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Product Description
Review
A new age J.D Sallinger on smart drugs. (TIME OUT ** )
Dizzying sparkle and originality. (THE TIMES, ** )
Quirky, witty, with an affection for its characters which lifts it above the level of such as Bret Easton Ellis's 'Less than Zero. (MAIL ON SUNDAY ** )
A Landmark book. (DAILY TELEGRAPH ** )
Dizzying sparkle and originality. (THE TIMES, ** )
Quirky, witty, with an affection for its characters which lifts it above the level of such as Bret Easton Ellis's 'Less than Zero. (MAIL ON SUNDAY ** )
A Landmark book. (DAILY TELEGRAPH ** )
Book Description
Andy, Dag and Claire represent the new generation - Generation X.
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First Sentence
Back in the late 1970s, when I was fifteen years old, I spent every penny I then had in the bank to fly across the continent in a 747 jet to Brandon, Manitoba, deep in the Canadian prairies, to witness a total eclipse of the sun. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Back in the late 1970s, when I was fifteen years old, I spent every penny I then had in the bank to fly across the continent in a 747 jet to Brandon, Manitoba, deep in the Canadian prairies, to witness a total eclipse of the sun. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Okay, let's be clear. I'm the exact demographic for this novel. And I recognised pretty much all the references it makes. And I like witty cynicism. Hell, I've even been to Palm Springs. So it isn't as if I "didn't get it" or that it somehow "went over my head".
I can live with the fact that there's no plot, no character develops or changes, or that there is no pace or drive to the narrative. The problem with this book is that, like Coupland's other efforts, it is less than the sum of its parts.
The cynical, I-always-see-through-marketing-hype style grates very early on. All three of the characters basically sound the same, act the same, and think the same. There is no spark or conflict between them - they all agree on pretty much everything. The smug "I'm cool because I'm deliberately a slacker" attitude is morally and ethically empty - it's a dismal anti-choice that teaches the reader nothing about anything.
Bits I enjoyed? The small definitions at the bottom weren't bad, in the same way they would (and really should) have been if they'd appeared as minor asides in a daily newspaper. Some of them seemed forced and shoehorned into an arch definition. And occasionally, when Coupland trusted himself not to play a smarmy, wisecracking slacker, the description can work well.
Overall, I wonder if there's simply something about books that claim to `define the zeitgeist', or `capture the mood of a generation'. This didn't. It didn't get close - just ramming product names into the narrative and then saying how stupid they are, doesn't say anything of any consequence at all. But then, I hated Catcher in the Rye as well, and everyone tells me I'm a philistine to hold such a view. This book didn't speak to me of my place, time, life, attitudes or habits. It was just three annoying people in the desert, feeling inordinately pleased with themselves for no particular reason.
I can live with the fact that there's no plot, no character develops or changes, or that there is no pace or drive to the narrative. The problem with this book is that, like Coupland's other efforts, it is less than the sum of its parts.
The cynical, I-always-see-through-marketing-hype style grates very early on. All three of the characters basically sound the same, act the same, and think the same. There is no spark or conflict between them - they all agree on pretty much everything. The smug "I'm cool because I'm deliberately a slacker" attitude is morally and ethically empty - it's a dismal anti-choice that teaches the reader nothing about anything.
Bits I enjoyed? The small definitions at the bottom weren't bad, in the same way they would (and really should) have been if they'd appeared as minor asides in a daily newspaper. Some of them seemed forced and shoehorned into an arch definition. And occasionally, when Coupland trusted himself not to play a smarmy, wisecracking slacker, the description can work well.
Overall, I wonder if there's simply something about books that claim to `define the zeitgeist', or `capture the mood of a generation'. This didn't. It didn't get close - just ramming product names into the narrative and then saying how stupid they are, doesn't say anything of any consequence at all. But then, I hated Catcher in the Rye as well, and everyone tells me I'm a philistine to hold such a view. This book didn't speak to me of my place, time, life, attitudes or habits. It was just three annoying people in the desert, feeling inordinately pleased with themselves for no particular reason.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I can't remember how many times I've read Generation X now. Not an obsessive amount, but every so often I need to re-read it as a kind of "touching base." On Saturday, as I packed to spend the weekend at my parents' house, where I grew up, I felt the need for something familiar, easy to read and touching, that would leave me comforted yet introspective.
But this is just my relationship with the book. The main narrative concerns three late-twenty-somethings living in a southern California resort town, somewhere anonymous in the desert. All are working in no-responsibility jobs, none have any idea what to do with their lives. Having grown up with the Cold War they're always expecting an apocalyptic end to their world of sun-baked desert and faceless industrial shopping malls.
Their conversations and rented bungalows are scattered with references to previous post-war decades in which everything seemed more certain and whose pop-culture seems like an escape from that of today. As the years pass since the book's publication it's becoming apparent that the world in which its set is just another past decade whose sayings and culture are ripe for ironic vultures. But every time I read it I find something that's relevant to my world (if "Legislated Nostalgia: To force a body of people to have memories they do not actually possess" doesn't hit I Love the 19x0s where it hurts, I don't know what does).
If you can, forget the whole Gen X thing that floated around back in the nineties, which is far too much baggage for this little story to carry. Well, "stories" would be more appropriate. There's little plot here, but the characters spend much of their time telling each other romantic and doom-filled (and impossibly eloquent) tales; thankfully this is Coupland's forte.
This could all sound a bit earnest and it is in places, but I can forgive the characters their occasional self-importance because their stories and lives never fail to get me where it counts, in my easily-touched heart.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have read all of Douglas Coupland's fiction and think he is an immensely thought-provoking and inspiring author. "Generation X" was the first of his novels I read and I have to admit at that time I didn't really get into the book or enjoy it much. However, I then read "Life After God" and loved it. It was only after reading several of his other novels that I decided to have another go at "Genereation X". What a revelation! I have to say that I don't understand why I didn't enjoy it the first time. It is an amazing book. The narrative is full of inciteful observations about friendship and finding meaning within modern Western society. It is a book I have now read several times and it never ceases to amaze and amuse me.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Jaded? you will be
Thought I'd reviewed this but cd find no trace. It's undoubtedly clever, and cheerfully heartless, though its satirical edge strokes rather than grazes - I suppose its shallow good... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Simon G. Barrett
"Less is a possibility"
What's good about Generation X?:
It has some great neologisms; it only slightly overstays its welcome; it is warm, forgiving, accepting of its protagonists; it is often funny,... Read more
It has some great neologisms; it only slightly overstays its welcome; it is warm, forgiving, accepting of its protagonists; it is often funny,... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Eileen Shaw
More relevant as time goes by
This book is completely unconventional and short, it has very very little plot and very very little actual character development with many of the players just 2d cut outs. Read more
Published 24 months ago by Paul M
Am I too old or just not north American?
My book group selected this book as it was being covered on one of the Radio Four book programmes. To tell the truth, we were all pretty disappointed. Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2010 by F. Goble
Over rated
I found this book less captivating then I expected. A bit boring and uneasy to follow, like a pseudo-psychological movie. I never managed to get over page 30. Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2009
Read it without your cynical hat on and you'll get a lot out of it.
When I first heard the synopsis of Generation X i thought it could go one of two ways; it would be a thought provoking read or it would be self indulgent pretensious tripe. Read more
Published on 12 July 2009 by Mr. Lewis J. Brooks
use of English
I read City of Glass years ago, but my son re-introduced me to Coupland through this book - this guy has an extraordinary ability to conjure up images/impressions with the minimum... Read more
Published on 8 Nov 2008 by cristofa
cynical and soulless just like the yuppies it describes
Too much self indulgence, too much cynicism, too much... I don't know. Too clever for it's own good. It just did nothing for me at a gut level. Read more
Published on 27 Sep 2008 by Zain Shah
Uneventful, But Interseting
This is a book I did not particularly enjoy, and I must admit to at times being completely bored rigid, yet some parts were rather interesting. Read more
Published on 13 Aug 2007 by Archy
"Adventure Without Risk is Disneyland"
I was mildly disappointed when I read this for the first time recently as I was expecting something a little more fast-paced, a little edgier. Read more
Published on 6 Aug 2007 by M. J. Pucci
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