Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
by DOUGLAS COUPLAND | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 031205436x Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 031205436x Global Overview for this book
Registered by Pooker3 of Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on 12/30/2009
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
One of this year's Canada Read contenders. I picked it up from McNally Robinson yesterday, the day they announced they'd filed for bankruptcy protection. Sad. Hopefully they'll be able to keep the GP store going as planned.
This was the only one of the five Canada Reads books I hadn't read when they announced the contenders. Having read a few Coupland books fairly recently, I really wasn't keen to read another, but figured if I was going to go out on a limb and suggest which of the books *should* win, I ought to have read them all. So I dug in.
The book was written about 20 years ago and features a group of friends in their twenties and early thirties (those born in the late fifties and the sixties - the generation after the baby-boomers). They would be the same age as my younger brothers and sisters, I being of one of the baby-boomer generation. However, I did not see any of my siblings in this group. By the time my brothers and sisters hit their late twenties and early thirties they were all well-educated, with good jobs (no McJobs for any of them - except when they were in high school), spouses and children. Responsible, goal-oriented, well adjusted adults and I don't think their peers were all that different. Perhaps I'm not remembering correctly or I was out of sync with my siblings' mind sets but I don't think so. So I'm not really sure how this book in particular actually spoke for a whole generation or why it made the author famous. The book *is* more American than Canadian though - so perhaps it's just like everything else (fashion, food etc) hitting Canada a decade after it hits the really hip parts of the world.
I'm not sure what I would have thought of the book had I read it twenty years ago, but I did find it amusing in a sort of nostalgic way. Not nostalgia for the way things were but nostalgia for the way the media has told me they were. Some of the now still apt but cliche terminology (veal fattening pens in particular) made me laugh. So, I enjoyed the read - it was quick and fun - but I don't think it was the greatest book I ever read and I definitely don't think it should be named as this year's book that all Canadians should read.
BTW I pick Nikolski for that honour.
The book was written about 20 years ago and features a group of friends in their twenties and early thirties (those born in the late fifties and the sixties - the generation after the baby-boomers). They would be the same age as my younger brothers and sisters, I being of one of the baby-boomer generation. However, I did not see any of my siblings in this group. By the time my brothers and sisters hit their late twenties and early thirties they were all well-educated, with good jobs (no McJobs for any of them - except when they were in high school), spouses and children. Responsible, goal-oriented, well adjusted adults and I don't think their peers were all that different. Perhaps I'm not remembering correctly or I was out of sync with my siblings' mind sets but I don't think so. So I'm not really sure how this book in particular actually spoke for a whole generation or why it made the author famous. The book *is* more American than Canadian though - so perhaps it's just like everything else (fashion, food etc) hitting Canada a decade after it hits the really hip parts of the world.
I'm not sure what I would have thought of the book had I read it twenty years ago, but I did find it amusing in a sort of nostalgic way. Not nostalgia for the way things were but nostalgia for the way the media has told me they were. Some of the now still apt but cliche terminology (veal fattening pens in particular) made me laugh. So, I enjoyed the read - it was quick and fun - but I don't think it was the greatest book I ever read and I definitely don't think it should be named as this year's book that all Canadians should read.
BTW I pick Nikolski for that honour.
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
on the parking paystation outside 390 York Avenue.
I've released this book for week #4 of the Never Judge a Book by its Cover release challenge (theme this week = authors whose names begin with "C" or "S")
To the finder of this book, I hope you enjoy reading this book. You might want to check in on this year's Canada Reads debates. This book is one of the five candidates to be chosen as the book that all Canadians should read.
Enjoy!
on the parking paystation outside 390 York Avenue.
I've released this book for week #4 of the Never Judge a Book by its Cover release challenge (theme this week = authors whose names begin with "C" or "S")
To the finder of this book, I hope you enjoy reading this book. You might want to check in on this year's Canada Reads debates. This book is one of the five candidates to be chosen as the book that all Canadians should read.
Enjoy!
