...although a lot of the criticism is warranted. that being said, however, i think what i liked about 'jpod' is coupland's healthy dose of cynacism (a lot of it directed at himself and his celebrity) within the novel's 440 some-odd pages. it's also easy to pass this off as 'microserfs 2.0,' but to do so is a mistake because i think coupland's actually stretched himself like he never has before, not so much in form (because it's almost identical to 'mircoserfs') but rather in tone and theme. most of the characters in 'microserfs' were endearing folks, people you genuinely liked. a lot of the characters in 'jpod' are often unlikeable, especially the novel's protagonist, ethan jarlweski (not hard to see why when you see ethan's parents).

i do understand some people's abhorrance to inserting onself into one's novel, but the douglas coupland *in* the novel is five-star jerk off. had coupland the author made coupland the character some winning, all-around-good-guy dood, that would have been repulsive. some of the character's are, granted, a bit overdrawn and exaggerated (freedome, kam, steve, evil mark, bree, etc), but couplands endows them with enough fallability and imperfection that rise about the cliched 'quirky and offbeat' characters that pollute so many novels. and since i work in a programming department, i got a kick out of the jpod crew. by and large coupland nails techie and geek culture to the t. i laughed out loud several times.

the novel's denouement is something of a let down, but i think this is entirely the point. it would have been relatively easy to wind it up nicely and neatly as he often does. this is where coupland's cynicism comes shining through: in some ways it does come off as a contractual obligation book and i can't help but think it's a subtle jab at his publisher and his readers. some may find this off-putting. i, on the other, found it completely hilarious. too many authors take their 'art' way too seriously. coupland, however, seems to have a different view. why else would he insert twenty pages of prime numbers? lighten up, people. take a joke. coupland's 'plot' in 'jpod' is merely the vehicle for his cynicism and sense of humor. don't take it too seriously. just go with it. enjoy it.

Enjoyed this one also & it's likely my favorite Coupland. Donating this one as I'm clearing my bookshelves for a move.

If sheer, unadulterated glory were a fine wine, I'd be drunk.

It's been a while since I've read this book, so we'll see how well this goes. But this book...is Douglas Coupland. I don't even know the guy, and haven't read any of his other books, but you can just tell that this is the book that he decided to have fun with. And it's a great read. It's hilarious, thoughtful and introspective from time to time, more often absurd. It's a really fun, ridiculous read. As the book progresses, you can't help but shake your head at Coupland's boldness and unashamedness in bending the rules of fiction, but the end product certainly justifies the means, if I can say that without making any greater philosophical statement.

I'm not really part of the generation that this book centers on - I'm a little after their time, I'm afraid - so I'm sure that I didn't connect as well with it as someone who was born a decade earlier might. But as long as you enjoy a good dose of absurdity and a don't mind a plot that doesn't really give a rat's ass where you think it should go next, it's certainly worth a read. It's post-(post-?)modern fiction on the entirely opposite end of the spectrum from the fantastic, elegant, and complex work of Jonathan Safran Foer, but that is in no way a negative difference. It's absurd where Foer is profound, inscrutable in its complex strangeness rather than its strange complexity. And, in a way, he reminds me, just vaguely, of the great Douglas Adams - in a totally different genre, of course, but if Adams were to write a book about office drones back home in the early 21st century, I imagine it would look something like this.

the three things you can't fake are erections, competence and creativity (c)

про jPod дугласа коупленда пишут, в основном, что это "социологический роман", "рабы майкрософта" поколения google и youtube", "ситком на 500 страниц" и "не книга, но произведение современного искусства", и все это, по большому счету, правда, хоть и не главное. главное про jPod - это практически непрекращающийся восторг, глумливое хихиканье в метро и некоторое ощущение стыда за то, что испытываешь такое удовольствие на публике

из всех книг коупленда история в jPod - самая абсурдная, потому что соберите вместе китайскую мафию, бальные танцы, брутальных лесбиянок, фаст-фуд, менеджера-героинщика и программистов-аутистов, и сами подумайте, что из этого в��йдет. вместе с тем, с социологической точки зрения тот же "портрет техногика" - до болезненного узнавания реалистичен, а те кто не верит в людей, которые развлечения ради ищут среди 58 894 цифр затесавшуюся букву О, зайдите как-нибудь к нам в обеденный перерыв - услышите фразу вроде "математики зажигают - напились не то что в ноль, а в комплексные числа"

и да, если вы не знаете, кто такие гики, у вас есть отличная возможность узнать, потому что jPod - энциклопедия гиковской жизни. один, обидевшись, проклял другого, и теперь тот другой не понимает мультики (he just doesn't get them!), второй истерит, потому что к нему подкрались с горном и подудели прямо в уши, и теперь он считает, что громкий звук отморозил те нейроны, которые позволяли ему парсить код на С++; они пишут письма рональду макдональду, продают себя на eBay, из принципа нон-конформизма меняются одеждой с беженцами из китая и вписывают в детский фэнтэзи-квест скрытый уровень, в котором обиженный на мир клоун отрывает всем головы

jPod примечателен еще и тем, что по нему сняли сериал, где коупленд выступал как продюсер и соавтор сценария, и он получился еще более абсурдным, чем книга, а кроме того, добавил персонажам лица и тела, развернул по-хорошему любовную линию и подарил самому коупленду возможность сняться в роли трупа в лифте. тем более глупым видится закрытие сериала после первого сезона на вечном клиффхэнгере - пидорасам из fox в аду придется потесниться и пустить на постой мудаков с канадского cbc, которые даже dvd не смогли выпустить нормальный (на том, что выпустили, битая восьмая серия)

Despu��s de leer Microserfs y del gran impacto que ese libro caus�� en m��, inclu�� sin pensarlo este t��tulo en mi carta a los reyes de este a��o. Lo he terminado hoy, en el avi��n que me tra��a de vuelta a Linz. Es sin duda un libro que no pasa desapercibido si lo lees en p��blico, debido a las p��ginas llenas de cifras de pi que contien, p��ginas con tipograf��as de distinto tipo y tama��o, p��ginas con grandes kanjis���

Adem��s de la extra��a est��tica, creo que propia de Douglas Coupland, el libro en s�� me ha gustado bastante. Me ha recordado much��simo a Tom Sharpe, el mismo tono ��cido y los mismos personajes extremos y absurdos. Este tipo de escritores obviamente no pueden gustarle a todo el mundo. El humor que emplean para hacer una s��tira del mundo actual es demasiado estrafalario y en el caso de Coupland, demasiado geek.

En cuanto a la historia, el libro est�� contado en primera persona por un tipo muy parecido al protagonista de Microsiervos y cuyo discurso es tambi��n similar. En este caso, el tipo, Ethan, trabaja en una multinacional dedicada al desarrollo de videjuegos y est�� metido en un grupo llamado JPod, junto con otros 5 tipos la mar de raros. La historia comienza cuando la madre de Ethan, que se dedica al narcotr��fico, tiene un peque��o incidente con un motorista al que acaba electrocutando por accidente. A partir de ah��, se suceden los personajes y situaciones, a cu��l m��s absurda, desde el padre de Ethan, actor frustrado hasta un chino mafioso dedicado al tr��fico de personas, pasando por la madre lesbiana radical de uno de sus compa��eros de trabajo y por el propio Douglas Coupland que aparece como personaje. Si eso lo mezclamos con interminables b��squedas en Google, p��ginas llenas de cifras de Pi, de n��meros primos y un buen pu��ado de informaci��n sobre payasos y p��ginas gore, tenemos un libro nada apto para todos los p��blicos.

Al contrario que Chuck Palahniuk, que es el escritor al que m��s odio del mundo porque se dedica a escribir sandeces extremadamente desagradables con el ��nico objetivo de causar repugnancia y turbaci��n y que de este modo todos piensen que es un escritor buen��simo, este libro est�� cargado de maldad pero s��lo para provocar risa. Si ten��is algo en com��n conmigo, estoy segura de que os gustar��.

Maybe its because i picked this up at a thrift store for a dime along with nine other books and didn't care about this much to begin with, but have you ever read something that reeks of old writer man trying to be Hip and Relatable? Well, if you can't get me to care about your main computer geek, and you can't get me to care about the side computer geeks, you failed at Good Character Work 101.

The switches from the story to blocks of text were a bit interesting though, I guess. Made for a faster read anyway.

Edit: Dear God I was rereading this again out of pure boredom and I completely forgot the author just......name drops himself, his novels AND turns himself into a self insert too...........

Chicanery.

This book, if you can suspend the "no way all this can happen to one guy" logic, is laugh out loud funny. I know because so far I've been laughing outloud. I really like Coupland's abstract word files thrown in the mix. Strange and artsy but appropriate.

This is my first Douglas Coupland book. I was surprised to read so many bad reviews but I really loved this book. It had some laugh out loud moments for me and I enjoyed the quirkiness of the characters. And the situations Ethan got into were hilarious. I watched 2 episodes of the short lived Canadian TV show and finding it just as good if not better than the book. The casting is great and even the new stuff they added or changed. fit right in with the characters.

This was middle of the road as far as Coupland books go. People call it Microserfs 2.0. Since I loved Microserfs, I have to disagree.

On one hand, as a computer programmer, I loved that part of the story. The other things I loved? Douglas Coupland portraying himself as a complete douchebag. Ethan's pot-growing, lover-shooting Mom. The quirkiness of the jPod cast.

Now you're asking yourselves "But what did you hate?" The hatred is directed at the post modern bend the novel takes toward the end. The main characters give each other brain teasers. All of them are wastes of pages. Do we really need 40 or so pages of pi so we can look for the l that he substituted for a 1? That's L and ONE, to make things more legible. The other brainteasers are similar wastes of time.

Not to say jPod is a bad book. It isn't. It just isn't as good as a lot of Coupland's others, like Generation X, Microserfs, and All Families are Psychotic. If you're a Coupland completist, you'll still want to read it. Just do your yourself a favor and get it out of the way early.

Nun stellt ja gerade JPOD neben GENERATION X Couplands berühmtestes Buch. Mein Lieblingsbuch von ihm ist ja weiterhin MICROSERFS, aber JPOD belegt ganz klar Platz 2! Nun ist das Original schon 2006 erschienen. Nachdem Heyne als letztes Buch an dem sie die Rechte hatten ELENOR RIGBY veröffentlicht hatten, verging ja bekanntlich 5 Jahre bis Tropen (Klett-Cotta) GENERATION A heraus brachte. Nach MARSHALL McLUHAN hat Tropen nun 2011 ,JPOD auf Deutsch veröffentlicht. Und zwar in einer sehr schönen Hardcover-Version mit Original-Cover. Ja, das mit den Lego-Männchen! Ob die deutsche Übersetzung nun gut oder schlecht ist, kann ich nicht beurteilen. So gut ist mein Englisch nun auch wieder nicht.
Ich kann nur jeden der schräge und absurd-lustige Geschichten mag und vielleicht ein bisschen ein Geek oder Nerd in sich hat dieses Buch ans Herz legen.