Books?

[yokono]

I like how there's no folder for Books. Movies, Television, Music, Websites, but no Books.

Martin--here is my much anticipated review of Generation A. Hopefully it is not over anticipated, or you might be disappointed. Here goes, at 1 minute to midnight:

Generation A

I was a nerdy teenager. Nerdy in that I was part of a small social group of wannabe intellectuals by day who fancied ourselves drunken rockstars by night. My friends and I were part of a select few who were allowed access in the high school library to the 'back room'. It was a locked room that housed all of the 'smart books' and anything that might contain any ideas that our more 'immature' peers were perhaps unable to handle. As an interesting aside--I'd say statistically that those barred from the back room have turned out to be far more successful in life than those of us allowed access by a ratio of about 80%--but I digress.

I can't even really remember why now, but 12 years ago when I first picked up Generation X I couldn't put it down. I took it home from school and sat down with it in my bedroom. Two hours later my mother had to practically drag me out of my bedroom for dinner. I had left the heater blaring in my bedroom and was terribly overheated. But I hadn't even noticed. All I remember is that nothing else existed except for me and this book, until I finished it. By most definitions I'm not even truly a part of Generation X. But I really feel like if I had to select one defining book in my life, this would be it.

For the most part Douglas Coupland has lived up to my lofty expectations with his other offerings. Generation A is a notable exception.

At first it was an okay read. Interesting and amusing at times, but not too remarkable as far as Coupland goes.

Then on page 93 something happened, that were I not from Winnipeg I probably wouldn't have noticed. He spends some time describing a snowy Winnipeg scene, and tosses out a few local references including our largest daily The Winnipeg Free Press and our most famous roadway "Portage Street." Only it's not Portage STREET, it's Portage Avenue. And this isn't just a minor error. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portage_and_Main This just plain made me mad. Especially coming from a fellow Canadian. What a ridiculous error to make in the age of Google. But I thought I may have reacted irrationally as a Winnipegger, so I trudged forward.

And then on page 127 I was hit again with what I found to be offensive to myself as a reader. I have attached the exact quote below after the break as it could be seen as a sort of spoiler. Read at your own discretion. But essentially the offense was blatantly spelling out underlying ideas in the story that are fun or interesting or rewarding to discover as a reader on your own. Having them forced upon you is just irritating.

A few dozen pages after 127 is where this book lost me for good. Three strikes and you're out in my book. I am far too busy (ahem, I have far too much Facebooking to do) to waste my time on something that I have already decided I won't like. Or perhaps I'm too stubborn to change a snap judgment. The third (or first depending on how you look at it) being that in addition to the two strikes I cited, it just was no Generation X.
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"Instead, I quickly became more interested in the other four people who got stung. I saw how each of us led lives that were deeply isolated in their own ways. I think the modern world isolates people--that's its job--but there are so many different ways to be lost and there was a unity to the texture of all our lives when the stingers went in. It was a moment when relationships with the planet were in full play: Zack and his sattelites; Sam and her Earth sandwich; Julien and his World of Warcraft; me with the air rights above Mitch's property; and Harj and his call with the New York Times--a conicidence? I didn't think so." pg 127

[Martin]

I'm guessing that it's fair to say that Doug has lost it then?

I was talking to OH about the Portage mistake and she said it may have been due to a mis-remembering oh part or him making the situation not quite real. I say meh! Not only should he have got it correct but so should his editor and proof-reader. In this age of Google mistakes like that shouldn't happen.

One thing you don't mention is whether this book is as much of an update of Gen X as J-Pod was to Microserfs. As good as J-Pod was I really did get pissed off at the inclusion of himself into the novel. I follow him on Twitter. I don't need to read about him in his own works.

I'm in two minds about this book. I'd love to buy it and read it because I've read all the others. I particularly enjoyed his books from Girlfriend... through to Eleanor Rigby although the super-nerdy me really does have a special place reserved for Microserfs and, to a lesser extent, Jpod.

However, I most likely won't buy it in case it turns into the same 'author-by-numbers' book that Chuck Palahniuk's 'Diary' did. I haven't read a book of his since!