JPodDouglas Coupland
Once upon a time, I worked in an office. It was monotonous, soul-deadening, and utterly horrifying in thousands of minute little ways. It shouldn't come as a surprise, then, that the latest title in my reading resolution, one that revolves around the inner-workings of a group of coworkers, didn't quite tickle my fancy. Plus, JPod didn't quite live up to the hype.
JPod follows this guy Ethan, who designs video games for a living. Sounds cool, right? Sure, except that, like so many cool-sounding jobs, it actually sucks balls. The executives make stupid decisions, and designers like Ethan must carry out ridiculous orders while trying to believe their artistic backgrounds are being put to good use. Sure they are. Keep thinking that.
Meanwhile, Ethan's personal life isn't going too well, either. His mom, Insane Person Number One, is growing Mary Jane in her basement and killing bikers. His dad, Insane Person Number Two, is trying to break into the acting world despite lacking any discernible talent. His brother (who isn't in it enough to be truly crazy) causes him to become wrapped-up in a people-smuggling ring, forcing Ethan to deal with Insane Person Number Three. Clearly, madness and hilarity will ensue. Unfortunately, I was all kind of bored by it all.
Most of the characters in the book are way-laid by insane amounts of pop culture trivia, references to which abound in the novel. At times such references were enjoyable; at others, they felt forced. At times, the text would be interrupted by long lists of information; depending on the situation, these lists could be names, numbers, ads -- you get the point. And, after the first list I encountered, so did I. Such interruptions were always annoying and tedious.
As the novel progressed, I came to care less about Ethan and his existential plight and just wished he'd go back to The Simpsons and shut the ef up. Life sucks, work sucks, man up and move on.
In a nutshell: The plot dragged, the characters bored me, and the ending was weak. But another title's down, so woot woot.
Bibliolatry Scale: 2 out of 6 stars
JPod follows this guy Ethan, who designs video games for a living. Sounds cool, right? Sure, except that, like so many cool-sounding jobs, it actually sucks balls. The executives make stupid decisions, and designers like Ethan must carry out ridiculous orders while trying to believe their artistic backgrounds are being put to good use. Sure they are. Keep thinking that.
Meanwhile, Ethan's personal life isn't going too well, either. His mom, Insane Person Number One, is growing Mary Jane in her basement and killing bikers. His dad, Insane Person Number Two, is trying to break into the acting world despite lacking any discernible talent. His brother (who isn't in it enough to be truly crazy) causes him to become wrapped-up in a people-smuggling ring, forcing Ethan to deal with Insane Person Number Three. Clearly, madness and hilarity will ensue. Unfortunately, I was all kind of bored by it all.
Most of the characters in the book are way-laid by insane amounts of pop culture trivia, references to which abound in the novel. At times such references were enjoyable; at others, they felt forced. At times, the text would be interrupted by long lists of information; depending on the situation, these lists could be names, numbers, ads -- you get the point. And, after the first list I encountered, so did I. Such interruptions were always annoying and tedious.As the novel progressed, I came to care less about Ethan and his existential plight and just wished he'd go back to The Simpsons and shut the ef up. Life sucks, work sucks, man up and move on.
In a nutshell: The plot dragged, the characters bored me, and the ending was weak. But another title's down, so woot woot.
Bibliolatry Scale: 2 out of 6 stars
5 comments:
I felt this way about the last Coupland novel I read, too. Perhaps he's in a slump. Or the pop culture stuff needs something more behind it, now.
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Sorry you didn't enjoy it! I haven't read thus one yet, but I normally love Coupland.
I had the same reaction to this novel. I'm hoping my next outing with Coupland is better.
I never really liked him anyway. But I enjoyed your review.
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