I never thought I’d appreciate so much a novel that reminds me of the hellish year I spent working at Staples. I’d just dropped out of college, I had a somewhat older and incredibly controlling loser boyfriend and most of my ambitions around this time seem to have dropped off like the acquaintances of someone bound for the Witness Relocation Program. It wasn’t the best of times for me.

Having read The Gum Thief, I’m only now starting to suspect that it’s never the best of times for anybody, so long as they’re clothed in that red button-down, slaving away at a Staples somewhere.

Roger is a loser. He’s blown it big time, even before coming to work at Staples. While on his lunch breaks, he writes in a notebook, alternating between his own thoughts and pretending to be Bethany, his younger, Goth-obsessed coworker. What Roger really wants is to write Glove Pond, the novel that’s been circulating inside his mind for years, but he satiates his need to write by pretending to be a girl he sees daily but has never spoken to.

The Gum Thief is an epistolary novel, a narrative written completely in the style of personal or interpersonal communications. It joins the ranks of such books as Dracula, Fangland, The Feverhead and The Color Purple.

What starts out as just Roger’s eccentricity becomes more complex as Bethany finds the notebook and writes her own entries. From there, Roger is given the push he needs to begin putting his novel on paper, and Bethany’s mother Dee Dee, a high school classmate of Roger’s, begins writing letters as well. What started as the releasing of one strange man’s pressure valve takes on a life and gravity of its own as other Staples employees and even Roger’s ex wife begin to communicate, though not always in the notebook. There are letters, FedExes and notes slipped through mail slots galore, not to mention communications in the form of emails and manuscript critiques.

Quirky, interesting and definitely worth a read for anyone who’s ever worked a shitty job.

http://alookatabook.blogspot.com/2009... ( )

I had given up much hope for Coupland after the last few books I read of his (though I haven't read in order so it could just the ones I picked out) but this book proved to be worth the buy. It has been the first book in awhile that has made me pause while reading it and sort out how I feel about conversations the characters have. It is a depressing read but littered with numbers of gems (buttering!)that picked me up when I was starting to look to hard at the bottle of pills nearby. ( )

The Gum Thief is the story of two poor shlubs stuck in a typically Coupland scenario, a dead-end job stacking shelves at Staples. Roger is a 40-something divorcee, a frustrated writer whose life has fallen apart and whose only inspiration for writing comes from the staff and customers he meets at work. Bethany is the daughter one of Roger's former schoolmates, a lonely goth girl in her early 20s who becomes fascinated with Roger's writing, particularly his novel Glove Pond, an attempt at recapturing the style of John Cheever, the so-called "Chekhov of the suburbs". Bethany's attention encourages Roger to plough on with his book, proving that all a writer needs to be happy is a reader. She is his muse, yet in a pleasingly platonic sense (the obvious alternative is never pursued, despite the fears of Bethany's mother Dee Dee).

Read the full review at my blog. ( )

I was at chapters with a gift certificate in my hand informing me that if I spent more than $50 in the store, i’d get 40% off my purchases. Well, that’s a good way to get me to pad out my shopping. I bought The Gum Thief because it had a nice cover and I thought i’d give Douglas Coupland another shot. Also, the book was already 30% off. Oh Hells Yes. The Gum Theif was great. I liked it so much more than JPod, the only other book by Coupland that i’ve read. The story revolves, more or less, around two people, a depressed middle-aged man and a goth girl, both working at Staples. The story is told via letters and diary entries passed between the two protagonists, and other characters as the case may be; mixed into this is a novella being written by one of the characters. Unlike JPod, you feel for the characters, they are interesting and illicit your empathy. It’s a very enjoyable read. Another plus with this book is that the actual book, once you take of the dust jacket, is a beautiful pink. It’s an awesome book to carry around. -- http://funkaoshi.com/blog/the-gum-thi... ( )

I'm halfway through The Gum Thief, and so far I think it's my favourite Coupland book.

Still my favourite.