I wrote (and will have another post or two) about this book at some length here. In short, I liked the book a lot. Bits of it are pretty hard to stomach, and it's not your classic narrative novel, but it's not a classically hard book, and it's chock full of humor (and some serious stuff too). It's very much worth a read if you've liked Levin's other work or are into the usual big postmodern type novels. ( )

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC.

Bubblegum is a shocking and brutally timely work of literature. Funny and astonishingly original and heartbreaking - brutally heartbreaking in every possible way.

Adam Levin's Bubblegum works out themes of cruelty, friendship, childhood, love (of many sorts.. brutality based love), and in an achingly beautiful way: popularity-culture. I came to Bubblegum from seeing the cover art and a synopsis that was seductive but not at all helpful in terms of really understanding this slab of a tome:

"Bubblegum is set in an alternate present-day world in which the Internet does not exist, and has never existed. Rather, a wholly different species of interactive technology--a "flesh-and-bone robot" called the Curio--has dominated both the market and the cultural imagination since the late 1980s. Belt Magnet, who as a boy in greater Chicago became one of the lucky first adopters of a Curio, is now writing his memoir, and through it we follow a singular man out of sync with the harsh realities of a world he feels alien to, but must find a way to live in.

At age thirty-eight, still living at home with his widowed father, Belt insulates himself from the awful and terrifying world outside by spending most of his time with books, his beloved Curio, and the voices in his head, which he isn't entirely sure are in his head. After Belt's father goes on a fishing excursion, a simple trip to the bank escalates into an epic saga that eventually forces Belt to confront the world he fears, as well as his estranged childhood friend Jonboat, the celebrity astronaut and billionaire."

The synopsis does not work for giving a clear picture of what the heck this novel is about. However it is about as good of a shot as you're gonna get because Bubblegum is totally bonkers. Adam Levin works out an entire alternate culture working out its everyday life. It is like that line in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs that goes:

"You know the story, but people cant get enough of them, the familiar stories, like little children. Because they connect the stories to themselves, I suppose, and we all love hearing about ourselves, over and over. So long as the people in the story are - us, but not us. Not us at the end..."

Bubblegum is all about us but its not us and its that story in details and conversations and instructions, yes instructions, literary product instructions. Working from the synopsis I read the novel for about 150 pages and then just stopped. I had to close the book and sit and stare at the cover and think: What the hell is this?! I took a break detached myself from the synopsis till I could barely remember what it said without the need to glance at it and dug back into it. Bubblegum, at least for me, required total disorientation to get everything out of it.

Adam Levin's Bubblegum has style, comedy, and filth, and shocking brutality, in large heaving spoonfuls. However at the end it is all about sympathy and kindness and love by way of all the above. That its possible in the world of Bubblegum in the world of our world to be a loving good person even if you are sort of cruel and brutal yourself.

Get the book and read it. I totally loved my ARC. After the freebie I had to wait for the thing to come out so I could own the copy. The print edition is stunning. Also the audiobook is amazingly produced.

Get Bubblegum.

Pairs well with:
Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin ( )