I found much of this pretty dull, aside from the essay about the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver, which I had already read in  City of Glass. (In fairness, Polaroids did come out first.) However, the final essay about Brentwood is wonderful. If you're a fan of L.A. neighborhoods, the book may be worth it just for that.

It's unfortunate that people feel that this book is just filled with rants and riff-raff. I think to each of the little short stories there are deeper meanings, and they are pleasing ones at that. Not the most amazing book, but definitely enjoyed it.

I finally finished this book, after taking a good 1-2 years to read it. I love Copeland, think he's bizzare and interesting, but I COULD NOT get into this book. The stories seem pointless to me. There were some anecdotes that I enjoyed, but for the most part I had to force myself to read this.

già, il titolo non è adatto. non è una questione di memoria, ma di istantanee che cominciano con un concerto dei grateful dead, e terminano con cinquanta pagine cinquanta di analisi della vita a brentwood, l.a.

http://bookcrossing.com/journal/4413792

In may read this one again, it was awhile ago.

Polaroids from the Dead by Douglas Coupland (1996), 1st ed

This book is a musing on 1990s culture, from a variety of fictional and non-fictional viewpoints. It was a bit scattered, but I don't think this detracts meaningfully from the point of it all. The short stories at the beginning are fantastic, probably my favourite part of the book, though some of his thoughts on B.C. also hit the spot. The last section of the book, about fame, was mildly incoherent at times, but it was fitting, and read a bit like a half-cut older lady rambling about the city of her youth. I should add a caveat to this all, and say I was only a child during the 90s, so there are likely things in the book I did not pick up on, or that would have resonated more strongly had I been older during that time period.

In my top 10 for sure is Douglas Coupland "Polaroids from the Dead." It's very 90s but very profound. He is a modern day prophet. Loved his "Life after God" as well.

Treasure my autographed copy! ❤

3.25

Hated it when I first got it. But gave it another chance when I got older. Really like it now.

The creativeness of this book is really intriguing. while I liked the theme, the Grateful Dead stories started to sound a little monotonous. I do enjoy the subtly sweet feeling of recognizing freeway names and areas of Oakland that are casually mentioned.
This is a good one to keep coming back to when the mood strikes. But somehow I found myself not quite interested enough to remember what I had read when returning to a middle page after a week or two of not picking it up.