My Weekly Book

Well, now I have read it again. And I’m afraid that I still don’t think it’s very good at all. And I’m a big Smiths fan, and I was there trying to find the 38 references. After all, no-one ever wrote the phrase “Let’s go to a place where it’s quiet and dry, and talk about precious things” by accident.

There are glimmers in there, certainly. But, by God, it’s silly. What happens is silly. Jared the angel - ridiculously silly. The apocalypse scenario - you know what I’m going to say, now, don’t you. The ending… wait for it…

And it doesn’t speak to me in the way the others do. And I think he’s already achieved what he set out to achieve in this book in Microserfs, which is a bit of a pinnacle of literary achievement. I tell you, I waited eagerly for this book to come out in paperback, and then I read it, and I was heartbroken by how bad it was.

But at least I’ve read it now, so hopefully that particular demon is exorcised and I’ll be able to progress through the next three.

I have found, on the wonder that is the modern Internet, an essay which sums up a lot of what I think about this book. I heartily recommend reading this:

http://www.jasonpettus.com/essays/coma.htm

One of its main lines of argument is that Mr Coupland got rather sick of his own success, and his own writing style, and so set out to tear it down.

A bit unfortunate for those of us who were fans, huh?

Here’s what Mr Pettus has to say, which had me nodding vigorously in agreement:

At the very least, bad Coupland is infinitely better than most of the dreck we find in our bookstores right now. But I’m morally torn by the idea of speaking any bad thoughts of the man who is my icon, my hero, who explained so many things about my life to me without even knowing me.

This is very true and now I must fold this thought into a mental pocket and pop off to read Miss Wyoming again. I got halfway through that too, and had to stop because it got so painful. But I think I recall a bit of a return to form, a feeling that the old transcendent Coupland was shining through, if somewhat through a glass darkly.

So time to go off and see, I suppose.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 11th, 2004 at 9:34 pm and is filed under 2004 - Books read. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.