Girlfriend in a Coma

Girlfriend in a Coma, by Douglas Coupland tells the story about a teenager named Richard and his girlfriend, Karen. Like the title, the novel talks about Richard’s girlfriend falling into a coma. I find the overall concept for the novel to be quite intriguing; even so, I think how Coupland develops his ideas and concepts are ineffective and confusing.

After seventeen years, Karen miraculously wakes up from her coma. Not only is this a rare case in society, but to add to that, Karen wakes up with a premonition. The idea of human waking from a coma with a prophecy is extremely interesting. To me, this aspect is quite fascinating as a thought experiment; in other words, I think missing seventeen years of my life and waking up to a new world would be a mix of excitement and curiosity—what would I miss? When Karen first awakes from her coma she notices various changes when the narrator states, “She notices the absence of a mirror in the room. Her hair has fallen into her face tells her she has gone gray,” (Coupland 119). Generally, Coupland’s general concept of the novel is effectual in raising my interest which is an important aspect of any good read.

On the contrary, I think that Coupland does not successfully develop his overall concept and idea. Coupland creates a fragmented narrative; he attempts to use various genres but is unable to in an organized manner. Firstly, he begins the book using genres such as romance and melodrama. Suddenly, without seeming motivation, Coupland jumps to the genre of tragedy and soon after contrasts it with science fiction. When Karen wakes up from her coma, she has a prophecy which is definitely an aspect of science fiction. This occurs when Karen says, “And it’s going to happen. It’s going to happen here,” (Coupland 163). In my opinion, Coupland’s mixing of genres is an ineffective way to develop his ideas. Personally, I see no purpose in the use of the contrasting genres. It makes the novel confusing in the sense that Coupland makes it hard to focus on certain aspects of the story. Coupland attempts to create progression for the characters but it is impossible because the dissimilar genres prevent me from enjoying the novel as a cohesive whole. Although Coupland has various creative ideas, his refusal to use one consistent genre results in a poorly developed premise which in the beginning was interesting; however, by the end of the novel, just became frustrating and virtually incomprehensible.

Overall, I believe that the negative definitely outweighed the positive. The idea of the novel was initially interesting; nonetheless, the manner Coupland used to develop the novel is not efficient. The mixing of the genres prevented me from seeing a central theme. This essentially made me feel like the novel was pointless. In the end, I truthfully can say that Coupland has wonderland innovative ideas, but I seriously do not recommend this book to anyone.