Product Description

Roger is a middle-aged and divorced 'aisles associate' at a Staples outlet. His co-worker Bethany is facing fifty more years of shelving Post-it notes. Then Bethany discovers Roger's notebook and finds that he's writing diary entries pretending to be her - and weirdly, he's getting it right. Bethany and Roger strike up a secret correspondence, and as it unfolds so too do the characters of Roger's work-in-progress, Glove Pond, a Cheever-era novella gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22499 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 275 pages

Review
'Funny, touching and immensely enjoyable' Daily Express 'Classic Coupland' Independent 'A tender and hopeful story that shows how, with friendship and the occasional little act of rebellion, there can still be laughter after tragedy' Daily Mail 'He is a brilliant social commentator and a wit for our time' TLS

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.

Daily Mail
A tender and hopeful story that shows how, with friendship and the occasional little act of rebellion, there can still be laughter after tragedy.

Customer Reviews

Familiar tone of voice, familiar post-modern observations
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.

A gentle tale of social dislocation
This book presents a snapshot into the lives of different people who all work together - it is perhaps the only thing they have in common. However, gradually, they develop some ties with each other, but because of the dislocation generated by the socio-economic conditions in which they live, the friendships they develop don't really feel tangible. I felt that this was the real strength of the book, that it could evoke a sense of dislocation and detachment. This is a well-written, compassionate and gentle tale.

A welcome return to form for Mr Coupland!
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.