A bit late to the party with this one. The flyleaf of this books says it was written in 1991, so that’s a short while ago. And I’m someone who reads pretty much everything Coupland writes. But somehow his debut novel had passed me by. Of course I’ve owned a copy of it for quite a few years – just never really got down to reading it (there are many other books for which this is true).
And of course it’s a thoroughly wonderful book and not at all what I was expecting. I suppose I thought that Generation X really meant Seattle grunge. Well it doesn’t. Instead we have three characters and their meaningless lives and McJobs. Did Coupland really come up with that first? Who knows, and all the other clever phrases throughout. But it’s a great read nonetheless.