juicebox's Full Review: Douglas Coupland - Generation X: Tales for an Acce...
Douglas Coupland's first novel is Generation X and in my humble opinion is his best. The story is about three friends Andy, Claire, and Dag. It traces their lives from possible yuppy futures to a lifestyle of McJobs and low intimacy relationships.
This is one of the first novels I read where I felt like it was me discribing what was happening. Douglas Coupland uses a really comfortable writing style unlike a lot of writers who write to impress with their wordy complicated sentences and muddled metaphors. I mean after you are four do alliterations really impress anyone?
The story is accompanied with a dictionary-like list on the borders of the pages of words and phrases that are utilized in and by this generation. The list is new and hippish, and is the X generation's answer to my generations "talk to the hand" and "don't go there." They are often humourous and are strategically located in different parts of the story to add meaning and extra understanding of what is going on. Somewhat like the notes at the bottom of the page in most of Shakespeare plays.
This book gives insight to why a whole generation of people are working jobs well below their ability, living lifestyles well below what there yuppy counterparts are living, and all the while makes the characters so human. You can't help but sympathize with Andy and Claire and Dag. I don't know if it was just me also, but this book helped me to understand why I often do things that are below me to escape from my life, ie: occupational, social, and relationship slumming.
Most impressively, this isn't a depressing book. Impressive because most media on this subject are depressing and pessimistic, and also impressive because many of Coupland's Canadian counterparts write stories so full of dark imagery and allusions to what's been lost. Coupland wrote a relatively happy and amusing tale, not unlike one you would tell with a half smile on your face.
And the author doesn't stop there, he makes a stab at analyzing a younger generation, my generation, which totally makes me laugh at how much it describes me and my sister.
Generation X was a much better depiction of this group of people who are listless and over informed than movies like Reality Bites because they are so much like real people. The book is about them, not centered around romantic relationships utilized in many movies and books for entertainment sake, which would give little insight about these people.
I really like this book, I have bought it for three friends as gifts and they have all enjoyed it, as have the several friends who have borrowed this book from me.
Other books I highly suggest from this author are in order of preference, being most preferred to less, but still highly suggested are: Shampoo Planet (I think he is describing a male version of myself, ah scary thought) Life After God, Microserfs, Miss Wyoming, and Girlfriend in a Coma
I don't really suggest Polaroids From the Dead, not really my cup of tea.
My cup of tea that I do suggest is Mambo tea by Tazo, the only thing I would ever buy from Starbucks.
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