There’s nothing like a Douglas Coupland novel – he’s one hell of a literary distraction, and I’ve slowly been managing to make it through the back catalouge of his earliest works. Much of it seems so different from what Douglas produces these days (the blissful Elanor Rigby, the triumphant All Families Are Psychotic, and the work of twisted art that is J-Pod)…and yet, the seeds of his brilliance are plainly visible in his earliest works. He’s clearly experimenting in these early works, with many elements uncomfortably rubbing against each other…but after reading the novels below, you can clearly see – and appreciate – the evolution of his great talent.
GENERATION X: TALES FOR AN ACCELERATED CULTURE
Generation X is now pop-culture in itself — the name coined as part of a novel that established for all time a generation of young people in complete revolt against their baby boomer parents. As for the novel, it’s really hip…achingly hip…so earnest in its attempt to be hip that you want to grind your teeth in response…
…and yet, it’s a snapshot of its time, and one that actually benefits from its dated, early 90s feel. The side-bar definitions, the story-telling device used throughout the book by each of the main characters…it all adds up to a novel that feels more like a crystalized moment, sliced out of the time continuum and presented to the reader as something fascinating, and occasionally poignant, in its nostalgia. The curiosity value is of the novel is unquestionable…but it’s still a good read in 2007.
This is the novel where the Douglas Coupland we all know finally materializes. Instead of being a dated snapshot, it’s positively timeless — as all of Douglas’ best novels are — and it revels in its collection of slightly askew characters. All refusing to grow up…or growing up badly. Then, being faced with their inadequacies, trying to figure out what to do next…and leaving the reader laughing uncontrollably, gazing at the page with gob-smacked shock, or wiping away a tear…sometimes, simultaneously.
Conveniently enough, the world goes to hell, and the final quarter of the novel is a trippy nightmare that sees Doctor Who and the alternate-universe strands of Star Trek storytelling colliding into a miasma of humour, philosophy, and ridiculousness! Does it work? Sometimes, Douglas pulls it off magnificently (as he does here), and sometimes, not quite so well (Hey Nostradamus)…but it’s undeniably effective, and always manages to throw a monkey-wrench into the works of any story that appears too linear for its own good.
Girlfriend in a Coma is Douglas Coupland’s coming out novel…and it’s aged far better than Generation X.
