jPod, Douglas Coupland

The first two books I read by Coupland were Eleanor Rigby and Hey, Nostradamus!. I developed a vastly inflated impression of his talent as a result.



I couldn't bear the flippancy in this book, regarding death and murder and HUMAN TRAFFICKING and HEROIN ADDICTION. No, spiking cola with cocaine isn't hilarious! It's potentially lethal! Just because a guy gives you a sofa does not excuse him DEALING IN SLAVES!

The writing was so very stilted, too. Observe:

Mom, what's with the outfit? You look like the host of a faltering Japanese game show.

Ouch.

Also, there were PAGES AND PAGES of numbers! And random html scrabble! How he got away with publishing this I have no idea. And those other pages with no paragraph breaks, OH GOD MY EYES.

Sure, there were some bon mots:

If you can control your emotions, chances are you don't have too many.

And his descriptions of China were pretty good, with the whole 'burning air' thing:

Shanghai proper, once called the Whore of Asia, now called the Pearl of Asia, though it might as well be called the Tire Fire of Asia.

I must admit I did like the part where they hacked into an empty building's lighting system so they could play Tetris. But overall, it was just so stupid! And unlikely! Since when does gaming not heavily feature fantasy scenarios? Why is Douglas Coupland a character? What is the point of explaining trolls and flaming to people who don't already know what they are? What's so exciting about a glow-in-the-dark beach ball?

All questions I fear will never be answered.



Previously, on Book Glomp 2009:
He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope |The Bostonians, Henry James | For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway | For Esme - with Love and Squalor, JD Salinger | The Outsider, Albert Camus | The Princess Diaries: Ten out of Ten, Meg Cabot | The Vicar of Bullhampton, Anthony Trollope | Molesworth, Geoffrey Willans | Villette, Charlotte Bronte | The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James | The Way of All Flesh, Samuel Butler | Cecilia, Fanny Burney | The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark | Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut | Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann | Siddhartha, Herman Hesse | The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga | The Duke and I, Julia Quinn | Brave New World, Aldous Huxley | North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell | Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee | Catch-22, Joseph Heller | Bright Shiny Morning, James Frey | Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck | The Demon's Lexicon, Sarah Rees Brennan | The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton