His books are hilarious parodies of mundane life (the soap operas of Staples employees, the criminal dramas of video-game testers, etc).
So, you can imagine my excitement when Coupland was asked to do the Massey Lectures (a series of lectures for the CBC, usually pertaining to current events).
I heard Coupland interviewed on the CBC after his lectures saying something to the effect that he was not a true academic like the other speakers, so instead he wrote a story. That's my kind o' guy.Instead of writing 5 lectures, Coupland wrote 5 chapters of a novel - which he named Player One.
What a good read. From the jacket - "...set in an airport cocktail lounge during a global disaster. Five disparate people are trapped inside: Karen, a single mother waiting for her online date; Rick, the down-on-his-luck airport lounge bartender; Luke, a pastor on the run; Rachel, a cool Hitchcock blonde incapable of true human contact; and finally a mysterious voice known as player one."I really enjoyed this book - it is funny whilst being poignant. I think the pastor character is hilarious, but perhaps that has something to do with my personal attachment to one....
Nonetheless, I recommend this book if you like to read satire, like Douglas Coupland, or just want to read his hilarious "Future Glossary" containing such definitions as "Aloneism" (a recognition of the fact that it is a burdensome amount of work to be an individual), "Capillarigenerative Memory" (the tendency of history to remember people who invent new hairstyles: for example, Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles), and "Collapse Attraction" (the situation in which people are usually at their most attractive and interesting shortly before a total personality collapse).
And I am only at C....
Currently Reading: The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Up Next: I need to buy some more books....
