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Girlfriend in a Coma
'What did Karen see that December night? What pictures of tomorrow could so disturb her that she would flee into a refuge of bottomless sleep? Why would she leave me?'
It's 15th December, 1979, and Richard's girlfriend Karen has entered a deep coma. She only took a couple of valium washed down with a cocktail, but now she's locked away in suspended animation, oblivious to the passage of time. What if she were to wake up decades later - a 17-year-old girl in a distant future, a future where the world has gone dark?
It's 15th December, 1979, and Richard's girlfriend Karen has entered a deep coma. She only took a couple of valium washed down with a cocktail, but now she's locked away in suspended animation, oblivious to the passage of time. What if she were to wake up decades later - a 17-year-old girl in a distant future, a future where the world has gone dark?
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
About the author
Douglas Coupland
87 books4,606 followersDouglas Coupland is Canadian, born on a Canadian Air Force base near Baden-Baden, Germany, on December 30, 1961. In 1965 his family moved to Vancouver, Canada, where he continues to live and work. Coupland has studied art and design in Vancouver, Canada, Milan, Italy and Sapporo, Japan. His first novel, Generation X, was published in March of 1991. Since then he has published nine novels and several non-fiction books in 35 languages and most countries on earth. He has written and performed for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, England, and in 2001 resumed his practice as a visual artist, with exhibitions in spaces in North America, Europe and Asia. 2006 marks the premiere of the feature film Everything's Gone Green, his first story written specifically for the screen and not adapted from any previous work. A TV series (13 one-hour episodes) based on his novel, jPod premieres on the CBC in January, 2008.
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Retrieved 07:55, May 15, 2008, from http://www.coupland.com/coupland_bio....
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Retrieved 07:55, May 15, 2008, from http://www.coupland.com/coupland_bio....
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 946 reviews
June 23, 2022
2018 read: Hmmm. This book gets an R --- as in arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh what, why, how did I read this! R is for -- Really great book title and Reasonably interesting concept of an aimless, middle-class, teenage friend group, coping first with a death from Leukaemia, followed by another tragedy in the group, with a girl falling into a vegetative state; you know, a coma. R - is also for the Redundant latter stages of this book which somehow meandered into a post apocalyptic quasi-ghost (I kid you not!) story with insight into how mankind's behaviours may have already destroyed the planet for ever... sorry about that I almost fell asleep finishing that sentence.
R is also for - Are there any other good things about this book? ...well yes, as ever Coupland's characterisations are well thought out and intriguing. So alas, this book almost put me into a coma; and may prove to be a lesson to up and coming writers about not giving your book a title that could be used to judge your work. :) 2 out of 12
What a difference 8 years made!!!
2010 read: A 17 year old girl, Karen thinks she sees vivid images of a dark future, and the following night she falls into a coma. This book is well described by an Amazon reviewer, who said it was like starting one book and finishing another! An eco-metaphysical fable warning mankind about its drive towards efficiency and emptiness and how it is has truly conquered the planet. What? Read this very interesting book, and you'll see what I mean. 7 out of 12.
2018 read; 2010 read
R is also for - Are there any other good things about this book? ...well yes, as ever Coupland's characterisations are well thought out and intriguing. So alas, this book almost put me into a coma; and may prove to be a lesson to up and coming writers about not giving your book a title that could be used to judge your work. :) 2 out of 12
What a difference 8 years made!!!
2010 read: A 17 year old girl, Karen thinks she sees vivid images of a dark future, and the following night she falls into a coma. This book is well described by an Amazon reviewer, who said it was like starting one book and finishing another! An eco-metaphysical fable warning mankind about its drive towards efficiency and emptiness and how it is has truly conquered the planet. What? Read this very interesting book, and you'll see what I mean. 7 out of 12.
2018 read; 2010 read
February 23, 2018
This short novel was based on the usual dystopian world picture: everyone is dead and at least until the few good survivors can get their act together and "go back to the land" they scavenge. The differences were that it starts with the pregnant girlfriend of a teenage boy, both part of a very sociable crowd of kids, falling into a coma.
17 years later she awakens (with a 16 year old daughter!) and her friends have all grown up but not necessarily as their best selves and everyone else in the world is dead. . The group have to learn that having everything (the electricity never went off) will not make you happy, you have to find meaning in life yourself. This is an explication of one of my favourite quotes, Human beings do not live forever
This little group of people had included a boy who had died young, before the coma, and he was the go-between between the afterlife and the world with magical powers. This was reasonably good and sustained would have been unique and very interesting. However, the author dropped the ball at this point and the ending was crap. If you aren't going to read the book, here's the ending: .
What a disappointment.
17 years later she awakens (with a 16 year old daughter!) and her friends have all grown up but not necessarily as their best selves and everyone else in the world is dead. . The group have to learn that having everything (the electricity never went off) will not make you happy, you have to find meaning in life yourself. This is an explication of one of my favourite quotes, Human beings do not live forever
This little group of people had included a boy who had died young, before the coma, and he was the go-between between the afterlife and the world with magical powers. This was reasonably good and sustained would have been unique and very interesting. However, the author dropped the ball at this point and the ending was crap. If you aren't going to read the book, here's the ending: .
What a disappointment.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 21, 2022
Under normal circumstances this is a novel I should have absolutely hated. But, for whatever reason, it just worked for me. Lately, I've been going through something of a reading slump, and felt like trying something completely different from what I'd normaly read - and oh boy was this different. It didn't start off too well though, as reading the first few pages: we get the voice of a dead babe magnet football player, I was starting to wonder just what the hell I was letting myself in for. Thankfully, once it settled down and really kicked in, I found much to like about Coupland's zany narrative, which spans two decades starting at the end of the seventies, about a bunch of aimless friends in Vancouver.
Not wise to take booze and Valium on an empty stomach, but that is what happens to Karen McNeil at a party: no food as she is crash-dieting for an upcoming holiday and wants that beach body look. And then along comes a coma: one that will last for eighteen years. The spooky part being she was having strange visions of the future: one that ain't great for mankind. During her time laying there lifeless, her friends; including her boyfriend at the time Richard, grow up from teens to adults. But they never really grow up at all; and just turn into drifters, junkies, and alcoholics. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Karen had a baby (Megan) whilst in a coma, so Richard is now a seventeen-year-old dad. Coupland races through the years, and there is something sincerely honest about the way he perceives this group of close-knit friends, and the challenges they face. And then along comes the moment when Karen wakes up. And the novel changes completely; turning into a fully blown satire. Her nightmarish visions come true, and we kind of enter disaster-movie territory. I thought this shift in the story would end up ruining things; but it didn't. It was all rather clever actually. There is a TV interview Karen hesitantly agrees to give; and it turns into one of the great satirical moments of modern fiction. At least that's how I looked at it anyway.
There are quite a few low scoring reviews for this, but obviously I thought a lot more of it, and it felt like just the sort of novel I needed right now. Also, being a Brit, it resonated with me more. I know that sounds odd seeing as the novel is written by a Canadian and set in Canada, but Coupland here did seem to a have a worldview that felt more British than anything else, and featured many references, including British music, on various occasions.
December 29, 2008
Here we go again.... what can I say? Other than I fear that this book was a complete and utter waste of my precious time.
Ok... the beginning was reasonable, but the ending... [oh Lord!]...the ending was not only extremely disapponting.... it also seemed to drag somewhat.
I am sure that there are many for whom this book is wonderful yet, for one, I cannot understand those plaudits nor the acclaim with which Douglas Coupland is held.
The story [Was there a story there at all? Really? Honestly?]... well, if there was, it was crap, crap, crap and then some more. Furthermore, the characters.... Who the hell were they? I personally didn't get to know enough about any of the characters to care about them.
At times I was unsure whether or not I had been transported to a parallel universe where all books were shallow, yet supposedly deep, self-mocking, yet pretentiously inspired with wit and contemporary humour.... Whilst in this dreamlike nightmare I turned to the cover and saw that the title read "Reader in a Coma" and realised that indeed this was the truth of the journey that I was undertaking.
I would not recommend this book to anyone... even my enemies.
Indeed I couldn't wait to finish this book and throw it away. It really was that bad.
Ok... the beginning was reasonable, but the ending... [oh Lord!]...the ending was not only extremely disapponting.... it also seemed to drag somewhat.
I am sure that there are many for whom this book is wonderful yet, for one, I cannot understand those plaudits nor the acclaim with which Douglas Coupland is held.
The story [Was there a story there at all? Really? Honestly?]... well, if there was, it was crap, crap, crap and then some more. Furthermore, the characters.... Who the hell were they? I personally didn't get to know enough about any of the characters to care about them.
At times I was unsure whether or not I had been transported to a parallel universe where all books were shallow, yet supposedly deep, self-mocking, yet pretentiously inspired with wit and contemporary humour.... Whilst in this dreamlike nightmare I turned to the cover and saw that the title read "Reader in a Coma" and realised that indeed this was the truth of the journey that I was undertaking.
I would not recommend this book to anyone... even my enemies.
Indeed I couldn't wait to finish this book and throw it away. It really was that bad.
March 24, 2008
The first half of this book was a really interesting and well-written novella about loss, grief, and loneliness and the rippling impact of tragedy. I was even willing to suspend disbelief to allow the title character to (against all odds) wake from her coma after seventeen years. But then the book just went off the rails. The "apocolypse" was overly preachy, simplistic, and just silly. I can hardly express how disappointed I was with the final 100 pages or so. Without giving away too much plot, I'll say that the very end was rather touching, but didn't come close to making up for the utterly ridiculous sci-fi turn that the book took.
August 1, 2007
I would like the three hours I spent reading this back.
February 12, 2012
I actually started this book two years ago while in New York City with my ex-boyfriend; oddly, it still smells like his apartment two years later. I read a third of it then when he was at work and it was too cold to venture outside and set it aside as things got busy and life got kind of serious for a while. I picked it up on Friday night with 200 pages to go and a Young’s Double Chocolate Stout in hand and settled in for some reading. I was done an hour and a half later. Now, I’m the cheapest date around, tipsy one beer in, drunk after two, and I can’t tell you if it was the stout or the book talking but it was incredibly moving. I can see exactly why some people wouldn’t enjoy Coupland, he’s so damn earnest. By the end of Girlfriend in a Coma, I was a bit teary and entirely hopeful for humanity as a whole.
In a book about a group of aimless friends who fall apart after their friend goes into an inexplicable coma at 17, we see the end of the world. Rather, we see the world ended by humanity’s lack of concern for it and more importantly, themselves. It’s part cautionary tale, something that I can see those who pose more than feel rolling their eyes at, but it’s also entirely a call to remember what’s important. The small, the magnificent, the screaming clarity of being alive, really alive. Two days later and sober, I still feel the pull to ask more, to do more, to enjoy more so I’m going to give this one to Coupland instead of the chocolate stout.
In a book about a group of aimless friends who fall apart after their friend goes into an inexplicable coma at 17, we see the end of the world. Rather, we see the world ended by humanity’s lack of concern for it and more importantly, themselves. It’s part cautionary tale, something that I can see those who pose more than feel rolling their eyes at, but it’s also entirely a call to remember what’s important. The small, the magnificent, the screaming clarity of being alive, really alive. Two days later and sober, I still feel the pull to ask more, to do more, to enjoy more so I’m going to give this one to Coupland instead of the chocolate stout.
August 6, 2007
Is it because Coupland also lived in Japan and Hawai'i, makes himself crazy extrapolating what our current patterns of consumption will mean environmentally, or so shrewdly id's, adores and impugns middle class suburban life and its children that make me love his writing? Dunno, but I do. I found the characters in this book fully realized, in some cases tremendously sensual, and in all cases talking about things that I am curious about. Their wistfulness is nearly visceral.
This book blew me away, again articulating what had been my intuited sense of my generation's reality. I still choke up towards the end of Girlfriend in a Coma.
"A thousand years ago this wouldn't have been the case. If human beings had suddenly vanished a thousand years ago, the planet would have healed overnight with no damage... But not now. We crossed the line. The only thing that can keep the planet turning smoothly now is human free will forged into effort. Nothing else. That's why the world has seemed so large in the past few years, and time so screwy. It's because the earth is now totally ours." (p269, hardback)
This book blew me away, again articulating what had been my intuited sense of my generation's reality. I still choke up towards the end of Girlfriend in a Coma.
"A thousand years ago this wouldn't have been the case. If human beings had suddenly vanished a thousand years ago, the planet would have healed overnight with no damage... But not now. We crossed the line. The only thing that can keep the planet turning smoothly now is human free will forged into effort. Nothing else. That's why the world has seemed so large in the past few years, and time so screwy. It's because the earth is now totally ours." (p269, hardback)
September 27, 2017
bah. direi che il romanzo si può decisamente non leggerlo, tutt'al più (se proprio proprio) ascoltatevi gli smiths:
https://youtu.be/bQPN07nqT3g
(non metto il video ufficiale perché è brutto come solo i video ufficiali degli anni ottanta sapevano essere). detto ciò, questo libro ha un record. ovverosia il miglior rapporto tra bei titoli e quantità di pagine consacrate a una storia mediocre. alcuni dei miei capitoli preferiti:
niente sesso niente soldi niente libero arbitrio
in futuro tutto costerà caro
il passato è una pessima idea
lasciate un messaggio
tre due uno zero
peccato che i titoli siano un'attività extracurricolare, douglas. non vado oltre le due stelle.
https://youtu.be/bQPN07nqT3g
(non metto il video ufficiale perché è brutto come solo i video ufficiali degli anni ottanta sapevano essere). detto ciò, questo libro ha un record. ovverosia il miglior rapporto tra bei titoli e quantità di pagine consacrate a una storia mediocre. alcuni dei miei capitoli preferiti:
niente sesso niente soldi niente libero arbitrio
in futuro tutto costerà caro
il passato è una pessima idea
lasciate un messaggio
tre due uno zero
peccato che i titoli siano un'attività extracurricolare, douglas. non vado oltre le due stelle.
July 5, 2018
These two stars are given only because of the nice and catchy beginning of the book.
The rest just had me like "Why am I even reading this?"
The rest just had me like "Why am I even reading this?"
March 1, 2018
I REALLY loved this book, and it went to many different places than expected. It was a combination of genres, and despite being written in 1997 or so, FELT very immediate. I have a lot more to say, but I am currently listening to an audiobook on my headphones and find it hard to write whilst listening to a different book at the same time! (Yes...I might have a 'problem' when it comes to my voracious reading...) --Jen from Quebec :0)
November 2, 2010
It seems very strange that I've never read Douglas Copeland before... Maybe I did but I forgot? Anyway, I got this at the Brokelyn Book Swap last month and I can't pick it up without the Smiths song digging into my head, which is fine now but will probably get really old really fast.
***
I unfortunately took like a two-week break from this book to read Bone, which is especially shitty because I was less than twenty pages from the end of Girlfriend in a Coma when I decided to do that. So n.b., books: if you are so uncompelling that I will start another book when I am literally within spitting distance of finishing you, we are probably not very good friends.
This is another one of those books I feel bad for disliking; I kind of think this is considered a cult classic or something? And I know lots of smart people who like it, or him, anyway. For my part, I couldn't stop thinking of Brett Easton Ellis, that one book where all the twenty-somethings do a bunch of coke and fuck each other? Or maybe that's all of his books.
Anyway, I wish I'd known to read this in high school, or early college, when this sort of post-apocalyptic fantasy and wide-eyed philosophical meandering would have probably appealed to me a lot more. At this point I am a cynical bitch with little time for this sort of self-involved frippery, I guess. Sorry, Doug.
***
I unfortunately took like a two-week break from this book to read Bone, which is especially shitty because I was less than twenty pages from the end of Girlfriend in a Coma when I decided to do that. So n.b., books: if you are so uncompelling that I will start another book when I am literally within spitting distance of finishing you, we are probably not very good friends.
This is another one of those books I feel bad for disliking; I kind of think this is considered a cult classic or something? And I know lots of smart people who like it, or him, anyway. For my part, I couldn't stop thinking of Brett Easton Ellis, that one book where all the twenty-somethings do a bunch of coke and fuck each other? Or maybe that's all of his books.
Anyway, I wish I'd known to read this in high school, or early college, when this sort of post-apocalyptic fantasy and wide-eyed philosophical meandering would have probably appealed to me a lot more. At this point I am a cynical bitch with little time for this sort of self-involved frippery, I guess. Sorry, Doug.
August 7, 2015
Uggh, the book took forever to read. It would've been better to have read the story in 1997 as originally planned.
Douglas Coupland has a way with words, very clever. The plotting and characterization in this book does not live up to his phrasing. It can't be easy to write a book about nihilistic characters because their very nature is dull. He succeeded in some parts, and I wouldn't say failed, but something in that family, in other parts (Well, that was a messy sentence. Apologies).
I loved the opening chapters, for that he gets a full five stars. The rest is uneven.
I'm very happy I finally got around to reading it, and I would definitely read his other books (the current ones at least).
Douglas Coupland has a way with words, very clever. The plotting and characterization in this book does not live up to his phrasing. It can't be easy to write a book about nihilistic characters because their very nature is dull. He succeeded in some parts, and I wouldn't say failed, but something in that family, in other parts (Well, that was a messy sentence. Apologies).
I loved the opening chapters, for that he gets a full five stars. The rest is uneven.
I'm very happy I finally got around to reading it, and I would definitely read his other books (the current ones at least).
September 21, 2015
Karen, the girlfriend of the title, sinks into a coma in 1979 and awakes almost 20 years later. As she recovers, the world ends. For two thirds of the book, I thoroughly enjoyed Couplands quite unusual narrative (which frequently shifts narrator) and great characters (and of course, the numerous Smiths song titles scattered all over the text). The final third of the book really goes nowhere, the author and myself obviously have very different views of the 90's, and the ending feels to hurried (which is strange, since it is a short novel and, as mentioned, the first 2/3s are really good) and is kind of disappointing.
March 20, 2016
Пусть говорят, что книга о банальном: о том, что мы разучились общаться, зацикливаемся на нестоящих того вещах, эгоистичны, живем впустую. Но мы также живем, зачастую, эти банальности не замечая, не осмысляя их, совершая глупейшие ошибки, потому-то и стоит говорить о простых вещах. Запомнился роман замечательной динамикой, изменяющейся по ходу повествования, словно это не книга вовсе, а музыкальное произведение, которое длительное время развивается, томя и подготавливая слушателя, а потом выливается в мощную концовку, стремительно заканчиваясь и оставляя тебя на минутку в ступоре, позволяя мыслями "догнать" себя.
September 21, 2016
My reaction after finishing the book:
June 4, 2007
From what I've read, this seems to be the least popular of Coupland's novels. (Although Coupland fans are weird: among his devotees, there's the least amount of agreement about what constitutes a good Coupland book that I've ever seen.) I can definitely see why, although there were things I enjoyed about it. The problem, I think, is that it feels like several books mushed together: there's the Jared-the-ghost plot (similar but less effective than dead!Cheryl's narration in Hey Nostradamus!), the late '70s vs. '90s plot, the actual girlfriend-in-a-coma plot...and just when you're adjusting to all of that, there's the post-apocalyptic plot. It's too much, and it really fails to come together, not just logically (not something I'm looking for in a Coupland novel) but emotionally—and that is something at which he normally excels. So, yeah: it's a mess. Not a "I regret reading this" mess, but as all of the really good bits are pretty much replicated in his other works, it does feel kind of extraneous. I mean, Coupland's written something like ten novels and a bunch of non-fiction, so unless you're a completist (which I am) there's really no reason to read this particular book.
September 29, 2013
What starts off as a moderately interesting book with a clever story and filled with pop culture references, the book delves into this annoying, dreary and deviating,rant(and I stress the word rant)about 'life' and 'it's meaning' and the ending is just bad, and just a huge bunch of annoying and forgettable characters who are depressed for no particular reason and seem depressed even when there is meant to be joy. An annoying book that does not provoke 'deeper thoughts' and 'questions about life', just anger and frustration at what happens when dickheads write a book.
September 13, 2019
(read in 1998)
September 29, 2017
Girlfriend in a Coma was my first taste of Canadian author Douglas Coupland's work, and I must admit that I selected it just for its title, being a huge fan of The Smiths. It sounded fascinating, and I was quite intrigued by the first chapter, which was narrated by a 'ghost' named Jared. The following initial section of the book is told by Richard, a character whom I did not find particularly interesting; the story which he relates, however, does have quite a lot of depth to it.
Whilst the concept within Girlfriend in a Coma is undoubtedly of interest, I did not feel as though the novel was quite as well realised as it could have been. The first section was engaging, but the second, which used the third person perspective, was not at all. The characters largely did not feel realistic, and it did get a little silly in places. Regardless, my first foray into Coupland's work hasn't made me write him off; I would like to read another of his books, but hope that the magical realism, and ridiculous decisions which characters make, doesn't get too in the way of what could be an incredibly good and well thought out story.
Whilst the concept within Girlfriend in a Coma is undoubtedly of interest, I did not feel as though the novel was quite as well realised as it could have been. The first section was engaging, but the second, which used the third person perspective, was not at all. The characters largely did not feel realistic, and it did get a little silly in places. Regardless, my first foray into Coupland's work hasn't made me write him off; I would like to read another of his books, but hope that the magical realism, and ridiculous decisions which characters make, doesn't get too in the way of what could be an incredibly good and well thought out story.
July 16, 2007
This book started out with an intriguing premise: what would happen if a teenage girl fell into a coma, and then her boyfriend found out she was pregnant? If she was vegetative but steady, how would she affect the lives of her high school friends? It's well written, and everything's going along pretty well until BAM (spoiler) it turns into an apocalyptic "The Stand" type book right out of the blue. It might have been better had I known what to expect. That's a completely different kind of emotional drama than I was prepared for. I plan to go back and reread this book, this time understanding what's coming. I imagine I'll have an entirely different opinion the next time around.
February 6, 2008
The title is a reference to a Smiths song and bits of lyrics are sprinkled throughout. This was probably my favorite aspect of the book because it gave me a little thrill whenever I discovered one. The story has a group of friends left at the end of the world to try and figure out what went wrong and how they can survive. I found myself sucked in, and I flew through it after the half-way point, but overall I was a little disappointed. It takes on a preachy tone towards the end that rubbed me the wrong way and wraps things up in a way I expected but wasn’t hoping for.
March 26, 2021
Twentieth Century, Go to Sleep
Wow. If Doug thought about the technological alienation wrought thus far in 1997, what must he think now? Supernaturally timely, especially for the Covid-19 era. If you could go back to March 10th 2020, what would you do different? Incredibly beautiful, seismically sad. A must.
Wow. If Doug thought about the technological alienation wrought thus far in 1997, what must he think now? Supernaturally timely, especially for the Covid-19 era. If you could go back to March 10th 2020, what would you do different? Incredibly beautiful, seismically sad. A must.
February 3, 2016
I'm still trying to sort out how I feel about this book, and Douglas Coupland in general. I loved 'Life After God' when I first read it, 10 or so years ago, and I really, really, really wanted to love 'Hey, Nostradamus,' more recently. I want to go back to 'Life After God' and see how I feel about it now, but I'm scared. I'm scared because Coupland's books are full of bright-eyed, youthful ideas on the world, and I was absolutely that person 10 years ago. And it's not that I'm not that person anymore. I'm still an optimistic person, with strong morals and convictions. I just sort of understand the world now in a way that I didn't then. It's hard to explain. But Douglas Coupland, man. It's so frustrating.
Reading the end of this book, there's a scene where a major character is describing how the rest of the main characters should be. Without giving too much away, here's the quote:
"Every day for the rest of your lives, all of your living moments are to be spent making others aware of this need -- the need to probe and drill and examine and locate the words that take us to beyond ourselves. Scrape. Feel. Dig. Believe. Ask. Ask questions, no, screech questions out loud -- while kneeling in front of their electric doors at Safeway, demanding other citizens ask questions along with you -- while chewing up old textbooks and spitting the words onto downtown, sidewalks -- outside the Planet Hollywood, outside the stock exchange, and outside the Gap."
Seriously? That sounds like the worst kind of person. The solipsism of Generation X (coined by Coupland's book) and all of our artsy navel gazing gone horribly awry. And there's a lot of crap like that in this book. But there's a lot of good stuff too, to say nothing of the fact that it's named after a Smiths song, and there are countless Smith song references contained throughout the text. It's frustrating. This book represents everything I loved about myself from my early 20's, and everything from that era I hate and of which I'm deeply ashamed. So it has that going for it. Which is nice.
I bet this is one of Zach Braff's favorite books. 10 years ago, that might have been a compliment.
Reading the end of this book, there's a scene where a major character is describing how the rest of the main characters should be. Without giving too much away, here's the quote:
"Every day for the rest of your lives, all of your living moments are to be spent making others aware of this need -- the need to probe and drill and examine and locate the words that take us to beyond ourselves. Scrape. Feel. Dig. Believe. Ask. Ask questions, no, screech questions out loud -- while kneeling in front of their electric doors at Safeway, demanding other citizens ask questions along with you -- while chewing up old textbooks and spitting the words onto downtown, sidewalks -- outside the Planet Hollywood, outside the stock exchange, and outside the Gap."
Seriously? That sounds like the worst kind of person. The solipsism of Generation X (coined by Coupland's book) and all of our artsy navel gazing gone horribly awry. And there's a lot of crap like that in this book. But there's a lot of good stuff too, to say nothing of the fact that it's named after a Smiths song, and there are countless Smith song references contained throughout the text. It's frustrating. This book represents everything I loved about myself from my early 20's, and everything from that era I hate and of which I'm deeply ashamed. So it has that going for it. Which is nice.
I bet this is one of Zach Braff's favorite books. 10 years ago, that might have been a compliment.
April 14, 2015
This book went somewhere I never expected it to go, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.
I started reading this book a few years ago, got around halfway through, and for some unknown reason never picked it up again until now. I was enjoying it at the time, so it's strange that I stopped reading, but I've finally got back to it now.
The story focuses around a group of friends and their lives growing up in a world that keeps progressing while they feel their lives are stagnant. On the 15th of December 1979, Richard's girlfriend Karen takes two valium and promptly falls into a coma that lasts around 16 years. While she is suspended in another world, the others have to try and get by without her, and later deal with her return in a new and scary world.
I was really enjoying the first two sections of this book for the most part, and then it got to the third and final section. Things just got very very weird very quickly, almost a little too quickly for my liking. Although it was a really interesting concept, and one I did not expect to happen whatsoever, I just felt it was a little jarring. What also became more and more apparent in the latter part of the book was the agenda that Coupland appeared to be pushing, which frankly began to grate on me a bit. I don't like overly preachy books, and although I can't be sure if this was Coupland's own opinions of the world and life, it came across a bit too strongly for my liking. I found the ending to be a bit meh and disappointing.
Overall this is probably my favourite Coupland book I've read, but his books always feel like they are a little lacking in places. I'm not sure what this is. Maybe it's his often unemotional style of writing (a little less strong here) or his habit of depicting people with lives which are seemingly going nowhere, but I find it hard to warm to him. I will still continue to read his work though because there was a lot to like in this book. I just didn't love where it ended up.
I started reading this book a few years ago, got around halfway through, and for some unknown reason never picked it up again until now. I was enjoying it at the time, so it's strange that I stopped reading, but I've finally got back to it now.
The story focuses around a group of friends and their lives growing up in a world that keeps progressing while they feel their lives are stagnant. On the 15th of December 1979, Richard's girlfriend Karen takes two valium and promptly falls into a coma that lasts around 16 years. While she is suspended in another world, the others have to try and get by without her, and later deal with her return in a new and scary world.
I was really enjoying the first two sections of this book for the most part, and then it got to the third and final section. Things just got very very weird very quickly, almost a little too quickly for my liking. Although it was a really interesting concept, and one I did not expect to happen whatsoever, I just felt it was a little jarring. What also became more and more apparent in the latter part of the book was the agenda that Coupland appeared to be pushing, which frankly began to grate on me a bit. I don't like overly preachy books, and although I can't be sure if this was Coupland's own opinions of the world and life, it came across a bit too strongly for my liking. I found the ending to be a bit meh and disappointing.
Overall this is probably my favourite Coupland book I've read, but his books always feel like they are a little lacking in places. I'm not sure what this is. Maybe it's his often unemotional style of writing (a little less strong here) or his habit of depicting people with lives which are seemingly going nowhere, but I find it hard to warm to him. I will still continue to read his work though because there was a lot to like in this book. I just didn't love where it ended up.
August 14, 2008
Douglas Coupland has the ability to always write about the same thing, yet always end up with something different. As a writer, he is able to talk about life by coming at it sideways through larger-than-life characters in insane situations.
Coupland sets much of the story during the end of the world, but it's not about the end of the world so much as it's about the characters. His impressive voice allows you to immerse yourself and get to know each of the characters. They are all round, three dimensional people who undergo great changes, both prior to the world's end and after it. Coupland doesn't mind invoking the paranormal here, but that doesn't turn this into a paranormal romance. The characters at its core are ordinary. Their lives suck.
Girlfriend in a Coma starts off strange--then gets stranger, culminating in the end of the world. The moral of the story is clear: never stop questioning. Don't accept the world for the way it is. Challenge the status quo and seek to change it. This is a worthy message. As usual, Coupland communicates it in style.
On another level, the book is a character study of a man, his daughter, and his girlfriend. When Karen McNeil slips into a coma at seventeen, the doctors reveal that she's pregnant, and her boyfriend Richard decides to raise the baby. Karen wakes up seventeen years later--which means that she and her daughter are the same mental age. The family awkwardness that ensues is hilarious and heartbreaking
Coupland sets much of the story during the end of the world, but it's not about the end of the world so much as it's about the characters. His impressive voice allows you to immerse yourself and get to know each of the characters. They are all round, three dimensional people who undergo great changes, both prior to the world's end and after it. Coupland doesn't mind invoking the paranormal here, but that doesn't turn this into a paranormal romance. The characters at its core are ordinary. Their lives suck.
Girlfriend in a Coma starts off strange--then gets stranger, culminating in the end of the world. The moral of the story is clear: never stop questioning. Don't accept the world for the way it is. Challenge the status quo and seek to change it. This is a worthy message. As usual, Coupland communicates it in style.
On another level, the book is a character study of a man, his daughter, and his girlfriend. When Karen McNeil slips into a coma at seventeen, the doctors reveal that she's pregnant, and her boyfriend Richard decides to raise the baby. Karen wakes up seventeen years later--which means that she and her daughter are the same mental age. The family awkwardness that ensues is hilarious and heartbreaking
September 16, 2011
"Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know. It's really serious."
Liked this much better than Generation X. 17-year-old Karen goes into a 17-year-coma after having sex with her boyfriend. Talk about ways to scare you into not having sex. Well, she didn't go to sleep immediately afterwards, but she was really insistent on the two of them having sex. Before she slips into her coma, Karen tells her boyfriend, Richard, that she saw the future. Karen goes into a 17-year-coma, and wakes up to find her boyfriend still waiting and a daughter. She seems perfectly normal when she wakes, except she talks about the world coming to an end.
The first half of the book basically revolves around the people in Karen's life after she goes into the coma, the second part deals with life after her reawakening, and the third part, well, you don't want me to give that away do you?
This still had the same "what is the meaning of this sad, sad life?" theme, but I think it was much better presented in this book. And if you've read GenX, you'll notice some parallels with some of the characters (Hamilton equals Dag, Richard equals Andy, and Pam equals Claire), but all-in-all the story is pretty good. I like how Coupland manages to make you think without overwhelming you or depressing you.
What I didn't like was the fact that book was somewhat anticlimatic. Well, it's one of those endings you'll love and hate, and I'm sure, after mulling over it a few days, I'll like it better. And two points for Coupland for the Morrissey, the Smiths, and X-files references.
Liked this much better than Generation X. 17-year-old Karen goes into a 17-year-coma after having sex with her boyfriend. Talk about ways to scare you into not having sex. Well, she didn't go to sleep immediately afterwards, but she was really insistent on the two of them having sex. Before she slips into her coma, Karen tells her boyfriend, Richard, that she saw the future. Karen goes into a 17-year-coma, and wakes up to find her boyfriend still waiting and a daughter. She seems perfectly normal when she wakes, except she talks about the world coming to an end.
The first half of the book basically revolves around the people in Karen's life after she goes into the coma, the second part deals with life after her reawakening, and the third part, well, you don't want me to give that away do you?
This still had the same "what is the meaning of this sad, sad life?" theme, but I think it was much better presented in this book. And if you've read GenX, you'll notice some parallels with some of the characters (Hamilton equals Dag, Richard equals Andy, and Pam equals Claire), but all-in-all the story is pretty good. I like how Coupland manages to make you think without overwhelming you or depressing you.
What I didn't like was the fact that book was somewhat anticlimatic. Well, it's one of those endings you'll love and hate, and I'm sure, after mulling over it a few days, I'll like it better. And two points for Coupland for the Morrissey, the Smiths, and X-files references.
March 23, 2015
I was really enjoying the narrative in the beginning, but then it flipped into pseudo-philosophical, paranormal preaching which didn't feel inkeeping with the mood. Not what I was expecting, mixed feelings, here's a video to elaborate.
September 22, 2007
Coupland at his most heavy-handedly didactic and moralistic. Irritating in a manner surpassed only by the inanity of All Families Are Psychotic.
July 24, 2010
a very big like for the food for thought that this book provides! I loved it!
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