The Gum Thief- Douglas Coupland

Well i spent my entire day today reading The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland.

the book starts out on it's initial premise extremely early, which is about two characters who both work at a Staples store; Roger- a 40 something man on the brink of total bottom whose life took a turn for the worse and kept on track with dreams of being an author, and Bethany- a 24 year old goth girl whose early life was so occupied by dying people that she is not very comfortable with life. Bethany finds Roger's journal, which included mentions of her outlook on life that were more accurate than she would like to admit. they begin to write each other, while at the same time keeping up public appearances by ignoring each other at the store. The actual layout of the book is a chronological list of letters and book portions from 'Glove Pond'-see below- with the character whose point of view the narration is from at the top, usually broken up every few pages by a response. it makes it really easy to follow while still mixing up roger and Bethany with all the characters in Glove Pond

Bethany encourages Roger to write his great novel "Glove Pond" a flamboyant version of what is basically Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf. The entire time he mentions Burton and Taylor as the models for the characters ( who played the leads in the Movie version of Woolf) and even mentions Albee once- however the character doesn't seem to acknowledge the fact that he has lifted the bare essence of these characters into his own story. Th

Over time Bethany's mother DeeDee ( who we learn went to high school with Roger and once before Bethany and Roger knew each other went on a tragic date) begins to talk to Roger, at first asking him to leave Bethany alone so that she can escape this life that they both lead- then realizing he is someone who's opinion matters to Bethany( she begins to send him samples of her own writing and shows DeeDee 'Glove Pond' which she also likes. and the relationship gets a little weirder--- that's all the plot i'll divulge.

'Glove Pond' is absolute crap for the majority of the time- but it's heartbreaking crap because Roger invests so much time and energy and it gets so much more intriguing toward the end of its run that you just want to edit. there's flashes of interest but the characters are such Caricatures for most of the time that you don't see them. The worst is that I sat there and laughed at the horible writing until one moment which made me feel so much more for Roger that it hurt.

while i haven't read its criticism. i can imagine that some people would complain that Coupland's portrayal of my generation is exactly the same as Gen X, which for the majority issues, as i learned in my other COupland Class, it basically is. The main idealogical difference between the two according to the giant poll that my teacher showed us is that Y is more environmental than X, which Coupland had already obsessed about in stories with Gen X characters so it's no real leap for him to use the next generation on the brink of adulthood. As always- there's some religion, but its negligible so it can be passed on. The message of the book seems to be that you need to get by the mundane aspects of life through people who not only get you but are supportive of you, and while this not may be a family in any definable sense it gives you that same grounding when you need something to hold onto.

Coupland also did an amazing series of quirky advertisements for the book on youtube that are interesting imagery with little clips of the book- highly recommend you check them out.

The final ending was a hilarious, although somewhat weirdly placed, critique of lower-level fiction writing classes that made me crack up at how wrong i thought the advice was.

Final Verdict is that it's a pretty good read- but it is not replacing All Families are Psychotic- which i'm thinking i'll have to reread just to make sure it still is my favorite.