Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture (Paperback)

by Douglas Coupland (Author) "At meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, fellow drinksters will get angry with you if you won't puke for the audience..." (more)
Key Phrases: space poisoning, new skis, Palm Springs, New York, Aston Martin (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Newcomer Coupland sheds light on an often overlooked segment of the population: "Generation X," the post-baby boomers who must endure "legislated nostalgia (to force a body of people to have memories they do not actually own)" and who indulge in "knee-jerk irony (the tendency to make flippant ironic comments as a reflexive matter of course . . . )." These are just two of the many terse, bitterly on-target observations and cartoons that season the margins of the text. The plot frames a loose Decameron -style collection of "bedtime stories" told by three friends, Dag, Andy and Claire, who have fled society for the relative tranquility of Palm Springs. They fantasize about nuclear Armageddon and the mythical but drab Texlahoma, located on an asteroid, where it is forever 1974. The true stories they relate are no less strange: Dag tells a particularly haunting tale about a Japanese businessman whose most prized possession, tragically, is a photo of Marilyn Monroe flashing. These stories, alternatively touching and hilarious, reveal the pain beneath the kitschy veneer of 1940s mementos and taxidermied chickens.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Don't read the story itself, but the stories within it. We build culture by telling stories to each other, and the characters in this novel successfully build their own culture in reaction to the one around them in a particularly interesting, inspiring, and emotional way. -- Reason, Nathan Shedroff

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (March 15, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031205436X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312054366
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (110 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #157,199 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Charming, despite itself, January 12, 2001

By	C. Gilbert "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Being a member of said generation, I've always been reluctant to read this book. I've heard it described as brilliant, flawed, pretentious, irritating, moving, and plastic. I think that 'charming' and 'smart' are the two words that best define it for me, even though it's hard not to see its flaws.

A series of stories about a group of young people in Palm Springs, telling each other stories while they work pointless McJobs and glory in cultural wreckage. The book's strength is mostly in its moments-- the definitions and epigrams on the margins of the pages, the stories that the characters tell each other, and the tiny observational zingers about the American nature that are the hallmark of Coupland's writing.

I'm glad I read it.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Read it for what it is, not for what the title has become, August 2, 1999

By	joshawk "joshawk" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

"Generation X" is not great literature. It's not a handbook for any particular generation, nor is it at all a bad read. The book, published almost ten years ago, tells the story of three people in their 20s who have left their high-paying jobs to hang out in Palm Springs and tell stories. The title has been appropriated by every aspect of the media to label a group of people it wasn't even intended for. I don't think that's what Coupland had in mind when he wrote it, nor do I believe he ever suspected that this simple piece of fiction would draw such venom from people who expect it to be some kind of mystical guide, then label it "pretentious" and "boring" when it doesn't meet their expectations. "Generation X" is to me a highly entertaining, humorous, sometimes frustrating tome...all the qualities I look for in a good book. It may not be the 90s "Catcher in the Rye," but it did speak to me.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lyric, poignant poetry in prose, December 1, 1999

By	"sarah_elizabeth" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

Gorgeous and funny, this book has really got something intangible that can't be captured by the trillions of Time and Newsweek articles about the slacker generation and this, their "Bible."

It is a fairy tale type book with a set of post-modern lessons, taught by twentysomething, burned-out friends. It is just right for anyone who's grown up next to a nuclear power plant and freaked out when they test the meltdown sirens, or for anyone who has been stuck in an awful temp gig and fantasized about dropping out to work at a McDonalds and drink gin at noon. There is just something so appealing about the journey of the protagonists that you can read it and feel like you've escaped from life too.

Always funny, very ironic, and filled with droll slang ripe for appropriation, this book is a fantastic vacation on paper.