Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland

Ace, Copyright 1998, 284 pages

ISBN: 0-00-224396-2

I think I read this once before, maybe in high school.  I only vaguely remembered a couple of scenes.

This book stands alone.  It’s…Douglas Coupland.  You just have to read it to know what it’s like.

From the dust jacket:

“The future’s not a good place.  It’s cruel.  I saw it last night.  We were all there: we were older.  ‘Meaning’ had vanished.  And yet we didn’t know t.  I looked at us up close.  Our eyes were without souls…like a salmon lying on a deck, one eye flat on the hot wood, the other eye looking straight to heaven.”

After making love for the first time, high school senior Karen Ann McNeil confides to her boyfriend, Richard, of the dark visions she’s been suffering recently.  It’s only a few hours later on that snowy Saturday night in 1979 that she descends into a coma.  Nine months later, she gives birth to a daughter, Megan, her child by Richard.

Karen remains comatose for the next eighteen years.  Richard and her circle of friends reside in an emotional purgatory throughout the next two decades, passing through careers as models, film special-effects technicians, doctors, and demolition experts before finally being reunited while working on a conspiracy-driven supernatural television series.

Upon Karen’s reawakening, life grows as surreal as the television show.  Strange, apocalyptic events begin to occur.  Later, amid the world’s rubble, Karen, Richard, and their friends attempt to restore their own humanity.

Reactions after the break.

Overall:

I’m still moving.  Change is scary.  I wanted to read a cathartic life-is-tough-but-change-is-good story (like most of the Couplands I've read), and I didn’t get it.  I think the book was very good, but it wasn’t positive, really, at all.  The characters, as so often in Coupland’s books, feel a bit more like caricatures than actual people, but they worked just fine in the context of the story. 

I remembered a few scenes about fatherhood, and parenting, and the feeling that life was wonderful from the beginning of the book.  I completely forgot about the visions and the apocalypse, and the ghost.  And that was probably for the better.

The book was set in Vancouver, where the author lives, and it seemed like he really loves the city.  I good hooked on the writing style, and the language, but man, it was depressing.  All our characters are screw-ups to varying degrees, and we don’t even get to see things coming up roses at the end.  So… good, and thought provoking, but I ended up feeling a bit numb at the end, not feeling like everything was going to turn out OK.  Not what I needed right now.  Maybe I need to read Microserfs again.  Except that it’s packed up in the bottom of a box that’s in storage until we get our new place.  Crap.

Rating: 4 

Despite my reactions to reading the book, I really did like it.  I think that in a different mood, I would have loved it, but it wasn't perfect for me right now.

Other opinions:

The website’s down, but the essay is still up…Jason Pettus.com

Wonderfully written LONG essay about the book.  Worth a read.  I didn’t think the book was as bad as this fellow thought it was – the language and the dialogue and the storytelling (except for the Jason bits…) was generally, just.. Coupland.  This reviewer seems to be president of the Microserfs fan club though, and, well…sign me up.  And if you haven’t read that yet, go do it now.

Things Mean A Lot

Thoughtful review.  Articulated some of the things that were bothering me about the book.

Bart’s Bookshelf

Makes a specific point of describing the imagery in the book.  It was excellent.

Since it seems to be a thing, I’ll rank the Coupland books that I’ve read:

Microserfs

------------------Threshold of Perfection.  Sixes above this.--------------------

------------------Threshold of Awesome.  Fours below, fives above.---------

Girlfriend in a Coma

------------------Threshold of Meh.  Threes below this one--------------------

Souvenir of Canada 2

Eleanor Rigby

All Families are Psychotic

Miss Wyoming

Shampoo Planet

Generation A

------------------Threshold of Ugh.  I’d give the ones below this a 2--------

Hey, Nostradamus!

Jpod

Thanks to Howard Taylor for the “Threshold of Awesome” phrase.

I haven’t read Highly Inappropriate Tales for Young People (but the title is awesome), Generation X, Life after God, Player One, or The Gum Thief

And you know… I keep reading them.  I think that it’s carry over from Microserfs.  And the language and the randomness are so different that what I normally read that it works.