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The Gum Thief

by Douglas Coupland

With The Gum Thief, Coupland has written a great story about middle age and our insignificance. At times it had me close to tears and other times I was getting funny looks on the plane for laughing aloud. The setting is a Staples store and the story focuses on a middle-aged man, Roger, stuck stacking reams of paper and a young girl Bethany fresh out of high school with just enough leftover Goth in her system. The two become unlikely friends by corresponding through a diary that Roger accidently leaves in the break room. Coupland spends some of the story focused on a novel that Roger is writing and he pulls off the 'novel-about-a-novel' quite well. The writing style with each section from a different perspective takes some getting used to, but it's well worth the endurance. While The Gum Thief is on the surface a 'day in the life' book, it's more a philosophical glimpse of middle age. For someone in the middle of their thirties, it was a nice examination of the possible futures of all of us.