Read & Download The Gum Thief 104

> Read & Download The Gum Thief 104

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Read & Download The Gum Thief 104 Ï 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 sort of a Clerks meets Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf we meet Roger a divorced middle aged aisles associate at Staples condemned to restocking reams of 20 lb bond paper for theThe 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 sort of a Clerks meets Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf we meet 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. If there ever was a time to write a review for The Gum Thief it’s in the middle of the night when your back hurts and the walls close in on you and your mind won’t stop rushing until you imagine a Buddhist monk opening a little door in your head peeking in and saying “No enlightenment for this one His mind won’t slow down In fact let me move away from him as fast as possible”This novel revolves around a loser everyman who after a series of family tragedies and dumbass decisions finds himself working at an office superstore amongst sullen ambitionless teenagers and uncompromising fluorescent lights He and a goth girl slightly too old for the goth thing begin a curious correspondence via notebook in which they chronicle their reactions to the store their pasts and the terrifying possibility that 1 their lives may never transcend the superstore’s aisles andor 2 even if their lives did transcend the superstore’s aisles their experience with the fragility of the tolerable elements of existence is so pervasive they might be damaged permanently These people are stuck and smart enough to realize the unstuck people are maybe just not perceptive enough to realize they’re only a couple steps away from stuck themselves So why get up in the morningWell there’s Glove Pond the man’s novel that blossoms from the notebook exchange And there’s a trip to Europe for the girl that goes awry but transforms the girl in unexpected ways And there are both a lack of easy answers and a surprising testament to the power of human beings to carry each other through the deadening American retail landscapeYou know those people who say things like “You know you could get hurt and your insurance could run out and you could lose your job and your whole life could fall apart” They’re right But that doesn’t mean you hide under the covers and I love hiding the covers seriously for the rest of your lives because that’s not living either The Gum Thief is essentially about whether or not you should hide under the covers or leave the house every day The Gum Thief transcends hipster chatter and coheres in a manner that might escape uick or careless reading This is a smart tough novel that might look light and empty upon first glance just like that register drone where you buy your pens might not look like she actually has a life beyond distributing change and helping you find report covers I recommend it but maybe not combined with a Joy Division listening session or anything too harrowing I’m going to continue with his catalog this summer

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Tled Glove Pond a Cheever era novella gone horribly horribly wrong Through a complex layering of narratives The Gum Thief reveals the comedy loneliness and strange comforts of contemporary lifeCoupland electrifies us on every page of this witty wise and unforgettable novel Love death and eternal friendship can all transpire where we least expect them and even after tragedy seems to have wiped your human slate clean stories can slowly rebuild you. 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 would Douglas put a picture of chewed up bubble gum bright pink shiny realistic looking and I SWEAR sticky bubble gum on the front and back of his new book He's just mean Anyway the idea was good the ending was interesting and I got sucked in somewhere in the middle Douglas's true uirky voice comes out at some point but if you've never read one of his books before don't start with this one And if you have read one of his books before reread it It's better I suggest Gen X Microserfs or Miss Wyoming

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The Gum ThiefYears of sorting the red pens from the blue in aisle 6One day Bethany discovers Roger's notebook in the staff room When she opens it up she discovers that this old guy she's never considered as uite human is writing mock diary entries pretending to be her and spookily he is getting her rightThese two retail workers then strike up an extraordinary epistolary relationship Watch as their lives unfold alongside Roger's work in progress the oddly ti. Ingenious Clever Heartwarming I liked it I liked it a lawt I don't want to waste your time or the tiny bit of brain power I have going right now with a plot synopsis and anyway this book has been reviewed on GR a bunch and there are some good ones out thereso you can read about what it's about elsewhere But I do wanna say that for me the book's got a strong SeinfeldyLarry David vibe There's tons of general observations about everyday nothingness that evolve into epiphanies about the world we live in andor philosophical rants And most of the book is set in an office superstore which is a little like who the fuck cares what goes on in a Staples which reminded me of the Seinfeld where Jerry and George pitch their show to NBC as being about nothing At one point I thought Hmm That's sort of derivative have to knock it down a star Then I tried reading Bethany one of the main characters as Elaine Bennis but it didn't work So I realized that while it was reminiscent it was still original newfresh I found the characters relatable likable and real Besides nothing's born in a vacuum Aside from all of that the book's actually pretty dark One of the things Coupland does so well in The Gum Thief is transition from the everyday setting of bad lighting shithead customers and gossipy teens to heavier issues like suicide the loss of a child drug abuse illness insanity and heartbreak without even blinking It's all so unbelievably believable And oddly not a bummer at all I don't know I'm not sure what else to say about it There's so much going on You just have to read it for yourself I read a negative review by a goodreader that suggested all the characters had the same voice Coupland's I didn't get that AT ALL I mean I think to have characters that work together or are friends with each other or are related to each other each have a voice or perspective so different from the other's would be not only off putting but unrealistic I am a lot like the people I hang around for a reason I like people who share a similar outlook on life and get my sense of humor Other than that the reviewer complained the main character was too old to be goth She's obviously never been to gothsinhotweathercom or a Marilyn Manson concert