The Gum Thief: A Novel - Softcover

Coupland, Douglas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1596915005 ISBN 13: 9781596915008

Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA, 2008

Synopsis

“Wildly differing perspectives merge beautifully into one cohesive look at loneliness and despair. Yes, Coupland is dark and cutting about our fluorescent-lit times, but there's also a real underlayer of gratitude here, for the hand that can reach down and unite with you in the darkness. A–.”—Karen Valby, Entertainment Weekly

Douglas Coupland’s ingenious novel—think Clerks meets Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?—is the story of an extraordinary epistolary relationship between Roger and Bethany, two very different, but strangely connected, “aisles associates” at Staples. Watch as their lives unfold alongside Roger’s work-in-progress, the oddly titled Glove Pond. A raucous tale of four academics, two malfunctioning marriages, and one rotten dinner party, Roger’s opus is a Cheever-style novella gone horribly wrong. But as key characters migrate into and out of its pages, Glove Pond becomes an anchor of Roger’s unsettled—and unsettling—life.

Coupland 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.

About this title

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

About the Author:

Douglas Coupland is a novelist who also works in visual arts and theater. His novels include Eleanor Rigby, Generation X, All Families Are Psychotic, Hey Nostradamus!, and JPod. He lives and works in Vancouver, Canada.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1596915005
• ISBN 13: 9781596915008
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 275