"Generation A "is set in the near future in a world where bees are extinct, until five unconnected people all around the world-- in the United Stat...
read full description
reviews
Apr 22, 2010
Kemper
rated it: 
I feel like I owe a debt to Douglas Coupland for tagging my age group as Generation X. Yes, it got wildly over hyped in the ‘90s and led to countless marketing slogans like ‘New X-Treme Corn Flakes’, but that wasn’t Coupland’s fault. And Gen X sounds a helluva lot cooler than ‘Baby Boomers’ or what we would have gotten labeled without it. Probably something like ‘The Pre-Millennial Generation’ or some other equally crappy phrase.
At first, Generation A seems like it’s going to be More...
At first, Generation A seems like it’s going to be More...
2 comments
like
(9 people liked it)
Jun 09, 2010
Jason
rated it:
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
As I've mentioned here before, about the closest I come to being a literal "completist" of a contemporary author's work is probably Douglas Coupland (I've now read ten of his thirteen novels, and was a pretty obsessive fan at that when I was younger); for those who need a refresher, More...
As I've mentioned here before, about the closest I come to being a literal "completist" of a contemporary author's work is probably Douglas Coupland (I've now read ten of his thirteen novels, and was a pretty obsessive fan at that when I was younger); for those who need a refresher, More...
4 comments
like
(8 people liked it)
Feb 09, 2012
Daniel
rated it: 
I haven't read Coupland since Microserfs and Generation X, and was intrigued by the title's promise that this was somehow a followup to 1991's Generation X. Let me tell you up front: it's not.
The book starts intriguingly enough by building five characters from the US, Canada, New Zealand, France and Sri Lanka. These characters were quirky and interesting, and although shallow, they kept me reading thanks to Coupland's prose.
But midway through the novel, the plot comes to an abrupt halt when thes More...
The book starts intriguingly enough by building five characters from the US, Canada, New Zealand, France and Sri Lanka. These characters were quirky and interesting, and although shallow, they kept me reading thanks to Coupland's prose.
But midway through the novel, the plot comes to an abrupt halt when thes More...
Oct 12, 2010
Elizabeth
rated it:
I wouldn't consider this Coupland's best, but I was drawn in immediately and stayed up past my bedtime several nights in a row in order to finish. It's been several years since I last read Generation X, which this book is supposed to parallel, so forgive me if I make (or miss) overly obvious comparisons between the two.
Oh fiction, how do I even talk about you anymore? I feel like Coupland's earlier work often focused on how our increasingly mediated and culture-saturated lives made More...
Oh fiction, how do I even talk about you anymore? I feel like Coupland's earlier work often focused on how our increasingly mediated and culture-saturated lives made More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Dec 21, 2010
Miranda
rated it: 
"As always, Douglas Coupland presents us with an interesting novel inhabited by unusual charactors and only semi-improbable plot lines. This futuristic tale about a societey plagued with problems stemming from the disappearance of bees is at times entertaining, engrossing, and laugh out loud funny, but there is a deja-vu-ness about this novel. As we're first introduced to the main charactors (the B5s) there was a vague sense of recognition from other Coupland novels ... almost as though we'
More...
May 28, 2011
Pat
rated it:
Review of Generation A – Douglas Coupland
A follow-up of sorts to his debut novel, Generation A also presents a cast of twenty-something year olds that are trying to make sense of the world around them. The setting is a near future where it is near unthinkable not to be connected to the Internet by PDA, phone, or a laptop at all times and where bees are thought to be extinct. That is, until five seemingly random people are stung all around the world years after the mysteriously vanished More...
A follow-up of sorts to his debut novel, Generation A also presents a cast of twenty-something year olds that are trying to make sense of the world around them. The setting is a near future where it is near unthinkable not to be connected to the Internet by PDA, phone, or a laptop at all times and where bees are thought to be extinct. That is, until five seemingly random people are stung all around the world years after the mysteriously vanished More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
May 25, 2011
Cori
rated it: 
I love Douglas Coupland. He is a true Canadian gem and I leap at any opportunity to read something new from him. Usually it means I have to wait a while, because I don't like reading hardcovers and it usually takes a year for the trade paperbacks of his work to be released (I wouldn't have this problem if his works were available on ebook...). Generation A was a painful wait for me. I ALMOST bought the hardcover about 20 times while I was waiting. Then, I finally bought it in trade and it
More...
Apr 04, 2011
Lindsey
rated it:
Though it had been a while since I read Coupland I recognized all the familiar touches within the first few pages. The narrators are young and savvy but jaded characters, seemingly remote from one another but clearly sharing a destiny within the framework of the novel. The setting is classic dystopia with the most modern flourishes; it's definitely the first novel I've read that mentions YouTube, for better or worse. There's that distrust of science, of corporate greed, of governmental authority
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Mar 21, 2011
Callum
rated it:
Oh dear.
For a book that begins so promising, it ends up so wrong and..dull.
So far from it's original moments of genius, in the first 100/150 pages.
The book begins with the promising premise that in the near future all the bees have died out, that is until until 5 unrelated people from all over the world are stung within weeks of each other. Multi Character novels are familiar territory for Coupland and he sets up each character perfectly, each like a different sidfe of th More...
For a book that begins so promising, it ends up so wrong and..dull.
So far from it's original moments of genius, in the first 100/150 pages.
The book begins with the promising premise that in the near future all the bees have died out, that is until until 5 unrelated people from all over the world are stung within weeks of each other. Multi Character novels are familiar territory for Coupland and he sets up each character perfectly, each like a different sidfe of th More...
Mar 10, 2011
sabisteb
rated it:
Gottes letzte Generation – Filet vom Krimileser
In einer nahen Zukunft. Die Bienen sind ausgestorben und die Menschheit muss sich alternative Nahrungsmittel erzeugen. Die Welt und die Zukunft sind so trostlos geworden, dass sich viele Menschen mittels einer neuen Droge namens Solon die Zeit schneller vergehen lassen, um das Leben so subjektiv kürzer ertragen zu müssen.
Da gibt es plötzlich einen neuen Hoffnungsschimmer: 5 Personen auf 5 Kontinenten werden plötzlich von einer Bien More...
In einer nahen Zukunft. Die Bienen sind ausgestorben und die Menschheit muss sich alternative Nahrungsmittel erzeugen. Die Welt und die Zukunft sind so trostlos geworden, dass sich viele Menschen mittels einer neuen Droge namens Solon die Zeit schneller vergehen lassen, um das Leben so subjektiv kürzer ertragen zu müssen.
Da gibt es plötzlich einen neuen Hoffnungsschimmer: 5 Personen auf 5 Kontinenten werden plötzlich von einer Bien More...
Aug 24, 2010
Alice
rated it: 
Oof. I don't understand how a guy who wrote such brilliant books at the beginning of his career has deteriorated so badly. I can't remember the last time I actually enjoyed a Coupland novel, but Shampoo Planet and Microserfs are two of my absolute favorite books, and I've read each of those probably 200 times. (I also like Generation X and to a certain extent Life After God, but I'm not a huge fan of anything he wrote after that.)
As usual, Coupland's narrative voice is way too hip, w More...
As usual, Coupland's narrative voice is way too hip, w More...
2 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Aug 18, 2010
Nick
rated it:
I’ve never hidden my admiration for the work of Douglas Coupland. I admire the creative flare and originality that permeates his catalogue of work, and the precise nature to which he can articulate satirical observations of contemporary society that in my eyes escapes the majority of commentators. There hasn’t been a single book I’ve read that hasn’t lead me to genuinely ponder the questions posed to the reader, and this was no different. When reflecting on his latest work Generation A I choose
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jul 18, 2010
Thurston
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jul 18, 2010
Bob
rated it:
I've enjoyed many of Coupland's books, and did enjoy and appreciate moments in this one. The premise is most exciting: after the disappearance of honeybees (a plausible event given the planet's current agricultural and climate issues), five young people nevertheless each get stung by a bee. What happens next is the story of Generation A.
The plot gets in the way of Coupland's fresh ideas about how disparate things are related: young people, old cultures, governments, science, mad scie More...
The plot gets in the way of Coupland's fresh ideas about how disparate things are related: young people, old cultures, governments, science, mad scie More...
Jul 11, 2010
Casey
rated it:
Another book that self proclaimed intellectuals love to hate. Reading over the reviews there were a few turned-up-nose remarks that I either disagree with or don't see to be logical. For instance, the five bee-stung characters sounded similar for a reason. If you missed that reason, you didn't read the book. Or the suggestion that this book and its "enigmatic quasi mythological metamutterings" are only interesting or useful to teenagers, since they accord in their "immaturi
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
May 31, 2010
Idleprimate
rated it:
ouch. I'm not sure what to say about this book, and so am going to say very little. coupland has long been devolving into a caricature of his caricatures. there were many elements within this book that might have been developed into different books, but instead they were mashed into each other, cancelling each other out and leaving nothing but the endless drone(no pun intended) of Coupland's smarmy too-hip-too-breathe voice. if the characters had mattered, it would have been dreadful that fi
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Feb 15, 2010
Larry
rated it:
Kudos to Douglas Coupland for a powerful opening on one of my favourite themes:
“How can we be alive and not wonder about the stories we use to knit together this place we call the world? Without stories, our universe is merely rocks and clouds and lava and blackness…. What is prayer but a wish for the events in your life to string together to form a story – something that makes some sense of events you know have meaning.”
As usual, Coupland creates a cast of characters wit More...
“How can we be alive and not wonder about the stories we use to knit together this place we call the world? Without stories, our universe is merely rocks and clouds and lava and blackness…. What is prayer but a wish for the events in your life to string together to form a story – something that makes some sense of events you know have meaning.”
As usual, Coupland creates a cast of characters wit More...
Dec 27, 2009
Felicity
rated it:
In the past I have really enjoyed Douglas Coupland's novels (though I've still never read Generation X). He has such a wonderfully dark, bleak sense of humor. This novel, however, was just plain boring--so tedious it put my teeth on edge. Firstly, I'm not sure if Coupland was trying to make a larger social statement through his narrative about humans and their relationship to earth. I don't think so, because that is not what Coupland does....but, it was difficult to tell. If he was, it was
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Dec 09, 2009
George
rated it:
Okay, so I should mention that ever since I grabbed Microserfs off the shelves of my junior high library about 12 years ago, completely wanting to look through it just because of the cover, and ever since that book enthralled me and regenerated my love of reading, I've carried a deep respect and gratitude toward Douglas Coupland.
Of course, years and experience change the writer and the reader, but I've continued buying each book as soon as I hear about it. Eleanor Rigby was the one More...
Of course, years and experience change the writer and the reader, but I've continued buying each book as soon as I hear about it. Eleanor Rigby was the one More...
Oct 13, 2009
Darrell
rated it:
“Generation A mirrors 1991's Generation X.” It says so, right there on the back jacket. I read that and figured if Douglas Coupland was returning, in some manner, to the book that inflated him into what he is now, I was keen to read the by-product.
I don't usually mark up my books, but three pages into Generation A I felt compelled to take the lid off my Roller-Ball and write, neatly, in the margin: “How can a guy who is almost 50 years old write a book populated by characters so fast More...
I don't usually mark up my books, but three pages into Generation A I felt compelled to take the lid off my Roller-Ball and write, neatly, in the margin: “How can a guy who is almost 50 years old write a book populated by characters so fast More...
0 comments
like
(4 people liked it)
Feb 14, 2011
Molly
rated it:
I'm still chewing on this after I finished it the other night, so the review might be different later on. The book is definitely enjoyable, and I don't think the story format or the story itself is as disjointed as some people claim. Essentially, I enjoy two key concepts that Generation A plays around with:
1) Development or Progression of Languages--Development from sounds and symbols into intricate sets of rules such as grammar, transition from oral traditions to written records and More...
1) Development or Progression of Languages--Development from sounds and symbols into intricate sets of rules such as grammar, transition from oral traditions to written records and More...
Jun 19, 2011
Joshua
rated it:
This was the first book i've read from Douglas Coupland and i instantly fell in love with his style of writing. The main plot surrounds 5 beings from all over the world who are stung by bees in a time when bees are extinct. Each five characters get the chance to tell their perspective in individual chapters. I loved the characters and felt Coupland did a wonderful job of developing their profiles. As the story progresses, the characters are brought in for observations and questioning for a perio
More...
Dec 11, 2009
Giacomo
rated it:
Coupland is far from his best here, patching together a cast of forgettable characters that mostly feel as simple narrative devices in an otherwise unplausible plot. Yes, yes, the social critique, the observation and bla bla bla, but a novel is supposed to deliver characters and plot as well as background, and "Generation A" fails at the former.
The story follows five twentysomethings from all over the world, living in a not-so-distant future where bees are extinct, fruits have al More...
The story follows five twentysomethings from all over the world, living in a not-so-distant future where bees are extinct, fruits have al More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Nov 22, 2009
Sam
rated it:
Generation A by Douglas Coupland
William Heinemann
ISBN: 978-0-434-01983-0
Sam North review
I was a big fan of Douglas Coupland, sticking with him to the brilliant millennium novel ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’. Somewhere around Miss Wyoming and All Families Are Psychotic my enthusiasm waned and he seemed to written nothing since except call centre novels. The trivia he had so successfully satirised in earlier work seemed to have overwhelmed him and he was exposed as just co More...
William Heinemann
ISBN: 978-0-434-01983-0
Sam North review
I was a big fan of Douglas Coupland, sticking with him to the brilliant millennium novel ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’. Somewhere around Miss Wyoming and All Families Are Psychotic my enthusiasm waned and he seemed to written nothing since except call centre novels. The trivia he had so successfully satirised in earlier work seemed to have overwhelmed him and he was exposed as just co More...
Aug 05, 2011
Generation A has its moments, and at least this book doesn't sound like a lecture like Hey Nostradamus did. The plot may be thin, and Douglas Coupland repeats himself yet again, but he repeats himself in an aesthetically passable manner and manages to outwit better writers. So this fast read is not a total waste of time, but it's a McBook anyway. Even the earth itself is turned into a piece of meat between two buns. JPod was a sequel of Microserfs that was better than version one, but Coupland d
More...
May 22, 2011
Tanya D
rated it:
I'm a fan of Mr. Coupland, but this was not a favorite. I really like the ideas about books and storytelling and the state of the modern world. And I like the overall idea with bees and hive mentality and isolation and everything. But it all seemed a bit clumsy. The storytelling section almost won me over; I probably liked all those stories more than the book as a whole. I hoped it would all eventually gel and get a rhythm, but it never did for me. I also kept thinking: wouldn't this be better i
More...
Jan 06, 2011
Yoko
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jan 09, 2010
Gisele
rated it:
I am a big fan of Douglas Coupland - he might be one of those authors future generations will refer to when describing our times, our anxieties and hopes. I expected "Generation A" to be connected to "Generation X", in the same way J-Pod" and "Microserfs" somehow dialogue between them. But the title is a mere disguise - "Generation A" is not a sequel to "Generation X", but an independent, touching novel that reflects upon the basis of our so
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Apr 06, 2011
Julie
rated it:
This was my favorite Douglas Coupland book probably since Hey Nostradamus or even Microserfs: It's that good. It grabbed me immediately, switching back and forth between the five bee-stung protagonists and their wildly different stories and voices. Coincidentally, it relied heavily on stories within a story, just like the other book I finished this same week, Man in the Dark. The stories were fascinating and so well-written, I hope Coupland writes a book of short stories soon. This book cou
More...
Feb 20, 2011
Sarah Jane
rated it:
When I picked this book up, I honestly had no idea what it was about. Once I got into it a bit, I discovered that it is, ostensibly, about five people in completely different parts of the world who each get stung by bees long after bees have seemingly gone extinct. I thought the concept of the book was pretty interesting, and I think I know a lot of people that would really enjoy it. I ended up with some mixed feelings by the end, but I think that's because I was expecting things to go in a diff
More...
