Microserfs

Rating:
Summary: Imaginative and enjoyable
Review: Being a spanish-speaking person and spanish-language reader, I don't have much opportunities to read American contemporary authors, unless they're writing computer systems technical books. So I must admit, my first glance at Microserfs was motivated by the curiosity of someone trying to describe how tech-obsessed, workaholic and project-slaved workers (as most people in my carreer) thought, felt and dreamed. I thought it would certainly be a challenge to build a plot with such characters. Copeland proved me wrong.

As I read this book, I got lest interested with the similarities to real geeks and more involved in the real metaphor of Microserfs: the search for personal realization in each of this genious but not so life-wise characters. This process, narrated with humor, tech & tv real-world metaphors, self-inspection and lots of deliciously imaginative - and fantastic- theories in the minds of each character, is what really drives the reader to love this book from beginning to end.

So I would recommend Microserfs twice: 1: to get a good understanding of geeks - which after reading this book will probably be no stranger to the reader than any average football fan, or any other obsessed kind, 2, to read a funny and imaginative novel while learning how this 21st century life is reshaping American's relationships and personal quests. The book's ending, fantastically crafted and at the same time full of new questions, is the best example of how this two ideas live together in Copeland's book.

Rating:
Summary: A great look at IT culture...
Review: A fellow geek friend of mine convinced me to get this book. We both work as network engineers for various major corporations, so we're not coders. However, "Microserfs" was a great narrative on geek culture. We're both a little more down-to-Earth than Dan and his crew (we're married, have lives outside IT, etc,) but the book really hit home for both of us. Being a 20-something in the tech industry is tough, especially if you don't want to conform and become a "suit" when you're 30. Coupland captures that spirit of insecurity in his characters. The references to pop culture icons and just the ramblings about everyday life really made this tech nerd think that Dan is one of the guys I work with all the time. I've read the book several times, and constantly notice parallels between the lives of this group of nerds and my own. It's a *great* read for anyone in the tech industry, not just programmers!

Rating:
Summary: Buy this book for the geek you love or even like
Review: This book is hilarious, and so true to life. I like how this book reprensents the characters in a way that makes them real, even likeable, and not just a bunch of nerds with strange quirks. A must read if you or anyone close to you is a programmer.

Rating:
Summary: Northwest culture explained... or not?
Review: Once again, Doug Coupland manages to nail both the interior worlds of his characters and the exterior world in which they function. In 'Microserfs', Coupland takes on the corporate culture of Washington State's most famous export- Microsoft, and its 'nerd' employees. From Redmond, home of Bill Gates' universe, to California's Silicon Valley, Coupland describes with frightening accuracy the local culture as it relates to his characters. (Anyone who hails from the Seattle area will recognise the yuppie techno-world of the Eastside -Starbucks, Lexuses, Uwajimaya, and the Evergreen Point Bridge). Anyone who likes to really get inside the protagonists' heads will love Daniel Underwood (the title Microserf) and his increasingly revealing computer diaries. Coupland does a masterful job of bringing Daniel out of his stereotypical techie shell and into the 'real' world as it appears to us non-nerd types. Along the way Daniel experiences first love, closure of the death of his brother, and helping his suddenly unemployed father find his place in the modern world. The storyline is typical Coupland, with a road trip, endearing co-conspirators, razor-sharp insights, and cultural references, with a few surprises to keep you going. Buy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Ramblings...
Review: Though the journal-entry style of this book is refreshing when compared to other fiction books masquerading as reality, I find it hard to discern anything more than the generic ramblings of twenty-somethings in the hi-tech industry. They talk about completely random things, such as what programs pet animals would write if they could. Each character also voices their personal opinions on the purpose of life throughout the book. These odd bunch of friends start their "lives" (in the real world) influenced by the Microsoft-cult-culture. Their lives revolve around work (usually past midnight and even on weekends) and sleep (they all live in the same house close to "campus"). Naturally an event such as a close-friend's proposal to start up a new company and recruit them as "equity partners" (aka employees) throws them off balance and threatens the humdrum existence and pseudo-harmony they've come to expect as employees in Building Seven on the Microsoft campus. That's where the adventure begins for these people. Moving from Redmond to Silicon Valley, they set up shop in Daniel's parents' home in the Valley. From here, the book turns into a coming out party of sorts. Dan's dad is having a midlife crisis after having been laid off by IBM. Bug comes out of the closet. Dusty gets pregnant. Michael falls in love. All these happen while they're trying to come out with a product they can showcase in the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas.

This book is unnerving in some sense. It is able to accurately capture what many people in the hi-tech industry are like -- their habits, propensities, worries and fears (even their "language"). But it falls short in certain aspects. The storytelling was at times uncoherent and lacked a fluid story-telling aspect. It got too bogged down with the philosophizing. And at times, it felt like writing for the sake of writing. I particularly disliked the ending however poignant. My thoughts as I finished the final pages were "That's not fair to the reader!" I was referring to the whammy of Dan's family tragedy. I couldn't find any reason as to why that was added except to reinforce the randomness and cest la vie attitude of this book.

This book is so random. If you like to read what "geeks" have in their minds, then this book is for you. If you prefer to read a story with a real plot about what the dot-com world is like, I would highly recommend Startup by Jerry Kaplan instead.

Rating:
Summary: Take a walk on the Geek side
Review: Coupland does a wonderful job of illuminating world of the oft-derided Geek. The style and presentation is so close to depicting some of the coders I know in real life. This book is an adventure of some poor 'Microsofties' who realise that outside of work for Bill, they have no life.....and set out to create one of their own. Coupland shows that Geeks are people too, with hopes, dreams and aspirations. If you're patient enought to get to know most of these people you'll find them to be surprisingly interesting. This book does a great job of encapsulating their world......and rekindled my love of LEGO™

Rating:
Summary: Full of Wonderful Insights and Interesting Details
Review: The previous reviews have pretty much said it all, so this review is going to be a little more subjective. At first I thought this book was going to to be a sour-mouthed put-down of Microsoft. Wrong! Coupland has his main character keep a diary of what is going on with a small group that has left Microsoft to start their own small software company. The heart of the diary, though, is the little details Coupland includes that: say so much about relationships (between both friends and lovers), make the reader feel as if he or she personally knows each character down to the ground, and provide rich, interesting, entertaining descriptions of plot and character development. Coupland uses the diary technique extraordinarily well, focusing on mood, relationships, how Silicon Valley works, and a range of interesting observations as he sees fit. The diary technique also allows Coupland to manipulate time. If he wants to skip ahead in time, he simply dates the next diary entry months ahead. This book is an extraordinary read in that Coupland packs a lot of complexity into a highly entertaining, sometimes laugh-out-loud book that is also most readable. Buy it, and marvel and laugh. By the end of the book, you'll wish the trip had lasted longer.

Rating:
Summary: Microserfs a picture of modern day Americana
Review: Microserfs is yet another novel by canadian author Douglas Coupland set in the US. To the blind eye it would seem that Coupland is a bit obsessed with America. To the eye of a cynic he is simply intrigued by all our quirks. Intrigued by our abilty to idolize the "idea" of one. Microserfs takes place during the early 1990's, the era of Bill. Not Bill Clinton, Bill Gates. The whole story is about american tech geeks that practically worship the cpu and business genius. Geeks that are almost non-human untill they branch off on their own to create their own ideas. The minute the group of friends leave the Microsoft compound the story takes flight. The characters become loveable. I admire Couplands writing style because his books don't end with a cliched "happy" ending. He leaves the reader with something to think about. It's as if he doesn't really end his books. He doesn't allow you to say goodbye to the characters. After reading the last page you set the book down knowing that life goes on for the characters. It's kind of like saying "See you later" instead of goodbye. He always leaves you thinking in the end. Microserfs is a great novel, after reading it you may become a Douglas Coupland fan as well. If you do decide to read more of his work please read "Shampoo Planet", it's hands down his best work yet.

Rating:
Summary: Society of the Spectacular
Review: The economic system founded on isolation is a circular production of isolation. The technology is based on isolation, and the technical process isolates in turn. All goods selected by the spectacular system are also its weapons for a constant reinforcement of the conditions of isolation of "lonely crowds". The spectacle constantly rediscovers its own assumptions more concretely.

The alienation of the spectacular to the profit of the contemplated object is expressed in the following way: the more he contemplates, the less he lives; the more he accepts recognizing himself in the dominant images of need, the less he understands his own existence and his own desires.

Rating:
Summary: A Poignant Look at the World of "Geeks"
Review: "Microserfs" is the story of a band of disgruntled Microsoft employees who jump ship in their quest for more fulfilling personal lives and professional challenges. The book is mostly humorous, occasionally sad, and engaging throughout. (I finished it in about five days.)

The story opens at Microsoft headquarters in Seattle, where the main characters endure mind-numbing corporate politics, low salaries, and long hours in the omnipresent shadow of Bill. One of them leaves the Microsoft fold to work on a startup venture in Silicon Valley, and convinces his colleagues to follow. After they jettison the security of the world's largest software firm, their lives become a roller coaster ride of uncertainty and even longer work hours-all for an unknown outcome.

While the business tale that unfolds in Microserfs is cleverly crafted, the real meat of the novel can be found in the multiple subplots. Coupland's characters are multidimensional and convincing. They cope with the daily anxiety and exhaustion of working in a startup venture while simultaneously struggling with identity crises, the travails of twentysomething romantic relationships, and familial conflicts.

Anyone who has successfully endured the journey from their mid-twenties to their early thirties will find a bit of himself or herself in at least one of these "geeks." And the inhabitants of "Microserfs" are dynamic; each of the main characters undergoes a major personal change in the course of the story, most of which are as unpredictable as the changes that occur in real life.

I have only two complaints with Microserfs, and they are minor ones. Coupland interweaves numerous pop culture references into the story, and he overplays this card at times. I also found some of the main character's random word associations to be a bit excessive. (The novel is narrated in the first person point-of-view, in a journal format.) However, these self-indulgences on the author's part do not significantly detract from an otherwise satisfying novel.

(Review by Edward Trimnell, author of "Why You Need a Foreign Language and How to Learn One," (2003) ISBN: 1591133343)