Girls, memory, parenting, millennial fear -- all served Coupland-style. Karen, an attractive, popular student, goes into a coma one night in 1979. Whilst in it, she gives birth to a healthy baby daughter; once out of it, a mere eighteen years later, she finds herself, Rip van Winkle-like, a middle-aged mother whose friends have all gone through all the normal marital, social and political traumas and back again...This tragicomedy shows Coupland in his most mature form yet, writing with all his customary powers of acute observation, but turning his attention away from the surface of modern life to the dynamics of modern relationships, but doing so with all the sly wit and weird accuracy we expect of the soothsaying author of Generation X, Shampoo Planet, Life After God, Microserfs and Polaroids from the Dead.

Wow, what a weird book! But I liked it! It's a about taking responsibility and growing adult... But I don't think the world today is that bad. Well, maybe we are that desillusioned, lonely and sad. But does the world really end because of that?

But I like that the persons in the book were absolutely normal... nothing really special or fancy.

I enjoyed it much better than "Miss Wyoming"! So, I will read more by Douglas Coupland!:-)

RELEASE NOTES:

I'll bring it to the meetup

took it home from a meet-up table full of books, thanks!

This book impressed me deeply! It's such a powerful story, it seems that inbetween reading you almost forget to breathe. Coupland's writing seemed like pictures, I felt like actually taking part of something, not as with so many books, where I merely get a glimpse of something happening.

When Karen writes the letter to Richard, she already knows that she'll fall into a coma, asking him to wait for her. That day when Richard drinks heavily and passes out at the dam, we learn that his life will change from now on in the future. Of course I expected that Karen will wake up from her coma and so wasn't at all surprised as she did - but was I surprised by the ending of the book!

I liked Coupland's way of making a story around some of the big questions in life; like radiation, the ending of the world, the sense and meaning of one's life,...,.

Well worth reading!

meet-up in Zürich

The book looked interesting and the description on the back sounded promising - and then sun-beetle also told me that it was good. Does anyone need more persuasion?
I took it with me from the May meet-up!

Im still in the middle of this book. I'll take it with me on my holidays and will probably finish it on the way and then release somewhere on our journey.

What I think about it so far:
The first chapter by Jared, the ghost, almost put me off reading the rest. I'm not much into stories told by a dead person looking from above.
Then it got a bit better. The style of writing is catching and one can read it real fluent. The story makes you want to know what happens next. However, I don't really like it so far. It's very depressing and the main characters are just the biggest loosers ever in my opinion. Douglas Coupland should consult a Psychiatrist. Drugs are not the only way to cope with middle-class boredom in my opinion and there is always light at the horizon! Nevertheless, I can't just put the book down - it has still some kind of fascination. We'll see - maybe the end gets better...

The end was even worse then the rest...
This book is probably the worst I've ever read!

RELEASE NOTES:

After I finished reading this book despite large dislikes, I left it at the beach in Pag. Maybe another tourist will find and read it and if not, It's no great loss...