I consider Coupland one of my generation's - and my region's - greatest writers.

short stories

Rapid fire nouns, names, locations, references... perhaps this collection will be valuable and interesting in a century, but for now the early 90s are not that long ago, and the overall air a bit too smug for my taste. Exception: the final lengthy essay about Brentwood, CA (part of Los Angeles) that weaves together information about the city alongside Marilyn Monroe's death and OJ Simpson's trials to weave a damning portrait of the SoCal ethos (as a Northern Californian, smug hits the spot).

So that time came and this is a boring book by Douglas Coupland. A collection of shorter pieces and generally divided into two parts, the first half is the most conceptually structured and the theme is the lives of different people related to a grateful dead concert.The second part is forced to fill bookspace and its theme is Brentwood, LA. The first part was interesting, the hippie culture and its various permutations was something that u could expect from coupland, his remarks are clever and precise as always with the same tongue in cheek attitude. The second part (leaving the interview with the german guy aside) was for me nothing more than a collection of scattered information and pieces. If this book did not include the second part I would have still been happy with it.

The only book i really didnt like. but different strokes for different folks.

My favorite part is the part about the nineties Grateful Dead concert at Oakland Coliseum.

The book is divided in three non-connected parts and, frankly, is a bit boring. To my liking the second part was the only worth reading as it is itself a collection of short concise stories. If you're a fan of Coupland, then you have already made up your my about reading this book, otherwise don't feel guilty about skipping that one.

i love coupland's fascinations.

I loved the first half of the book, which did a great job of reminding me what the Grateful Dead lots and shows were like. After that, though the book got less and less interesting for me, culminating in a dreary, detail-laden history and description of the neighborhood in LA in which OJ Simpson (may or may not have) killed Nicole Brown.

Well... That was a book. I generally love Coupland, but this book felt off. While he generally tries to feel out poignant topics to expose, to pick away at, to muse upon, this book felt lost.

Maybe that was the point; to be a journey of denarration. This books feels like Coupland himself is trying to suss out the answers to questions he hasn't properly revealed to the user. He wanders almost aimlessly between stories that are barely connected.

Again, maybe that was the point, but it was frustrating for me. I was difficult to read a book by an author whom I generally look to for answers, or at the very least, an author who aligns with what i am about.

Maybe I'm just too young, and this will all make fare more sense to me in 20 years time.

I guess I'll have to wait.

This is an enjoyable collection of musings and distractions. I would highly recommend it to any Coupland fans or people with a penchant for the random. I loved his comments on Brentwood he really brought out the weirdness and the clinical sterility of it. He spoke well of Vancouver and the Acid Canyon too and I enjoyed Letter to Kurt Cobain.

An all time favorite. I wish Coupland wrote more nonfiction, since his style suits it so very well.