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The Gum Thief
 
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The Gum Thief (Paperback)

by Douglas Coupland (Author)
3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (1 Oct 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0747591881
  • ISBN-13: 978-0747591887
  • Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.4 x 2.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 131,769 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #17 in  Books > Fiction > Cult Authors > Coupland, Douglas

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Product Description

Review
'Coupland is possibly the most gifted exegete of North American mass culture writing today' Guardian Praise for JPOD: 'A dazzling comic novel, confirming that there is on current form no finer novelist writing in English' Literary Review 'There is brilliance at work in JPod. Not to mention more LOLs than you could shake a bong at. Mom must be so proud.' LA Times 'An extraordinary book, wide-ranging and wildly inventive' London Review of Books

The Times
Funny; genuinely, embarrass-yourself-on-a-plane funny. The Gum Thief sometimes reads like a more cleverly executed version of Breakfast of Champions.

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79% buy the item featured on this page:
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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.3 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Familiar tone of voice, familiar post-modern observations, 30 Oct 2007
Coupland's voice is instantly recognisable and he has a set of themes he has made is own. And The Gum Thief is representative of both. He doesn't extends his range (as he did in Eleanor Rigby and Hey Nostradamus!) but neither does he rehash earlier successes (J-Pod). There are many beautiful observations here, and moments of genuine warmth. There are also moments of indulgence, issues in pacing, a wearying sense of deja vu and ultimately, the whole doesn't really add up to very much. If you like Coupland, you will still like him at the end of The Gum Thief, but I can't help feeling this is a novel written between other, hopefully more ambitious projects.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A welcome return to form for Mr Coupland!, 30 Nov 2007
By Ingaborga (London, UK) - See all my reviews
A lot of people, like me, might have initially been put off buying this after the frankly disappointing JPod. I grew up with Douglas Coupland novels - with JPod, it felt like Coupland had lost his touch, and like a girl whose heart had been broken by her first love, I was reluctant to get my hopes up. But a friend (and less obsessive Coupland fan than I) recommended The Gum Thief to me, and I'm pleased that she did.

The Gum Thief is a sweet, heartwarming story of unlikely friendship, and dignity in even the most trying circumstances. It is written mainly as an exchange of letters, notes and diary entries between Roger, a divorced, bitter old soak and Bethany, a 20-something Goth, interspersed with a few other voices and extracts from Glove Pond, Roger's hilariously bad debut novella. What is initially a rather prickly relationship between Roger and Bethany blossoms into something deeper, as they come to genuinely care for one another. Not a great deal happens - the plot seems more about thoughts, memories and feelings than action and dialogue. But only the hardest hearts could fail to be moved by this lovely tale.

The love affair is back on.
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10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Spot on about life in an increasingly globalised society, 13 Oct 2007
By L. S. Arnold "Reader of books" (Essex, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I picked this up because I have been a fan of Coupland's since reading Girlfriend in a Coma. Written as a series of letters from Roger, a divorced old soak who is more than a little bitter, and Bethany, a 22yr old goth. They both work in Staples (an American stationery mega-store) and waste their lives doing nothing. Everyone Bethany's ever loved (barring her mother) is dead, and everyone Roger has ever loved he lost after his son died and he had an ill-thought-out fling.

I only gave it 4stars because the novel that Roger is writing throughout the book drags a little bit in places, but it is also full of brilliant insights. In one part, when Bethany describes being dumped, she says she feels like a tree she once saw in spring; when a car hit it and "all the petals fell off at once".

An excellent read, well worth the seven quid.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A return to form for Coupland
I've read and enjoyed everything Coupland has written, right up to 2006's "jPod". This was massively disappointing - it seemed as if everything I'd loved about his previous works... Read more
Published 5 days ago by S. P. Long

3.0 out of 5 stars Coupland being Coupland
I really struggled on what star rating to give this book. If I could I would've given it an extra half star. Read more
Published 1 month ago by N. E. Mathers

2.0 out of 5 stars Falling between two stools...
Not being a fan of Coupland, I'm not infected by any idea of how high on the Coupland league this would rate. Viewed in isolation, this seems to be a middling effort. Read more
Published 4 months ago by bloodsimple

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent Coupland, but not exceptional
Decent Coupland but not exceptional, which is to say that it's still pretty good by anyone else's standards. Read more
Published 7 months ago by M. G. Wilson

5.0 out of 5 stars Kiss my face. This is a great read.
Ignore all the doommongers and beardstrokers. 'Its not as good as this, its not as long as that, it does quite smell like the last one'. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Bod

3.0 out of 5 stars Live to work - no ... work to live.
Coupland is back writing about normal people with mind-numbing jobs - this time at a stationery superstore. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Annabel Gaskell

3.0 out of 5 stars The Gum Thief
Not entirely sure what I thought of this book! I liked the characters and the diary/letter format. I also enjoyed the cringeworthy novel within a novel. Read more
Published 16 months ago by gerty guinea

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing direction for Coupland
I quite liked JPod, it wasn't anywhere near Coupland's best work but it felt familiar. What I didn't like about it was the inclusion of himself as a character, and I feel this... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Phil Betjeman

4.0 out of 5 stars Back on form
I didn't rate jPod, thought Coupland was rehashing old ground when he is particularly good at pushing the boundaries. But with this book, he's back on form. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Michelle Antoinette

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment
I'd rate Eleanor Rigby and, especially, Hey Nostradamus! as being among the best novels I've read in the past few years - novels which use an elliptical style and apparently... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Ladybird

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