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Generazione A (2010)

by Douglas Coupland(Favorite Author)

3.53 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

8876381988 (ISBN13: 9788876381980)

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

publisher

ISBN Edizioni

review 1: To me, "Generation A" seems like a textbook example of a mediocre book written by an astoundingly smart author. It leaves little room for doubt that Douglas Coupland, is, indeed, an incredibly sharp and observant guy, as the book is constantly whirring with great, often very poignant ideas. Coupland seems so aware culture, so sensitive to the advances of technology and the way it has changed and is constantly changing the ways in which we live and interact with each other, that its hard to believe I walked away from this book somewhat less than impressed. First, the good things. The general concept of the plot is, in my opinion, brilliant. Connecting five seemingly disparate people through the fact that they've all been stung by bees in a world where bees are supposedly ex... moretinct is, potentially, so interesting. There are so many questions to extrapolate on- why have these people been stung? Why are bees extinct? How does this relate to the titular Genration A? - and Coupland does, indeed, extrapolate, and in a mostly satisfying way nonetheless. The themes of storytelling and our capability of belief are there, and largely well executed. The concept of Solon, the go-to drug of the troubled populace that makes people stop worrying about the future, is intriguing. The problem is, while he smartly arranges the potential of all of these elements into place, he simply fails to make any them jibe with adequate storytelling or characters. And thus, we are brought to the novel's most obvious fault- the characters. I hated every character in this book. None of them were deep. None of them were interesting. They all felt watered down, diluted of any true personality. And honestly, I've loved books where I've disliked the characters before. The problem here is that the character's faults are magnified by the book's consequentially gimmicky form. Essentially, each chapter is split into one of five points of view. We see these characters go through similar events from their own "unique" perspectives. Early on in the book, this worked for me- the characters were in different parts of the world, and their differences were more palpable. As the book progressed, however, it became more and more obvious that each of these characters, despite having very different backgrounds, speaks with the same voice. They all try their hardest to be snarky, edgy, and full of personality the way Sonic the Hedgehog is full of personality. Despite the fact that each chapter was supposedly written from a different perspective, it never really felt this way. And as the book progressed, once-funny jokes and personality quirks became annoying and shallow. Harj calling all American males Craigs? Genuine laughs the first couple of times, slight cringes upon excess repetitions. Zack's playboy personality? Fine for a while, repugnant by the end. Diana's (I think that was her name, but I honestly don't remember) 'tourettes' (really just an excuse for Coupland to have a character that spouts random swear words and gross, sexually explicit inanities) was borderline offensive at first, and downright juvenile by the end. In the end, I guess I can best surmise these characters as being nothing more than cookie-cutter caricatures (which can sometimes serve more idea driven novels (see Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy)) who become annoying and bothersome and generally unlikable after Coupland's fulsome indulgences in trying to make each one quirky and funny. But really, 90 percent of the character-driven jokes felt like dross. By the time all of their stories converge, and the meta fiction starts ramping up, its easy to just be tired of it all. Props to Coupland for a few of the stories within the story for being 'alright'. Every few pages a really good, smart quote would come up that I would underline. The digressions on Finnegan's Wake were really cool, and got my brain buzzing in a way it hasn't since taking Literary Theory courses. But really, all these good things in the novel wind up being less than the sum of their parts. Coupland succeeds as a thinker, but not as a novelist.
review 2: A big disappointment. Turn around things without eventually convince the reader, at least to me I was not convinced .. What means that solon has the effect of reading a thousand books in one day? Nothing: no sense. The only similarity is that as time passes but it passes if you like the books! If the books are bad (or nearly no sense like this one) time never passes. In addition, while the books leave something in you what about solon? Boh.Read in italian language. less

Download links for: Generazione A

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