I’m half-way through the latest Douglas Coupland opus, JPod, and I’ve rediscovered why he is the universe’s gift to Canadian literature. More than any other author, he is able to move between sweet-and-touching in one novel, and ape-shit twisted in the next novel. JPod belongs to the latter category!
Take the passage below as an example. I nearly knocked myself off the bike at the gym, I was laughing so hard. The main character’s father has been slaving away at trying to upgrade himself from silent walk-on film roles to speaking roles. Unfortunately, he takes his new Chinese best friend to his next shoot…and he explains what happens to his son:
“Well, you know, since that night at the club, we’ve become pretty good friends, so I invited him out here to visit the set. I was taking him from the crew parking lot to the cameras, when he stepped in a puddle and dirtied his precious booties. He went mental in Mandarin, and the director heard him. How authentic! he shrieked, and bingo, Kam Fong is Mister-moo-goo-gai-pan-Charlie-Chan-me-so-horny-Asian actor guy, and I’m still generic asshole who gets blown up at the start of act one.”
Ahh…it’s good to see you once again in such fine form, Douglas. Keep it up.
