Review to come.

The first chapters of this novel filled me with a feeling that reading this will be a drudgery. The characters came off as one-dimensional, and the lot seemed to be of the type that enthrall's you in your late teens or early 20s, but becomes naive as you grow older and gain experience.

However, I cannot dislike this book. It had a certain charm hidden in the many arguments between the characters, which adds more depth to them. This is not to say that it is a profound undertaking: ultimately, the protagonists are naive, and their perception of their situation shows how blind they are to the situation of others. White, middle class, from fairly affluent backgrounds, they have no sympathy for others, and one may consider them egoist.

That said, their situation is true for them, and many people of the same background went through such a phase. The saving grace of the novel is actually found in other characters then the protagonists, those who have the same doubts, but cope with them in another way, which lends the problems Coupland describes some more depth: this is not only three post-romantic misfits in a desert, but others as well. The problem is connected to the various theories of postmodernism that attacked this period for being commoditized and lacking spirituality. The same accusation was levied against the culture of various other periods, such as the 1920s (Babbit), and even 1950s-1960s, during which, despite the common image, various protests against consumer culture appeared, including such books as Catcher in the Rye, The Lonely Crowd, The One-Dimensional man, the Organizational Man, or The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. The irony is that this is the generation that seems to be targeted by Coupland's protagonists, who blame their boomer parents for living in a more "authentic" time, not only because of the financial affluence of the period, but also because of such issues as the Vietnam War, which the protagonists see as giving them a sense of 'real'. At the same time, one can see how similar Generation X is in this portrayal to the stereotypical view of Millennials, or even generation Z. This shows that, despite its flaws, the novel still remains culturally relevant. The only difference is that Gen X, the romantic protagonists of the novel have replaced the boomers as the generation that has gotten fat, practical and less idealistic.

And having lived through such a phase, and grown out of it, I cannot say that didn't get Andy, Claire and Dag. I did, and even if at I now found their behavior exasperating at times, I'd belying if I said that there was no ember of nostalgia warming up at some parts of the book.

I didn't dislike this but don't think it lives up to any of the Gen X works I've already read. Structurally it's all over the place, following Andy and his two friends who are so disaffected by their generational era that they sit around sharing stories with each other. There's not really anything that moves this book forward because it's cut up by all the disconnected 'tales' that they swap so it's absolutely useless to try and get to know the characters during the first half. It picked up as it began to get to the end, but that's just it. It ended as soon as it was starting to get some sort of rhythm going.

I've heard this novel is pretty hit and miss anyway, and I genuinely appreciate what this book has brought to blank fiction and generation X. It had all the relevant themes of disillusionment, consumerism, yuppie culture and detachment seen in other novels of the decade, but the prose and execution just wasn't there for me. I liked the images and little definitions of gen X colloquialisms though, they were super fun.

Side note: I really don't understand why people compare this book to The Catcher in the Rye. Just because it's a book about youth isolated from their parents' generation doesn't make it akin to JD Salinger. The 1980s equivalent to Catcher is without a doubt Bright Lights, Big City, and I will lay my life down on that. Less Than Zero, yea, I really get the comparisons but less so. Generation X? No.

I didn’t think this was a perfect book or anything, but it was what I needed right now

Basically it feels like a historical/cultural document more strongly than it does a novel, an attempt to capture a certain (Gen X) American malaise at a point in time. This is a generation defined (afaik) by a certain ironic detachment, and that sense of separation (from e.g., life, society, family, self) permeates this book’s characters and prose, but strangely I found the irony loops back around on itself and instead seems desperately vulnerable. This book is like walking sideways into the abyss: you know it’s there, “oh well,” you say, but you can’t look; you saw it once when you were younger and henceforth averted your eyes; you look without looking, you look with foreknowledge; you watch yourself from above

This book met me at the right time—I have been feeling uninspired, stalled on the tracks, reading and writing seemed pointless and distracting. I admire Coupland’s immersion in a defeated life and the honesty to present it unadorned. (At least, that’s how it felt to me—I obviously wasn’t there when this era came to pass). And it inspired me to write!

I love Coupland, and I'll read anything that he writes. This is the fourth time I've read this, though at this point it's been at least 10 years since the last read. I enjoyed this more as a nostalgia exercise than anything. I both remember why I enjoyed reading when I was in university 20 years ago and found it mostly obnoxious now. The characters are completely insufferable. I definitely would have liked this back then, but now I mostly just have contempt for them.

I imagine it will be a while until I read this again. I'll opt for remembering how much I used to like this book, rather than my, at best indifference to it, now.

The book you hate to love? Or love to hate?

It's no wonder Coupland saw literary success after this book. It really is a triumph on all the scales that authors and their critics measure each other. It's devilishly clever, rife with scythe-like word-play, well-paced... It's everything a novel should be.

But at it's kernel, this is a book about some of the most pathetic folks to walk the face of the imagined Earth. A couple of burnt-out hipsters, wallowing in the hole of self-pity that they dug for themselves in the Coachella valley
-- a trio of not-really-losers but mid-to-late-20-somethings that self-righteously reject materialism and yet seem to cringe under the comparative psychic weight of their forced rejection of consumerist standards (the only yardstick they seem to have). And yet they won't take any risks. For lack of what I can only assume is courage, they do not deviate from their course. Sure, you can pick apart the prose for clues to the contrary but the notes in the margins spell it out for you. They're doomed. Even our closing act has the melancholy stench of cautious abandonment hanging over it.

Which is why I could not help but kick myself for enjoying it as much as I did.

Ще тільки прочитавши анотацію, я вже зрозуміла, що книга скоріш за все сподобається. І це передчуття мене не обмануло — роман про дауншифтерів 90х у Штатах як ніколи зараз актуальний людям мого віку. Тільки у 2017му до їхнього відчуття безглуздості проживання життя на безперспективній роботі в офісі, перенасиченості минулим, яке виходить поза межі звичайної ностальгії та до абсурдизації термінів та понять, які мали хоч якесь значення та важливість ще декілька десятків років тому, — додається ще всюдисущність Інтернету, а звідси легкодоступність найрізноманітнішої інформації та безліч психічних розладів і залежностей здебільшого пов'язаних з соцмережами.
Герої переживають кризу віку “майже 30”, бояться ядерних вибухів та кінця світу, розповідають вигадані історії, часто нудьгують і дещо нагадують персонажів “В дорозі” Керуака.
Читаючи роман, я часто задавалася питанням як би вони себе повели у тій чи іншій ситуації маючи смартфони, інстаграми з лайвами та бумерангами і т.д. Можливо усних історій було би менше :) А найбільше з книги мені сподобалися пояснені терміни та слогани на полях сторінок.

Three individuals, disillusioned by their inability to fit in / accept the emptiness of the image-focused, hustle and bustle, social climbing world around them, escape to the Mojave desert where they tell each other stories, both fact and fiction. They also live their lives, taking on low paying jobs, living meagerly, and generally confusing their family and friends, who can't seem to fully grasp why anyone would need to get away in this fashion.

The book isn't really a coherent narrative so much as tidbits of insight into the struggles of those searching for meaning in the Generation X. With a bit of dry humour thrown into the mix, Coupland does an excellent job expounding upon the many, many flaws of modern society, most of which seem to be blindly accepted by the masses as a point of fact. If you have ever felt even remotely like there is something a bit (or very) wrong with our modern culture, you will probably want to check this one out.

Generation X was given their name because the world didn't know what their impact would be. But 20 years on, other than Kurt Cobain, David Foster Wallace, Richard Linklater, and the works of a few other notables, I have to say it's hard figuring out what their impact has been.

It's hard to know what to make of the novel. On the one hand, I enjoyed my time reading Generation X, but on the other hand, it doesn't stick long in the brain. The best parts are the funny little turns of phrase that inhabit the sidebars, and that should say something. In the world of glum-hip-youth tales, it's far cleverer than anything Tao Lin or Bret Easton Ellis penned, but its lack of staying power isn't made up for by its wit. I am honestly curious to read more Douglas Coupland, and see how his style has matured since, but some of Generation X is as dated and embarrassing as a Fruitopia ad in a 1994 issue of Wired.

I’d love a company car

Reading Generation X for the first time in 2021 is extremely weird, because it was conceptualized, written and first appreciated in a world that doesn't exist anymore. A world without the chaos machine we call the internet.

In that sense, I thought it had a lot more in common with Jack Kerouac On the Road and other marginal youth novels than it does with anything we know now. Any, Dag and Claire live in history. Therefore, it's difficult to think about them in the way Douglas Coupland meant us to. The disenfranchised Generation X ended up espousing a radically new economy that spurted off the ground in the upcoming decade and at the end of the day, they were fine.

So, what makes Generation X such a powerful book in its time was the clear, scathing rejection of a certain way of life its characters had: nuclear family, home in the suburbs, kids, dog, 401k, etc. It was refused to them first and they eventually turned against it. Denounced its hypocrisy and inaccessibility in witty, juvenile, tongue-in-cheek ways while trying to find a situation for themselves. That said, it's a very pertinent read in 2021 with the ongoing atomization of ways of living. It might not help you sympathize with the grumpy, entitled Xer in your life who ended up being not so bad, but it'll help you understand how we're all rebelling against the same soul-rotting way of life.

A lot of the stuff millennials and Zoomers are rebelling against, Xs rebelled against too. But unlike us they didn't go to college for it.

“När folk berättar att de just har köpt ett hus kunde de lika gärna ha sagt att de inte längre har någon personlighet. Det är så mycket man genast kan ta för givet: att de sitter fast i jobb som de hatar, att de är panka, att de tittar på video varenda kväll, att de har gått upp tio kilo, att de inte längre är intresserade av nya idéer. Det är djupt deprimerande.”