<![CDATA[JPod]]>

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Already dubbed Microserfs 2.0 by some pundits--a winking allusion to Douglas Coupland's previous novel Microserfs, which similarly chronicled pop-culture-damaged twentysomething misfits flailing, foundering, and occasionally succeeding in the high-tech sector--JPod is, like all of Coupland's novels, a byproduct of its era and yet strangely detached from it. Only this time with a bold and very crafty narrative device: Douglas Coupland, novelist, is a character in Douglas Coupland's novel. Which, when you think about it, makes sense since the type of people Coupland depicts are precisely the type of people who consume Coupland novels. As the once-great comedian Dennis Miller might holler, "Stop him before he sub-references again!" Readers familiar with Coupland's oeuvre know what to expect with the characterizations here. They also know that Coupland on a roll is both savagely observant and laugh-out-loud funny: "Bree was showing someone photos of her recent holiday visiting Korean animation sweathshops. She was bummed because she couldn't get into North Korea: too much legal juju. [She said] 'I just wanted to know what it's like to be in a society with no technology except for three dial telephones and a TV camera they won from Fidel Castro in a game of rock paper scissors.'" Much of the book is like that, built on granular and meandering exchanges between characters about . . . stuff. While JPod's flow is hobbled by some preposterous twists and character traits and by random words, phrases, and numbers splattered gratuitously across successive pages in oversized typeface, it's hard to imagine Coupland fans walking away disappointed. --Kim Hughes

820439

2006

JPod: A Novel

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3 4 false false Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Fri May 02 12:16:32 -0700 2008 Fri May 02 12:20:45 -0700 2008
I feel I should preface this review by saying, Coupland is my favourite author. L...more...]]> 1 4 false false Sat Jun 16 19:46:18 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 16 21:03:26 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 5 false false Wed Sep 03 11:55:19 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 12:11:15 -0700 2008
It's hard to believe that this is the man who authored the book that made me want to become a writer. He wrote three brilliant books, at the beginning of his career, his last being Microserfs...Then I watched him fall shorter and shorter with each subsequ...more...]]> 4 2 false false Wed Apr 04 20:58:17 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 03 22:30:41 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jul 01 11:19:01 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 26 04:09:54 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Jan 14 09:33:19 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 15 13:48:18 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Jun 03 23:29:29 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 03 23:32:51 -0700 2007 Microserfs for the age of Google" is how this is oft-described. That's pretty accurate, really. Stylistically, it's much the same—which was nice, because Microserfs is pretty much my favorite Douglas Coupland book. (I have now read ALL of them! *sob* Well, except for the one written i...more...]]> 2 1 true false Thu Jul 31 22:20:36 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 27 16:33:38 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 31 22:20:36 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Wed Apr 18 17:07:30 -0700 2007 Wed Apr 18 17:07:30 -0700 2007
But this one made me laugh. A lot. And he brings back his...more...]]> 5 0 true false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sun Mar 29 16:55:09 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 16:55:49 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Aug 22 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Sun Mar 08 15:03:19 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 08 15:06:10 -0700 2009
I’m a fan of Dougl...more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Nov 28 04:58:14 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 28 05:05:55 -0800 2008
Mitt namn är Douglas Coupland, jag sitter i ett rum och onanerar till hur bra jag är... HARRR Jag skriver en bok om hur bra jag är, som handlar om 6 personer på ett kontor... Hurr fast jag är viktigast i hela boken... Haha, jag är så viktig att om jag till och med ger ut skit s...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 12 15:34:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 12 15:51:03 -0700 2009
JPod follows the lives of five young co-workers at a large video game design company - working in a soul-less, mindless...but funky...corporate environment where they each stuggle with the shallowness of their worklives. ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon May 18 22:14:23 -0700 2009 Mon May 18 22:29:50 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed May 02 17:22:53 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 15 07:49:53 -0700 2007
I read somewhere that Coupland said he had a lot of fun writing this book - it shows and it makes it so much fun to read! I didn't want to put this one down. It made me want to re-read Microser...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Oct 09 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Nov 09 14:51:50 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 09 14:51:50 -0800 2009
1. The parts that are just like Microserfs
2. The parts that are not as good as Microserfs

The similarities are so pervasive and unlikely that it’s hard to know what to make of it. There are some fun moments here; Coupland is st...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Feb 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 14:24:02 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 02 07:37:54 -0800 2009
It's WAY more messed ...more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:39:21 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:39:21 -0800 2009 Since the early 1990s Douglas Coupland has mined North America's cultural milieu in books including Microserfs, Generation X, Shampoo Planet, and Eleanor Rigby (*** Mar/Apr 2005), among others. Jpod contains the best and worst of Coupland. The novel offers brilliant commentary on global consumerism...

more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 13:57:32 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 14:02:22 -0700 2009
After devouring mo...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Aug 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 08:22:21 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 13:29:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=834823