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Summary: Micro-talent
Review: Microserfs is a story of a group of computer coders working, and living, together. First they reside in Seattle working for Microsoft, and then they move to Palo Alto and work for Interiority, a company of them, Michael, founds to produce a program he has invented called Oop!. The story is told by Dan Underwood and written in the form of a diary. Unlike most diaries in which one would learn intimate details of another's life, here we are left with pop-computer-culture-lingo from characters as flat as an old floppy disk. The language, which tries to be clever, is rather juvenile. On some literary plain it could be argued that this stylistic element is intentional because Dan isn't a writer, but, intentional or not, this plain doesn't make the story anymore interesting to read. There is almost a seemingly inescapable potential for emotion in some elements of the story. For example, Dan's family life contains a brother who died in an accident at age 14, a middle-aged father who gets fired from his job and a mother who suffers a stroke. But these scenarios just seem to add more pages to the text. Emotion too seems to have been deleted from Coupland's repertoire. To determine if you may enjoy the book take this test. Think of your friends. Now describe them by naming 7 categories that they would consider ideal if they were on Jeopardy. Now do it to yourself. If this sounds interesting you probably would enjoy the book, as this is how Dan describes people. If not, take a few seconds out of your life and observe a moment of silence for those who don't have one.
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Summary: Not since "The Soul of a New Machine"...
Review: Has somebody profiled the people in the computer industry with such drama, wit, and critical thinking. It is well known in the Pacific Northwest that working for Microsoft is a double-edged sword, much like the 1849 gold rush, where the only ones getting rich were the ones selling picks and shovels. This takes you inside Redmond, Washington - a place that sucks in talented young programmers (used to be they only recruited from Ivy and Pseudo-Ivy league schools) and spits out mediocre software and burned out people.This book took me back to my early 20's, when any act of sillyness was possible, all-nighters were the norm, and my whole life still seemed to be ahead of me. Thank you, Douglas Coupland.
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Summary: Coupland's characters are wonderfully intriguing!
Review: Douglas Coupland's Microserfs brings a group of fascinating characters together who have one thing in common: they have no "lives" in a society that is obsessed with finding meaning. Coupland's characters interact wonderfully, and the ending of the book is not only satisfying but teaches the 90's generation something they've been missing: they already have a life, but they've been too busy looking for somebody else's.
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Summary: If you're a programmer, you will love it
Review: This book really gives the geek in me something to identify with. It is an accurate, witty description of the life of programmers and young people in the technology industry. It portrays well the two sides of the coin: earning money doing what you love, and at the same time feeling a sense that all this may not last, that somehow the things you are building are really very transitory and short lived.
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Summary: Author fails at becoming GenX's deep thinker- readers suffer
Review: The novel is centered on computer coders- kings of mathematics, logic, and analytical thinking. Coupland has the group decompress those deep "what is the point of existence" type questions. Stereotypical Generation-Xers meet renaissance thinking. It is an interesting teaming that is somewhat successful. Melding the booming technology into answering these questions is something renaissance thinkers could not do, so Coupland adds this factor into his answering life's questions. The questions that are asked and the answers that are given are far from profound- it's all been said before. Coupland devotes much time to trying to be seen as a modern day thinker and so the novel drags. An excellent portrayal of the young computer programmers and the system they work in. Coupland pinpoints the quirks of this lifestyle very well. "Microserfs" does tend to get very computer-nerdy, from jokes about processors to much discussion about "Star Trek." Credit goes to Coupland's development of the group of eight or ten twenty-somethings. They become very unique interesting characters but are given little plot to play with. Coupland is not short and sweet and some good points are destroyed with excess. It is a long read. Excellent ending, fits perfectly with rest of book.
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Summary: building that silicon valley mystique
Review: is dilbert really what office life is like? some say that its an exxageration of a cubicle existence, but it is scary how true it may be. the same if true for this book. who knows what valley life is really like, but one can't help but feel that this book is a little too close to reality. it is a zippy read, which may interest only those who are geeks at heart.
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Summary: 100001101111001011000110
Review: it sat on my shelf for a couple of years, i finally picked it up 36 hours ago and just finished it - thought-provoking and inspirational. i couldnt put it down, even at work. please read it.
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Summary: Why won't people pay *me* to write this stuff?
Review: The next person who tells me that this book has no plot will be utterly demolished. It has no plot in the same way that "Catcher In The Rye" has no plot and I don't hear people whining that Holden Caufield "Just Wanders Around And Doesn't Do Anything." At least not many. The main thing that separates these two books (ducking the attacking English majors here) is that Coupland doesn't use "goddamn" quite as much. *Sob* Why is this a good book? (1) I've read it millions of times (3 times in one day once. . .it was summer. Deal.) (2) It has characters. (3) It is in the first person. This is one of Coupland's big strengths. When he writes in 3rd person (see last 2/3'ds of "Girlfriend") his intensity drops a notch. On a side note: "Microserfs" is probably Couplands most experimental book (OK, LifeAfterGod is close. whatever). Despite it being culturally more mainstream it is not a traditional narrative.
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Summary: A classic for the Gen X crowd
Review: Although there are more than enough reviews here already, I had to add my two cents. I read this book years ago and yet I still think of it each week. Yes, it's that good. For those who insist that you need to know something about computers to enjoy it, you're wrong. I'm not a computer geek and I found this to be one of the more significant books I've read. It's not only funny, it's touching. This is a book where you literally "feel" the struggles of each character. A note to Douglas Coupland - we relate.
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Summary: Gen X equivalent of Beat Literature
Review: Microserfs is possibly the second greatest book I have ever read (Our Noise, by Jeff Gomez would be first). In both books the writer has captured the voice of my generation perfectly. It's novels like these that are going to be the next Howl or On The Road. Douglas Coupland knows what he's talking about. Reccomended to anyone between the ages of 20 and 40 who knows anything about computers or wants to learn:)
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