false 6801825 9780434019830 16 5 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1252105201m/6801825.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6801825-generation-a 1886 Douglas Coupland 30904 2494 5 0 false Wed Sep 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 05 01:24:57 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 08:22:54 -0700 2009 Generation A was the most enjoyable Coupland I've read for a while - and I find them all enjoyable, so this is high praise. In fact I rank it fourth after Microserfs, Shampoo Planet and Girlfriend in a Coma - not bad going when the other three all have a hefty whack of nostalgia on their side. Is it coincidence that three out of the four are about groups of young friends? Do I perhaps wish I was part of such a group, rather than having scattered individual friend units (who are all wonderful, of course)? Or does it just make for a good story?

Coupland has used the device of each chapter being told from a different character's point of view, as he did in his previous novel, The Gum Thief. It works tolerably well, but the underlying voice is always Doug himself - the similes, the ideas, the gaze always turned towards the future, and the overall optimism.]]>