Book Review: "Bubblegum" By Adam Levin

Have you ever looked at discarded bubblegum and thought about its contents, the person's saliva or gingivitis , or perhaps the awkward shape in which it lands upon the pavement?

Ok, try this ...How about seeing a rusty swing set and feeling empathy for the fact it 's not being used, or worse abused, & ignored for all its glory and should be put out of its own misery-in other words- it should be MURDERED!

I'm not Belt Magnet but he's our main guy and has been diagnosed with some serious mental issues including having hallucinations, abrupt mood swings, deceptions in his train of thought process, tangential thoughts, extremely high energy, and I'd add some truly unique interactions with inanimate objects.

He's in a time of zero internet but plenty of Curio's or Cures as they were called in Wheelatine which is "a soft automaton with built-in cutting-edge senso-emotional call-and-response technology (SECRT)so convincing it almost might as well have a heart and soul, even though it doesn't."Botimal's or BDPM "a biotic data processing machine with built in artificial intelligence technology so convincing you'll believe it has a mind of its own" with an Incuband and or Pillownest for hatching. These generated animals require body heat to survive and attention from their owners; and lets not forget the therapy tests with several Inans.

Belt is quite unique in his family interactions but also in his friendships with his new found dilemma of being diagnosed with a psych disorder (schizophrenia) and trying to collect SSDI while residing with his father at 38 years of age wondering if he should branch out and make his own keep.

As a sidenote: This gal has been there with a med disabled son (Vater Syndrome) for life. Receiving payments on his behalf SSI/SSP till 18th birthday when it went for review and was declined yet disabled for life in extreme poverty to this day residing with his single mom and two other siblings.

This novel really was quite extensive so for some it will be too tedious for completion and as a speed reader it took me two days of pure dedication to complete the 824 pages according to my cloud library.

It was also a very slow read requiring extreme attention to details as there's plenty of therapy test, testing results, and various studies at University of Chicago involving therapy animals/other author novels/and documents Ie. Private Viewing, No Please Don't, A Fistful of Fists including Graham&Swords alongside Botimal/Curio instructional brochures.
The fluff could've been taken out in this section without much loss in my opinion as it didn't add a new dimension.

Nevertheless, Belt becomes the recipient of the first cure known as Kablankey or Blank for short due to the weird noises they made.

The parental relationships with Belt was bizarre for lack of a better word. I was a bit taken back by the father marrying a transgender individual after his wife's passing from breast cancer and the entire in dept discussion of bodily functions for my strict Catholic upbringing including the penis and vagina, the prostitution issue, and the interactions with the new stepmom, the dad, and Belt.

Now, what captured my attention even though it was lengthy read was the writing was clever in terms of drawing you in even though I had no idea at times where I was being taken going blindly into the abyss and at times went along kicking and screaming for the uncertainties.

Characters such as Johnny JonBoat Pellmore Jason (the father), FondaJane Henry (stepmom), and Denise to mention a few were in a world of their own.
My favorite out of all of them was probably the latter with Denise and her attempt to assist Belt in breaking out of this inner bubble.

The mother's promise that Belt would behave and not embarrass her was quite interesting considering the rumors she was viewed as emotionally unstable and abusive.

This was like a reading marathon of one in which you're test was completion over the finish line and while the author notes a letter from his father in terms of finally getting to the front of the line only to be sold out of his son's copies it's also a testament to the world without compassion, empathy, or acceptance of those with medical illness and the ignorance that's often attached to those suffering.

So I applaud the author because it was the type of book that brought you inward more than outward in examining every word, every thought, every interaction.

Thank you Bibliotheca for this introduction to this author.