Rating:  Summary: Enjoyable from beginning to end ! Review: This book was great on tape . We became so engrossed in the story we missed the freeway exit.
Rating:  Summary: Pretty good book Review: I found it very interesting, but it was kind of like an art film--a lot of emotions, some amazing points, but it really doesn't have the most perceptible of plots.
Rating:  Summary: Read Illusions by Richard Bach instead! Review: If you want to read something to inspire you, pick up Illusions by Richard Bach instead.Also, Coupland listened to The Smiths entirely too much before he wrote this book-- Morrissey's lyrics are all over the place. Very silly!
Rating:  Summary: TERRIBLE! Review: The beginning sounded pretty OK but then it turned into a very boring and terrible book. I'd expected to read something as moving as Gen. X but to no avail. I can't think of a book worse than this.
Rating:  Summary: a highly accurate portrayal of 90's youth ennui Review: The best book I have read in years. It accurately sums up the vacuous feeling experienced by the post-yuppie era. It shows the way forward if we are brave enough to choose the path. Absolutely unmissable.
Rating:  Summary: Starts strong, turns paradoxically weak and weird Review: First, as preamble: I like Coupland a lot. Liked GenX. Liked MicroSerfs. Fizzled out on Shampoo Planet, but through no fault of the author's, I think. I started out really liking Girlfriend, too. It has much of Coupland's loopy, gentle, self deprecating charm, and warm but dense prose. I cared about the characters in an offhand way, like friends of friends you see often. I also must admit, his chiding about modern life struck a cord for me in a way that made me want to get off the plane I was trapped on (coast-to-coast flights are the only time I get to read now, and that supports the author's thesis, now doesn't it?) and do something meaningful. Unfortunately, I didn't "buy" the apocalypse at all. It's been done much better -- Stephen King's "The Stand", for example. Coupland, normally deeply affecting in a curious way, didn't make *me* feel anything, or make me believe that the characters felt loss. It didn't help that I had just put down King's "Bag of Bones", which *did* touch me deeply (made me want to get off the plane and pick up/hug/protect my two-year-old full-time). A good book, not a great one. Borrow it for the beach or buy it if you really like Coupland and don't mind the odd failure of the climax.
Rating:  Summary: Simple and straightforward; thoughts about "modern people" Review: Coupland writes a pretty tight story criticizing some parts of modern living. He gets an extra star for not writing the book longer than neccessary. The book was hard to put away, but it does not get full points due to somewhat weak character descriptions.
Rating:  Summary: Wake up Review: It's an excellent although flawed novel. The motif of a coma to illustrate the lifeless manner in which twentieth century life has overtaken the western world does initially seem a little mannered, but Coupland writes with a lot of tenderness and insight. I liked the way that all the pop culture refernces from previous novels melted away as Coupland grappled with more substantial issues, I know that some readers will feel betrayed that Coupland has shifted from concentrating on details to looking at the big picture (moving from pop to rock, if you like) but it's a novel which stays with you for a long time. Not everything hits the mark, but the overall impact is impressive. Well, I'm running out of words. Bye.
Rating:  Summary: I thought this book was very thought provoking. Review: I think that this book gave us all something to think about and that it was not to be taken so literally. I believe that we generation xers are struggling to define who we as a group are in this new generation and I think that this book just says hey while we are doing that lets not get too caught up in the world we live in b/c it could change at any second. I really enjoyed this book and it thought that it was a bit of the "Tuesdays with Morrie" for the generation Xers.
Rating:  Summary: Shallow philosophical maundering and a deus ex machina Review: I've really enjoyed much of Coupland's earlier work, but this was hard to take. I have a problem with middle-aged male authors who go on at great length asking the rhetorical question "Life used to have so much meaning; what happened?" (Hint: the only change was that your ability to perceive the presence or absence of meaning became more acute as you matured.) And that's not only a tiresome obsession in this book; it's what the book is about. Coupland also assumes that this phenomenon is unique to his generation, as if people haven't been grappling with it (and writing tiresome books about it) since the dawn of culture. Combine these with magical realism poorly done, an arbitrary deus ex machina to fix everything up at the end, and disappointingly flat prose and characterization (Coupland is capable of much better than this.) and you have a book that I would pay not to have to re-read.
|