Sometimes you just can't improve upon the hype. The jacket for Douglas Coupland's new novel about the angst-ridden lives of employees in a Staples outlet, The Gum Thief (Random House $32), offers an excerpt that neatly captures the interplay between pathos and humour in Coupland's ongoing critiques of modern North American society. Once again, Coupland and his characters have melded into one narrative voice: "I work in a Staples. I'm in charge of re-stocking aisles 2-North and 2-South: Sheet Protectors, Indexes & Dividers, Notebooks, Post-it Products, Paper Pads, Specialty Papers and 'Social Stationery.' Do I hate this job? Are you nuts? Of course I hate it. How could you not hate it? Everyone who works with me is either already damaged or else they're embryos waiting to be damaged, fresh out of school and slow as a 1999 modem. Just because you've been born and made it through high school doesn't mean society still can't abort you. Wake up. Let me try to say something positive here. For balance. Staples allows me to wear black lipstick to work.-Bethany"; 978-0-307-35628-4

[BCBW 2008]