Generation A, Douglas Couplands 11th novel, is a great bookend to Generation X, the novel that launched his career. The term Generation A was in fact coined by Kurt Vonnegut, but Coupland embraces it and makes it his own.
The narrative is written from alternating first-person points of view, a tactic that harkens back to Generation X. The story takes place at a time in the near future when honeybees have become extinct. Five people (referred to in the novel as the Wonka children) are mysteriously stung. At the heart of the mystery is the controversial drug Solon, which allows its users to suppress anxiety by living exclusively in the present. Like detective fiction, the book uncovers the connections between the Wonka children and this dangerous drug, but it also plays with narrative conventions by illustrating the ways that people tell stories in our increasingly digital, ultra-high-speed world.
If Generation X gave us tales for an accelerated culture, then Generation A is its natural extension, offering tales for the information overloaded. The bite-sized chapters and witty tone will appeal to those with perpetual attention defi cits, and bits of pop culture sprinkled liberally throughout will attract readers highly attuned to the current zeitgeist. Coupland clearly understands the minds of the current generation young people who have never known a time without the Internet and plays on their desire to jump continually from one subject to the next.
To what end does this cultural ADD affect our lives and the ways we communicate with others? How can we silence the sounds of data that are constantly streaming into our heads? Are deeper human connections becoming more possible thanks to the Internet, or does the lack of face-time increase our alienation? Coupland explores these questions without resorting to obvious, cynical answers. He even manages to offer a hopeful ending, despite the odds.
(Originally published at Quill & Quire at http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=6597)
The narrative is written from alternating first-person points of view, a tactic that harkens back to Generation X. The story takes place at a time in the near future when honeybees have become extinct. Five people (referred to in the novel as the Wonka children) are mysteriously stung. At the heart of the mystery is the controversial drug Solon, which allows its users to suppress anxiety by living exclusively in the present. Like detective fiction, the book uncovers the connections between the Wonka children and this dangerous drug, but it also plays with narrative conventions by illustrating the ways that people tell stories in our increasingly digital, ultra-high-speed world.
If Generation X gave us tales for an accelerated culture, then Generation A is its natural extension, offering tales for the information overloaded. The bite-sized chapters and witty tone will appeal to those with perpetual attention defi cits, and bits of pop culture sprinkled liberally throughout will attract readers highly attuned to the current zeitgeist. Coupland clearly understands the minds of the current generation young people who have never known a time without the Internet and plays on their desire to jump continually from one subject to the next.
To what end does this cultural ADD affect our lives and the ways we communicate with others? How can we silence the sounds of data that are constantly streaming into our heads? Are deeper human connections becoming more possible thanks to the Internet, or does the lack of face-time increase our alienation? Coupland explores these questions without resorting to obvious, cynical answers. He even manages to offer a hopeful ending, despite the odds.
(Originally published at Quill & Quire at http://www.quillandquire.com/reviews/review.cfm?review_id=6597)
Coupland's best novel to date. The themes are distinctly his; dealing with the tension of needing to belong a group and yet at the same time be an individual. This novel is distinctly different from all his previous works where the protagonist eventually finds his membership in a cultural group to be unfulfilling and superficial. In Generation A Coupland creates an anti-culture in which his characters share no common beliefs and find a need to create them
His first venture into speculative fiction Coupland has much more freedom to to create an environment for characters. His disturbing parallel universe examines ideas like what happens to a culture when people don't believe in anything Cultures are held together through common shared beliefs, what happens to these cultures in the absence of beliefs. These beliefs can be nothing more than the value of stock options or the importance of selecting the appropriate hair care product.
Coupland also looks a the role of language and shared stories in the development of common belief systems and how an individual's view of the future effects his beliefs. But, this review is far already longer than I intended and you will just have to read the book if you want to know more.
Don't get the wrong idea that this work is either dry or preachy. These ideas are developed and expressed via good story telling and a wonderful plot line.
His first venture into speculative fiction Coupland has much more freedom to to create an environment for characters. His disturbing parallel universe examines ideas like what happens to a culture when people don't believe in anything Cultures are held together through common shared beliefs, what happens to these cultures in the absence of beliefs. These beliefs can be nothing more than the value of stock options or the importance of selecting the appropriate hair care product.
Coupland also looks a the role of language and shared stories in the development of common belief systems and how an individual's view of the future effects his beliefs. But, this review is far already longer than I intended and you will just have to read the book if you want to know more.
Don't get the wrong idea that this work is either dry or preachy. These ideas are developed and expressed via good story telling and a wonderful plot line.
I really enjoyed the first part of this book, where an interesting variety of characters describe their lives and spell out what a world without bees is like. The second part, eh, not so much. But still, it was an entertaining read and went very quickly.
