(7/05) Finished - review to follow

I thought this was great, I can’t wait to read his other books, not least Microserfs (which I have), and Generation X (which I haven’t). This book covers several big themes, although they don’t quite receive the same space or consistent attention. In chronological order:

- The after-life bit, narrated by ex jock and teenage cancer victim Jared (quite a few years before Alice Sebold & Lovely Bones) ‘End of life does not mean the end of history’

- The Vancouver ‘Generation X’ bit; school friends growing up into disillusioned, unfulfilled 30-somethings

- The ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’ bit, how it affects the lives of friends & family

- The waking up from the coma bit; what it’s like to have the mind of a child in a aged body having missed huge chunks of (your) life, history & popular culture

- The near-future post-apocalyptic bit!

The last section as a fantastical diversion was probably the weakest, but worked at one level as a parable, according to the blurb, ‘A great wake-up call to young Americans everywhere’, I assume that means the wider dominion of ‘North Americans’, including the 53rd state of Great Britain ;-)

What’s more, the novel is set mostly in Vancouver, so some familiar geography and places from our recent holiday in the Pacific NW.

RELEASE NOTES:

Pre-release for tomorrow's Ipswich meet-up

Picked up on recommendation from BookGroupMan - thanks!

I really enjoyed this novel, both for its effortless style and its intricate characterisations. It's almost achingly postmodern, philosophical and interesting, while still being a good read.

Amazon.co.uk says:
In this latest novel from the poet laureate of Gen X--who is himself now a dangerously mature 36--boy does indeed meet girl. The year is 1979, and the lovers get right down to business in a very Couplandian bit of plein air intercourse: "Karen and I deflowered each other atop Grouse Mountain, among the cedars beside a ski slope, atop crystal snow shards beneath penlight stars. It was a December night so cold and clear that the air felt like the air of the Moon--lung-burning; mentholated and pure; hint of ozone, zinc, ski wax, and Karen's strawberry shampoo." Are we in for an archetypal '80s romance, played out against a pop-cultural backdrop? Nope. Only hours after losing her virginity, Karen loses consciousness as well--for almost two decades. The narrator and his circle soldier on, making the slow progression from debauched Vancouver youths to semi-responsible adults. Several end up working on a television series that bears a suspicious resemblance to The X-Files (surely a self-referential wink on the author's part). And then ... Karen wakes up. Her astonishment-- which suggests a 20th-century, substance-abusing Rip Van Winkle--dominates the second half of the novel, and gives Coupland free reign to muse about time, identity, and the meaning (if any) of the impending millennium. Alas, he also slaps a concluding apocalypse onto the novel. As sleeping sickness overwhelms the populace, the world ends with neither a bang nor a whimper, but a universal yawn--which doesn't, fortunately, outweigh the sweetness, oddity, and ironic smarts of everything that has preceded it.

Given to me by SemioticGhost up at the London BC Meetup. Onto the TBR shelf...

The journals by BookGroupMan and SemioticGhost pretty much encapsulate my feeling about this books (and thanks to the latter for pressing this on me). A very enjoyable book, mixing all manner of themes into a very readable whole and made the more interesting for me by having spent last summer in Vancouver.

RELEASE NOTES:

This book will be released at the next Kingston BookCrossing Meetup - Tuesday 28 March, 7-11 pm. All are welcome - we'll be sitting in the sofas and will have piles of books and a BookCrossing sign with us. For more information, please PM UrbanSpaceman.

I took 15 books to Kingston Meetup tonight and this was the only that didn't get taken, poor thing. Have brought it home again for the time being.

Picked up to help it on its journey! For the Horsham OBCZ

RELEASE NOTES:

On the OBCZ bookshelf