m not exaggerating.
It’s also very sad, sweet, and affecting all at the same time. I love books wherein the characters ruminate. I get most of my own ruminating done in the shower, but these...more
I loved this book. It's not often that a book makes me laugh out loud, and this book consistently made me laugh out loud. Peals of laughter. Giggles. Cackles, even. I’m not exaggerating.
It’s also very sad, sweet, and affecting all at the same time. I love books wherein the characters ruminate. I get most of my own ruminating done in the shower, but these...more
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17 comments
Read in October, 2007
This is a stupid book.
This is one of the more aggravatingly bad books that I've read in some time.
Here's reasons why this book is of poor quality.
1. Completely unlikable characters.
The book centers around a forty-year-old losery guy and a twenty-four year old shrill goth girl. Those are red flags, I know, but it's not their external appearances that make these characters unlikable but rather their voice, their way of telling their respective stori...more
This is one of the more aggravatingly bad books that I've read in some time.
Here's reasons why this book is of poor quality.
1. Completely unlikable characters.
The book centers around a forty-year-old losery guy and a twenty-four year old shrill goth girl. Those are red flags, I know, but it's not their external appearances that make these characters unlikable but rather their voice, their way of telling their respective stori...more
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4 comments
Read in March, 2008
(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 bo...more
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 bo...more
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Read in January, 2008
This unassuming book is a tour-de-force. Filled with stories-within-stories and other postmodern devices that should be annoying, the novel is eminently readable and surprising in its embrace of humanity and cynicism all at once.
Without mythologizing the quotidian, i.e. making our scummy human life seem romantic, and without dosing the whole enterprise with irony, Coupland manages to make something at once depressing and redeeming. For the first time in ages, I actually stopped rea...more
Without mythologizing the quotidian, i.e. making our scummy human life seem romantic, and without dosing the whole enterprise with irony, Coupland manages to make something at once depressing and redeeming. For the first time in ages, I actually stopped rea...more
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Read in November, 2007
I love, and I mean LOVE, Douglas Coupland. There will always be a special place for him in my heart because he brought me clarity and a new life belief system in the form of Generation X. But sometimes he really pisses me off. This is one of those times. I read this book last week and have forgotten it already. This is not a good sign. Plus, as my good friend Katie pointed out, he likes to test me. There are two things I hate this this world; racism and chewed up bubble gum. So why why why woul...more
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Read in March, 2009
recommends it for:
cualquiera que le guste leer
estupendo libro, aunque he de decir que conmigo Coupland lo tiene fácil porque me gusta casi siempre. Algunos dicen que siempre escribe de lo mismo, y que a veces parece un stand-up comedian, y yo no solo lo confirmo sino que confieso que me encanta. Me río y emociono en un mismo párrafo y esa lucha entre estar deprimido y superfelizdelamuerte que viven todos sus personajes la encuentro de lo más real.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2008
Though not one of Coupland's best, still an engaging, beautiful, thought provoking novel. Coupland explores the interior world of two unlikely friends and fellow Staples employees via the letters they write to one another. The book's overarching, and wonderfully executed, questions are:
1) What does it mean to be human?
2) Can humans ever truly change, especially in an age in which we have lost faith in an apocalypse that could project meaning back on life's seemingly unrelated event...more
1) What does it mean to be human?
2) Can humans ever truly change, especially in an age in which we have lost faith in an apocalypse that could project meaning back on life's seemingly unrelated event...more
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Read in February, 2008
I became a fan of Douglas Coupland's writing after I checked out Generation X from the library when I was in high school. I've read a number of his books and his one, The Gum Thief is one of my favorites, along with Generation X and Life After God. Most Coupland novels are full of unrealistic plot twists that somehow bind the characters. This book is more straightforward and realistic in its storyline. The novel is told through letters and writing samples that the characters share. And while it ...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
recovering goths, aspiring novelists, disgruntled big-box retail store employees
Douglas Coupland is one of my favorite authors of all time. I've loved every single one of his books and have always been thrilled when he comes out with a new one to see that he is not slipping or falling into a gimmick à la recent Palahniuk (yeah, I said it). his style always seems fresh to me, and he always seems to have an unflinchingly clear understanding of the world he's writing about.
The Gum Thief, though, disappointed me a teensy bit. Coupland's style is still fresh -- n...more
The Gum Thief, though, disappointed me a teensy bit. Coupland's style is still fresh -- n...more
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Read in January, 2008
There's a certain predictability to a Douglas Coupland novel. It's kind of like reading Vonnegut, or watching an episode of Law and Order. You know what you're going to get.
Not much of a break from form on this novel - the typical zeitgeist shennanigans we've come to expect, the typically depressed teenager, the chapters divided by character. A lot of it felt a little formulaic, but at the same time, it's kind of like putting on an old, comfortable sweater.
The story is on...more
Not much of a break from form on this novel - the typical zeitgeist shennanigans we've come to expect, the typically depressed teenager, the chapters divided by character. A lot of it felt a little formulaic, but at the same time, it's kind of like putting on an old, comfortable sweater.
The story is on...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
office supply store workers, metafiction junkies, and those who have lost hope
I had high hopes for my first Coupland read, and this novel did not let me down.
The story is actually several novellas tucking inside the journal of an alcoholic, divorced, and depressed Staples employee who is going through a mid-life crisis. Roger Thorpe swigs and stews while he creates a fake diary for Bethany, his garish and Gothic coworker, a younger but equally disgruntled and disillusioned Gen-Xer.
Bethany discovers the journal and begins a dialogue with Roger. She ...more
The story is actually several novellas tucking inside the journal of an alcoholic, divorced, and depressed Staples employee who is going through a mid-life crisis. Roger Thorpe swigs and stews while he creates a fake diary for Bethany, his garish and Gothic coworker, a younger but equally disgruntled and disillusioned Gen-Xer.
Bethany discovers the journal and begins a dialogue with Roger. She ...more
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Read in October, 2007
If you didn't know, The Gum Thief is a relationship between a 40ish alcoholic (Roger) and a 20ish goth girl (Bethany) who only interact through letters to one another. They talk about their crappy lives and Roger's novel he is working on and sending in installments to Bethany.
The first quarter of the book is pretty much a wash, but I guess it's essential to the evolution of the characters. Once Bethany and Roger found more common ground, the book kind of took off getting pretty depre...more
The first quarter of the book is pretty much a wash, but I guess it's essential to the evolution of the characters. Once Bethany and Roger found more common ground, the book kind of took off getting pretty depre...more
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Read in October, 2007
Fall TV's big trend seems to involve people with pathetic, losery jobs at soulless chain stores (Chuck, which is so far getting a tentative thumbs up from me, and Reaper, which I'm giving a big thumbs down). Coupland, as usual, is ahead (or at least on top) of the trend, with his latest novel being set at Staples, and following two employees—the older, divorced Roger and young goth Bethany—as they write letters to each other, following Bethany's discovery of Roger's diary. This is interspers...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
Everyone who thought they hated Douglas Coupland and those of you who don't.
Wow.
Well, let me start by saying, I'd totally written Douglas Coupland off a couple of years ago. I just couldn't get into any of his other books. And I wondered if his one-trick-pony-of-the-literary-world was really true. I kept reading great reviews of past books, but when I went to read them, something about his tone or his subjects never hit me as interesting or sincere. Until now. The Gum Thief is amazing. Its premise of a lovely Goth Girl and a broken down Middle-Aged man working at...more
Well, let me start by saying, I'd totally written Douglas Coupland off a couple of years ago. I just couldn't get into any of his other books. And I wondered if his one-trick-pony-of-the-literary-world was really true. I kept reading great reviews of past books, but when I went to read them, something about his tone or his subjects never hit me as interesting or sincere. Until now. The Gum Thief is amazing. Its premise of a lovely Goth Girl and a broken down Middle-Aged man working at...more
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3 comments
Read in November, 2007
So, I gave this three stars, but I'm pretty sure that third star is just because I like Coupland and want to give him the credit of a doubt that what was bad about this book was actually intentional.
I'm willing to pretend that he intentionally ripped off "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and didn't even bother to change the details until the second half of "Glove Pond". Maybe that was the point.
This book had some redeeming parts, mostly toward the end...more
I'm willing to pretend that he intentionally ripped off "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and didn't even bother to change the details until the second half of "Glove Pond". Maybe that was the point.
This book had some redeeming parts, mostly toward the end...more
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Read in January, 2008
"I don’t think anyone ever gets over anything in life. They merely get used to it."
With that single line, Douglas Coupland summed up my whole life. The rest of the novel is just as heartbreaking. The novel centres around the employees of a Staples store out west (Vancouver, though the name of the city is never included), and the complicated relationships that occur between them.
What I love about Coupland is that he writes about characters that aren't particula...more
With that single line, Douglas Coupland summed up my whole life. The rest of the novel is just as heartbreaking. The novel centres around the employees of a Staples store out west (Vancouver, though the name of the city is never included), and the complicated relationships that occur between them.
What I love about Coupland is that he writes about characters that aren't particula...more
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Read in October, 2007
'Zeitgeist' is an overused word, but if anyone is able to capture the 'spirit of the age' it's Coupland. No matter how depressing the age - sanitised, grey, soulless - he brings hope by writing about the unique thoughts and dreams of ordinary people. What is The Gum Thief about? It's about love in the age of office superstores - which is the title of an upcoming book by Kyle Falconcrest, himself a character in Glove Pond, a novel being written by Roger, unhappy Staples employee. We've all read b...more
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Read in January, 2008
The Gum Thief initially seems to be about what all of Canadian writer Douglas Coupland's other books are about: lives of quite desperation and absurdity that is modern living.
It is thus refreshing when you discover that thus book juts might be an examination of the act of writing itself. A a series of diary entries, letters, and even installements of a novel-within-a-novel, it all begins when Roger, a divorced, alcoholic middle aged worker on the fars track to nowhere at staionery st...more
It is thus refreshing when you discover that thus book juts might be an examination of the act of writing itself. A a series of diary entries, letters, and even installements of a novel-within-a-novel, it all begins when Roger, a divorced, alcoholic middle aged worker on the fars track to nowhere at staionery st...more
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Read in February, 2009
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 w...more
It does not help that I did not like the "meta-novel" he interweaves w...more
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quotes from this book
"You're right, a spleen is a strange thing-we technically don't need one, but maybe spleens are kept in our bodies in case we mutate or evolve, and if we grow wings or tentacles we need to have the spleen in place in order for them to work."
More quotes...
![“My Library [is] Dukedom Large Enough”](http://photo.goodreads.com/groups/1237250511p2/16020.jpg)
