Generation A
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Product Description
Review
He is a brilliant social commentator and a wit of our times Times Literary Supplement 'With this exceptional sequel to Generation X, Douglas Coupland may be one of the smartest, wittiest writers around...He is a terrifically good writer...Coupland scatters his smartly satirical observations throughout...This is a clever, brilliant book - and it's loads better than Generation X...funny and profound' Esquire 'Possibly the most gifted exegete of North American mass culture writing today' Observer 'Douglas Coupland has surely reserved his place at the top table of North American fiction' Independent on Sunday 'We should really pay attention to Coupland. His eye is so firmly on the ball he's virtually clairvoyant' Guardian Eighteen years on from Generation X, Coupland still satirises pop culture better than anyone. This globe-spanning tale, set in the near future, is masterfully told and often hilarious. GQ
Book Description
Douglas Coupland's most ambitious and entertatining novel to date.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I've been a fan of Coupland's since "Girlfriend in a Coma" was published, and since then have read all of his work. Personally I've loved almost all of it since "Girlfriend...", although "JPod" and "The Gum Thief" were slight lapses, albeit still enjoyable, but his earlier output hasn't appealed to me quite as much. "Generation X", although lauded by many as his best book, has never really grabbed me on any of the three occasions I've read it, hoping to find that certain something I'd somehow missed.
"Generation A" is not a sequel to "Generation X", and it grips from the start. Imagine a future where bees are extinct, but somehow five people around the world (USA, Canada, France, Sri Lanka and New Zealand) are all suddenly stung. Helicopters or military transport planes land, figures in hazmat suits step out, and the five individuals are taken away, drugged and bound if they struggle. When they come to they find themselves in research facilities, furnishings stripped of all brand identities, and each day they have blood samples taken, a computer generated voice talking to them in an accent of their choice, asking them questions about themselves. They are eventually released, but are soon recalled to an island off the coast of Canada and instructed to tell each other stories...
I found the first half of the book utterly gripping, wondering who the people were, how and why they'd been stung by a seemingly extinct species, and why they had been rounded up. I was a little concerned at the start of the second half as I thought the individual stories (not reminiscences, but short pieces of fiction) would drag and become repetitive, but this was far from the truth - they were all hugely enjoyable and incredibly created. What was the purpose of this though? Ahhh - it all comes together beautifully in the end, and any hints in this review would ruin the surprises.
Yes, it's true to say that most of the narrators "sound" the same as each other, but don't all of Coupland's characters all ultimately sound a little like Coupland? The reviewer who complained about the mentions of "Finnegans Wake" clearly didn't understand why this was mentioned (it is explained in the book), and as for the occasional bit of weird grammar, well, the book is supposed to be the sound of people talking, inventing stories on the spur of the moment, and not all of us speak perfectly all of the time.
"Eleanor Rigby" used to be my favourite Coupland novel, but I think this has trumped it. I loved it.
"Generation A" is not a sequel to "Generation X", and it grips from the start. Imagine a future where bees are extinct, but somehow five people around the world (USA, Canada, France, Sri Lanka and New Zealand) are all suddenly stung. Helicopters or military transport planes land, figures in hazmat suits step out, and the five individuals are taken away, drugged and bound if they struggle. When they come to they find themselves in research facilities, furnishings stripped of all brand identities, and each day they have blood samples taken, a computer generated voice talking to them in an accent of their choice, asking them questions about themselves. They are eventually released, but are soon recalled to an island off the coast of Canada and instructed to tell each other stories...
I found the first half of the book utterly gripping, wondering who the people were, how and why they'd been stung by a seemingly extinct species, and why they had been rounded up. I was a little concerned at the start of the second half as I thought the individual stories (not reminiscences, but short pieces of fiction) would drag and become repetitive, but this was far from the truth - they were all hugely enjoyable and incredibly created. What was the purpose of this though? Ahhh - it all comes together beautifully in the end, and any hints in this review would ruin the surprises.
Yes, it's true to say that most of the narrators "sound" the same as each other, but don't all of Coupland's characters all ultimately sound a little like Coupland? The reviewer who complained about the mentions of "Finnegans Wake" clearly didn't understand why this was mentioned (it is explained in the book), and as for the occasional bit of weird grammar, well, the book is supposed to be the sound of people talking, inventing stories on the spur of the moment, and not all of us speak perfectly all of the time.
"Eleanor Rigby" used to be my favourite Coupland novel, but I think this has trumped it. I loved it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Douglas Coupland seems to be the type of writer around whom cults aggregate. He attracts the kind of fan for whom a favourite writer can do no wrong. At his best, he is funny, intelligent and sharply observant, but uncritical praise does nobody any favours. At his worst, he falls easily into slack self-parody. 'Generation A' is not Coupland at his worst, but it's far from his best.
The book isn't in any meaningful sense a successor to 'Generation X', except as it offers yet another group of young people who are forced to deal with a change in the Zeitgeist. It's set in the near future, and this is a future that offers no very radical departures from the present. The environmental problems have worsened - the bees, and some other insects, have vanished or are in terminal decline. The human addiction to virtual reality and electronic communication has become more deeply rooted. A variety of technological quick fixes - emigration to Mars, a drug that 'cures' the human inability to tolerate solitude - are on offer to address the evident growing disconnection between humanity and the real world.
What follows is part dystopian fantasy, part thriller. Five young people in different parts of the world are stung almost simultaneously by bees, and the race is on to discover whether this is the turning point in the world's decline, for better or worse.
Readers familiar with Coupland will find few surprises here: if you've enjoyed his recent books, particularly 'Girlfriend in a Coma', it's likely that you'll enjoy this too. For me, it falls well short of his best. Like too many of Coupland's novels, it begins well and then seems to lose energy around the halfway mark, before drawing to an untidy conclusion. It invites comparison at different points with Vonnegut, DeLillo, Houellebecq and Richard Powers, without ever doing enough to suggest that Coupland might be in the same league.
It's never less than readable, and sometimes amusing, though I suspect that the patience of other readers will be strained by the long section in which the five bee-stung protagonists are obliged to tell amateurish stories-within-the-story. Never has the veneer of Coupland's postmodernism seemed thinner or the literary nods - in this case to Boccaccio - more strained.
If you're completely new to Coupland, I'd suggest starting elsewhere. Try 'Life After God' and 'Eleanor Rigby' for the more serious stuff: 'Microserfs' and 'J-Pod' for the cultural satirist.
The book isn't in any meaningful sense a successor to 'Generation X', except as it offers yet another group of young people who are forced to deal with a change in the Zeitgeist. It's set in the near future, and this is a future that offers no very radical departures from the present. The environmental problems have worsened - the bees, and some other insects, have vanished or are in terminal decline. The human addiction to virtual reality and electronic communication has become more deeply rooted. A variety of technological quick fixes - emigration to Mars, a drug that 'cures' the human inability to tolerate solitude - are on offer to address the evident growing disconnection between humanity and the real world.
What follows is part dystopian fantasy, part thriller. Five young people in different parts of the world are stung almost simultaneously by bees, and the race is on to discover whether this is the turning point in the world's decline, for better or worse.
Readers familiar with Coupland will find few surprises here: if you've enjoyed his recent books, particularly 'Girlfriend in a Coma', it's likely that you'll enjoy this too. For me, it falls well short of his best. Like too many of Coupland's novels, it begins well and then seems to lose energy around the halfway mark, before drawing to an untidy conclusion. It invites comparison at different points with Vonnegut, DeLillo, Houellebecq and Richard Powers, without ever doing enough to suggest that Coupland might be in the same league.
It's never less than readable, and sometimes amusing, though I suspect that the patience of other readers will be strained by the long section in which the five bee-stung protagonists are obliged to tell amateurish stories-within-the-story. Never has the veneer of Coupland's postmodernism seemed thinner or the literary nods - in this case to Boccaccio - more strained.
If you're completely new to Coupland, I'd suggest starting elsewhere. Try 'Life After God' and 'Eleanor Rigby' for the more serious stuff: 'Microserfs' and 'J-Pod' for the cultural satirist.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
...which is a real shame, as Douglas Coupland is a great writer, with an unerring ability to wittily and succinctly precis the current human condition. This book had a promising start, but I think Coupland couldn't figure out how to end the story. By using the device of having the five central characters tell stories at the end, I think he was buying himself time to figure out the conclusion of the book- which was lazy and disappinting. He mentions James Joyce as being unreadable bilge that gets the Emperors New Clothes treatment from credulous readers. I couldn't help thinking that the reviews of Generation A, so proudly printed on the book's cover were a perfect example of the same. Microserfs and JPod were much tighter and funnier- and both more satisfying than this, as they were proper (very wittily barbed) stories.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
All writers reach a zenith and then what?
Strangely although he is my joint favourite author I found his signature book Generation X average and unfortunately Generation A less than average. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Liketheroman
A typically stylised Coupland fable
Now, I'm a fan of Couplands work - if you are too, it won't disappoint. Knowing, almost wise-ass dialogue from characters whose every personality trait is captured and put on... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Richard Hayter
Good Novel - Shame About the Ending
I must admit I have a soft spot for Coupland. He's one of those author's I discovered in Sixth Form and so far has never disappointed (well, not much). Read more
Published 7 months ago by Angela
Insufficient humor to compensate the weak storyline
I loved all the books I read previously from Douglas Coupland (Generation X, Microserfs, JPod, The Gum Thief), so I was really looking forward to read this one. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Dirk Verburg
Is Coupland the ultimate post-modern author?
I met Douglas Coupland at a book signing and he was such a lovely guy with time for everyone who wanted to chat to him that I hope he doesn't read this and take it the wrong... Read more
Published 13 months ago by M. Harper
Generation A - a misguiding title
Generation X and Microserfs are destined to be classic books and nailed the zeitgeist of the 'I.T.' generation. Read more
Published 14 months ago by D.O.S.
A captivating book, up to expectations
A captivation book, you cant stop reading once you get started. In line with what you would expect from a Coupland book. the story is as usual. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Youssef E
Good - but not Girlfriend
I'm 3/4 of the way through and enjoying it. Still not back to "Girlfriend in a Coma" level, but better than JPod and Gum Thief.
Published 18 months ago by The Tent
Irritating
Big fan, read all his books etc etc. Have found variable quality over the years though and didn't enjoy this one much. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Alicyclo
The closest thing we have to Douglas Adams
Coupland at his best. Which means once again he combines fantastically imaginative writing and a wonderful turn of phrase with an inventive, near-apocalyptic story involving five... Read more
Published 21 months ago by John Moseley
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