Girlfriend in a Coma

In which Douglas Coupland gets all metaphysical on our collective asses.

In 1979 two teenagers, Richard and Karen, have hurried sex atop a mountain while on a ski trip. Later, while at an out-of control house party Karen slips into a coma. Which lasts for 17 years. This first part is introduced by the ghost of a dead friend, the football jock Jared. Who will reappear later. With me so far?

Coupland then details the lives of Richard and Karen's friends as they drift into their 30s, a collection of failures and neuroses and addicts who all end up back in their hometown. Richard drinks and tries to be a father to his daughter by Karen, Megan, a troubled, rebellious goth girl with a druggie boyfriend. Pam and Hamilton drift into drug abuse and aimless cynicism. Wendy becomes a doctor. Straight arrow Linus, after wandering the country for a few years, ends up marrying Wendy. And then Karen wakes up.....

And then the world ends. Literally. People just fall asleep and die. All except this small circle of friends. And a year later the world has turned to shit and they're all living together just....existing. Still the same fuck ups. Raiding stores and collecting jewels like coke bottle tops. Until the ghost of Jared appears and....well, it all gets a bit preachy. But in a good way.

Up to this point Coupland has written a sharp, witty, well observed novel of middle class malaise and the rot at the heart of America. With Jared as his mouthpiece he lays down exactly what he sees as wrong with people: the apathy, the blind acceptance, the rat race. And gives his characters a choice....change or die.

It's a simple message: do better. Change the world. Whether Coupland wanted this to be a rallying cry of some kind I don't know. Written at the turn of the millennium Girlfriend In A Coma is a satire, a commentary and extremely readable. For me the ending is a bit of a letdown. The last quarter kind of derails the novel, but it's still a cracking read.

Chosen purely because the author's initials matched my own (part of a Reading Challenge) and I liked the ethereal cover with its colour photocopied girl reminding me of a Tori Amos single. However, it did not get off to a good start as every time I picked it up I found myself droning the title with “I know, I know” after it in a Smithsy/Morrissey fashion - that got very boring very fast!
The book is split into 3 sections: the fairly interesting 1978 section where the girlfriend does indeed slip into a coma and her group of friends deal with how they are affected, the okay second part where she awakens and (spoiler alert) then the world ends, and the final section where they wander through the wreckage of the ?future. The end section dragged horrifically and really put me off the fairly promising start.
This is my first attempt at Coupland and according to his critics it's his worst and most pointless work (good choice then). So I'll maybe attempt another of his in the future but I definitely do not recommend this one!