Another Coupland Stinker

[commonpeople1]

Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture is as relevant today as a Kenny G song. It's also as enjoyable as a read. If Brett Easton Ellis hadn't hit the big time with American Psycho, Coupland wouldn't have had anyone to mirror himself as he chased his own zeitgeist. I suppose he was in the right time and the right place, good fortune smiling down on him in the early 90s when the media picked up on his novel as emblematic of a generation. (Slow news day?)

There is no story in Generation X, nothing to hold on to. The characters are white privileged cardboard figures that ring hollow beneath their self-deprecation and unbelievable dialogue. They worry about the bomb, about their McJobs, about their navels. Some of Coupland's trademark trickiness is found at the bottom of the pages, with dictionary definitions of words meant to define this generation; but most of those words mean nothing today, if they ever meant anything.

So what is Generation X about? Three young people are holed up in the desert (New Mexico?) and spend their time telling stories to each other of the lives and people they left behind. Little do they know that the world is glad to see the back of them.

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Comments

[loveinsuburbia.livejournal.com]

It's my least favourite Coupland too.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'm never reading anything by him again. Too many stinkers, not enough time.

[rozallin.livejournal.com]

I like reading your reviews.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Cheers. :-)

[steer.livejournal.com]

What a shame -- that used to be my favourite book in the world. I guess it's a product of its time. I've not re-read it for some time.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

It's a bit like the Neverending Story - not advisable watching again so as not to destroy those memories!

[millionreasons.livejournal.com]

Problem with being zeitgeisty is that the zeitgeist moves on! I adored this when I read it but it was the mid-90s and I was 21. Certainly I didn't like Jpod which seemed out of date by the time it was published. I read The Gum Thief last year and I did enjoy that - I guess it was on more universal themes such as loneliness, weird families and making unlikely connections with people.

You might like All Families Are Psychotic!

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I'll never know if I like them or not because I'm never giving him a chance again!

[standardfeature.livejournal.com]

Yeah Generation X is almost a parody of itself now because it seems so cliche but at the time it was something defining, like when you rewatch some show you loved as a child and see that it's kinda crappy. I've read a number of books by him and the only one I would read again is All Families Are Psychotic. That's the problem with writers who focus on being "topical" when the topic is something one dimensional.

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

I've not read Gen X for a long time but I remember quite liking it. Not my favourite Coupland though - I prefer his sentimental later stuff that most of the people who liked Gen X really seem to hate. :)