- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial; OM e. edition (3 May 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007198752
- ISBN-13: 978-0007198757
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11.2 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,752,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
Praise for Douglas Coupland’s fiction:
'Douglas Coupland has surely reserved his place at the top table of North American fiction.' Independent on Sunday
'Nothing less than sublime' Time Out
'Far too wise to offer answers, but affirms that seeking them is a necessary part of our humanity.' Independent
'Coupland's last four novels are so good and so distinctive that they seem to me to mark a genuine seismic shift in the literary landscape.' Nicholas Blincoe, New Statesman
'Coupland has passion and pace, intelligence and wit. If you find anything about the way we live now disturbing and wrong, he is your man.' Daily Telegraph
'Coupland at his best can make a single phrase say more than many another writer's whole novel.' LRB
Review
Praise for Douglas Coupland's fiction: 'Douglas Coupland has surely reserved his place at the top table of North American fiction.' Independent on Sunday 'Nothing less than sublime' Time Out 'Far too wise to offer answers, but affirms that seeking them is a necessary part of our humanity.' Independent 'Coupland's last four novels are so good and so distinctive that they seem to me to mark a genuine seismic shift in the literary landscape.' Nicholas Blincoe, New Statesman 'Coupland has passion and pace, intelligence and wit. If you find anything about the way we live now disturbing and wrong, he is your man.' Daily Telegraph 'Coupland at his best can make a single phrase say more than many another writer's whole novel.' LRB
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Coupland writes as a woman or a man equally comfortably and here he writes in the persona of a plump, plain, lonely woman who seems to have missed out on the normal progressions of life - she's had no boyfriends, no lovers, no husband. She lives alone in an apartment as plain and anonymous as she believes her own personality to be.
Then she is called to the bedside of a young man who turns out to be the son she put up for adoption after a romp in Rome - her one and only overseas trip - with a boy she can only faintly remember. As is his right under adoption laws, her son has contacted her and there is a reason. He has Multiple Sclerosis and has run out of allies, his girlfriend has thrown him out and his multiple foster parents want nothing more to do with him.
There is a certain slickness about how quickly the estranged mother and son bond together. As expected, her troublesome family take a little longer to get used to the son's sudden appearance in her life. The son has `visions' and from her lonely life so far, the mother identifies with him. As the disease takes hold and death seems inevitable we skip to the future and a curious telephone call from an Austrian policeman. There is a happy ending, for the lonely mother at least.
Some of this did seem a little slick and easy, which is unusual in one way, for although Coupland's books are unashamedly non-conservative in terms of plot, here the jumps seem too sudden, too jittery and there are implausibilities that jar. Nevertheless, I enormously like this writer and he managed to drag me through to the end without too much trouble.
Then she is called to the bedside of a young man who turns out to be the son she put up for adoption after a romp in Rome - her one and only overseas trip - with a boy she can only faintly remember. As is his right under adoption laws, her son has contacted her and there is a reason. He has Multiple Sclerosis and has run out of allies, his girlfriend has thrown him out and his multiple foster parents want nothing more to do with him.
There is a certain slickness about how quickly the estranged mother and son bond together. As expected, her troublesome family take a little longer to get used to the son's sudden appearance in her life. The son has `visions' and from her lonely life so far, the mother identifies with him. As the disease takes hold and death seems inevitable we skip to the future and a curious telephone call from an Austrian policeman. There is a happy ending, for the lonely mother at least.
Some of this did seem a little slick and easy, which is unusual in one way, for although Coupland's books are unashamedly non-conservative in terms of plot, here the jumps seem too sudden, too jittery and there are implausibilities that jar. Nevertheless, I enormously like this writer and he managed to drag me through to the end without too much trouble.
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