A colleague of mine and I discovered that we both liked Douglas Coupland’s writings. After my admission that I have not yet read his debut – Generation X, he promptly lent me his copy of it. Thanks, SKA.
This book has been printed many times and that is probably the reason behind the different covers. I am reading the black and pink cover edition (below).
Below are a few random passages that made me chuckle:
“…Toronto, Canada is a city when I once visited gave me the efficient, ordered feel of the Yellow Pages sprung to life in three dimensions, peppered with trees and veined with cold water.”
I felt that way some times when I visited my folks in Toronto flying from New York.
Describing a dog that edges its face in between two front seats in a car:
“It is a face that grovels politely but insistently for attention. … The dog meanwhile wears the cheerful, helpful look of a bellboy in a foreign country who doesn’t understand a word you’re saying but who still wants a tip.”
One of the secondary character rages :
“… I don’t want dainty little moments of insight. I want everything and I want it now. I want to be ice-picked on the head by a herd of angry cheerleaders, Claire. Angry cheerleaders on drugs. You don’t get that, do you ?”
A party in Palm Springs:
“It is a B-list crowd: TV money versus film money; too much attention given to bodies too late in life. Better looking but a bit too flash; the deceiving pseudohealth of sunburned fat people; the facial anonymity found among babies, the elderly and the overly face-lifted.”
The book is also peppered with some cute definitions printed on the margin, here is a sample:
Conspicuous minimalism: A life-style tactic … The non-ownership of material goods flaunted as a token of moral and intellectual superiority.
McJob: A low-pay, low-prestige, low-dignity, low-benefit, no future job in the service sector.
Poverty jet set: A group of people given to chronic traveling at the expense of long-term job stability or a permanent residence. Tend to discuss frequent-flyer programs at parties.
Occupational Slumming: Taking a job well beneath one’s skill or education level as a means of retreat from adult responsibilities and/or avoiding possible failure in one’s true occupation.
This last one sums up a lot about the characters in the book.
I don’t know anyone resembling the main characters but they are so solidly plausible. The characters mock the baby-boomers and yuppies, and are anti-globalism. I can see why this book was and still is so popular.