Rating: 
Summary: Read it for what it is, not for what the title has become
Review: "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.
Rating: 
Summary: BOOOOOOOOOOORING!!!!!!
Review: This has got to be the most boring book I have ever read! I dont see anything interesting about whiny rich kids who think they have to go and "find" themselves. Hell will freeze over before I read another book by Coupland again.
Rating:
Summary: This is a total JOKE. Deserves negative stars.
Review: I read this book for a 'historical' book report when I was 17 years old. It was SOOO incredibly pretentious it pissed me off. How can a Canadian in his thirties write a novel about Americans in their twenties and pass himself off as an 'authority' of 'his' generation?? This book tries *way* too hard to be meaningful and intellectual. I could tell it was trying to be disaffected, cool, and witty but IT JUST WASN'T WORKING. Think of Seinfeld meets Woody Allen with Janeane Garofolo's mouth missing a sense of humor and on massive doses of Prozac stuck in a white room with no windows. That's basically the gist of this book tone and plot-wise. Oops, did I say plot? The book _has none_. It boils down to a bunch of whiny, spoiled, white kids who are really, really bored and so fill up the time by talking about themselves. You cannot TRY to be a slacker and the terms 'carefully studied indifference' and 'affected acting' are not flattering descriptions. But they apply VERY well to this book. I truly believe that before the book 'Generation X' appeared, nobody (other than maybe Douglas Coupland) talked like the characters in the book (that is in an annoyingly pseudo-intellectual manner). Just like waiters didn't start to get ultra picky orders from customers until after 'When Harry Met Sally' came out and picky eating was glamorized. As far as the 'Generation X terms' in the margins of the book that Coupland so generously provides, *who talks like that*?? I don't remember one use of the word 'McJob' until AFTER 'Generation X' was published. (And then, only by misguided older journalists trying to show they were 'in' with Generation X) I am thoroughly disgusted with 'Generation X' and its dishonest, self-aggrandizing, self-important, pretentious, pseudo-intellectual, and entirely too self-conscious content. And it just goes on and on...and on and on. I do not feel anything for the main characters other than contempt. I do not believe this book captures the zeitgeist of anything (in fact, I think his publisher uses that word because Coupland is so fond of big, important sounding words) I think Douglas Coupland is an ingenius marketer, however. He wrote a book and fooled the world into thinking it was an accurate depiction of a generation and that he was some kind of cultural guru. If anyone can identify with any of the characters it is more coincidence that generational trend. I tried reading Coupland's other book, 'Micro Serfs' but I LIVE in Silicon Valley and still do not know what the hell he is talking about. I really hope Coupland runs out of 'zeitgeisty' topics to exploit and do us all a favor.
Rating:
Summary: The absolute worst book, ever.
Review: Generation X by Douglas Coupland, man, is absolutely the lamest book in the absoluete lamest genre of literature there is. There is nothing more annoying than books about whiny rich kids who are "searching" for their role in their generation, "trying to find themselves." The people who like this book are the same people who find art in music videos, who work at Blockbuster "but really want to direct," and find great social significance in things like The Breakfast Club. Coupland is an absolute TERRIBLE writer, who apparantly has only read The Cathcer in the Rye and Less Than Zero.Everything I've read by the man is even worse than this.
Rating: 
Summary: Hits too close for comfort
Review: Being only 16 at the time I read this, perhaps my fragile impressionistic mind can't be trusted to give any sort of valid opinion. Generation X really shook me up, stripped away a lot of the things I held to be true, and taught me to recognize how many people build their lives around things that don't really matter. At first I only saw this trait in people my own age, which is ridiculously easy to do in high school where everyone goes absolutely crazy if they can't obtain the perfect prom date/set of fake nails/blond highlights/etc. Then I noticed that it WASN'T limited to people in high school. It was EVERYBODY, and this scared the hell out of me. I started questioning exactly what life was supposed to be about, if not getting into a good school so you can get into a good college so you can work at a high-paying job until you can retire and afford a huge house and your life can really start at age 60. Work and money suddenly seemed like absurd concepts, as well as the things we choose to spend our time on, such as watching foootball and bodybuilding and smoking and shopping while your life just goes by without you. I decided that the only thing to do would be to fully inhabit every moment of your life. Ever try that? It's hard. And there's no lifestyle that would really allow that, unless you are hitching across the USA with a duffel bag and a guitar, which I may try someday if I can't find anything else to do. Generation X will peel away all things false and leave you searching for just one thing that has any meaning. I just read Life After God and came away with the conclusion that Coupland's books are like a huge dose of straight information, like someone has reached inside your brain and revealed things to you in a flash of enlightenment. They will point out in detail everything about your own life, or maybe the lives of people you've seen. Generation X will wake you up, if nothing else.
Rating:
Summary: Pretensious and dull
Review: This has got to be one of the most boring and pointless books ever written. You can just see the author trying to copy On the Road and Naked Lunch. It comes off as being "meaningful" but ends up dumb and pretensiuos. I can't believe anyone would ever take this silly piece of tripe seriously.And all that stuff about baby boomers gets really old after the first chapter. I actually found the twenty something characters to be the most annoying and petty people in the book. Even the way they talk is really pretentious not to mention the stupid pointless stories they tell.I found them to be very whiney and dull.
Rating:
Summary: Accurately defines Generation X
Review: With all the controversy surrounding who is a Baby Boomer and who is Generation X, Douglas Coupland clearly points out that Generation X is the first wave of individuals to enter teen and early adult life in the aftermath of the 60s culture. Most likely those of us born in the late 1950s to late 1960s. The events and thoughts of the characters in Coupland's novel, caught up in Generation X, certainly should strike home with those of us born during this time period.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: Blah, blah, blah. Tiresome and uninteresting. I pity those that feel that this in any way defines any element of 'our generation'. It defines shoddy writing.
Rating:
Summary: try the other books first
Review: i read generation x several years ago. it was the most boring book i had ever read. i thus decided that douglas coupland was absolutely overestimated and that i would never bother to read any of his books again. some years later, i came across 'life after god', and thought the title sounded quite promising (also i believe one CAN judge books by their covers). i bought it and loved it. after that i read 'microserfs' - brillant. now i am reading 'girlfriend in a coma' - just wonderful so far. i might reread 'generation x'. but i believe one shouldn't start off reading 'generation x'. (by the way: there's a spelling mistake on the cover of 'life after god'. the word is zeitgeisty, not zeitgeiTsty. and, douglas, can't you keep your publisher from writing 'zeitgeisty' all over your books? tiring habit. not-very-deep-and-meaningful-word-AT-ALL.)
Rating:
Summary: One on my few absolute total favorites!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Of the hundrets and thousands of books that crossed my life so far, Generation X is one of maybe three or four other books I definitely would take on a lonely island in the Pacific (or near Crete - if I should ever decide to follow Alexis ...). This is just a GREAT book and a true inspiration.
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