The Gum Thief ~ Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland wants you to write more, and he wants you to do it by hand. From handwritten letters to your first novel, he'll show you how to do it - just write.
I do some writing myself, and recently I asked myself why I write the same characters over and over. Answer: Because I like them! And I don't mind if each of Coupland's characters is the same person (presumably himself) because I like them, too. The two protagonists of The Gum Thief are very different people, but over the first few pages, the line between them is deliberately blurred; it's a literary device, and it's the starting gun that kicks off the story.
A while ago, I read a collection of John Cheever stories, in each of which couples drink and ruin their lives. Coupland must have read the same collection, judging by the broken souls populating The Gum Thief, which has more Cheever references than you can shake a swizzle stick at.
I read this book over a year ago, and believe it or not, I held off posting a review of it until I had a camera so I could show you pictures of it.
I do some writing myself, and recently I asked myself why I write the same characters over and over. Answer: Because I like them! And I don't mind if each of Coupland's characters is the same person (presumably himself) because I like them, too. The two protagonists of The Gum Thief are very different people, but over the first few pages, the line between them is deliberately blurred; it's a literary device, and it's the starting gun that kicks off the story.
A while ago, I read a collection of John Cheever stories, in each of which couples drink and ruin their lives. Coupland must have read the same collection, judging by the broken souls populating The Gum Thief, which has more Cheever references than you can shake a swizzle stick at.
I read this book over a year ago, and believe it or not, I held off posting a review of it until I had a camera so I could show you pictures of it.