Jpod

As you have heard me say before, Douglas Coupland is my favorite author. He still, but I can't say I love Jpod.

It is the story of a guy and his quirky coworkers at a video game production company. They have a boring office life, but the protagonist, Ethan, has a crazy life outside of work: parents who grow and sell pot, a cheating-ballroom-dancing-attempted-film-star father, shady Chinese business men, heroin addicts and the like. Oh, and don't forget a pivotol role for Coupland himself in his own novel (which seemed trite after seeing Bret Easten Ellis do this in the last novel I finished).

I guess I was let down because it felt like Coupland took a bunch of his past books and mushed them together into some sort of "greatest hits" novel. Take one part Microserfs, one part All Families are Psychotic, one part Shampoo Planet and mix it all together for this novel.

And the pages of random numbers, computer code, useless rambing cultural refernces, etc. didn't help.

As hard as I am coming down on this, I still sort of liked the book. Just because I like Couplands style. I like the cooky scenarios and geek chic characters he creates. But next time I want him to tone it down a little and not throw so much into the pot all at once.

Grade: B-