I like Doug Coupland a lot and have read almost all of his books over the years. His characters are smart and funny - although they seem very similar to one another in their issues, interests, and struggles. The five characters in Generation A do have more individual voices than characters in other Coupland books.
Gen A takes a dramatically different turn midway through the book. Initially I felt abandoned by Coupland. I also think he abandoned his characters. For example: one of his characters has Tourettes Syndrome and suddenly bursts into inappropriate language. It is an integral part of her character; however in the second half of the book, she mysteriously stops swearing with no explanation. That seems crazy -- wouldn't an editor notice that??
Coupland engages me with his story in the first half. (The bees have all disappeared - yet five individuals in locations around the world - are suddenly stung. Authorities swoop down on the individuals and take them away...) Then the story began to go somewhere very different. I went along with it and it worked for the most part...although I'm not sure about the ending at all - as you shall see.
There are aspects of the story that I continue to think about. Here are some quotes I like:
p. 164 "The brain uses stories to organize its perceptions of the world."
p. 166 "Ideology is for people who don't trust their own experiences and perceptions of the world."
p. 169 "Stories come from a part of you that only gets visited rarely and sometimes never at all."
Note: for Coupland fans, I really enjoyed Girlfriend in a Coma -- for half the book. Then again, the second half goes in a totally different direction and doesn't take me with it.
Gen A takes a dramatically different turn midway through the book. Initially I felt abandoned by Coupland. I also think he abandoned his characters. For example: one of his characters has Tourettes Syndrome and suddenly bursts into inappropriate language. It is an integral part of her character; however in the second half of the book, she mysteriously stops swearing with no explanation. That seems crazy -- wouldn't an editor notice that??
Coupland engages me with his story in the first half. (The bees have all disappeared - yet five individuals in locations around the world - are suddenly stung. Authorities swoop down on the individuals and take them away...) Then the story began to go somewhere very different. I went along with it and it worked for the most part...although I'm not sure about the ending at all - as you shall see.
There are aspects of the story that I continue to think about. Here are some quotes I like:
p. 164 "The brain uses stories to organize its perceptions of the world."
p. 166 "Ideology is for people who don't trust their own experiences and perceptions of the world."
p. 169 "Stories come from a part of you that only gets visited rarely and sometimes never at all."
Note: for Coupland fans, I really enjoyed Girlfriend in a Coma -- for half the book. Then again, the second half goes in a totally different direction and doesn't take me with it.