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Summary: It helped me to define my place in the 'Generation X'
Review: Despite being born in 1977, I always rejected the idea that I was part of this 'Generation X' I kept hearing about. Plaid-wearing, grunge-listening freaks. Bugger that for a game of soldiers.It wasn't until my second reading of the book that I began to question exactly what the moniker truly meant. The first time I read "Generation X", I blitzed through it, being in the middle of half a dozen novels at the time. It left me with the impression of a light-hearted humourous tale, full of Seinfeldian observations on life. Like I said, I'd blitzed through it, not really taking it in at the time. Later, when I had the time to spare, I picked it up again from the library, and really sat down with it. It moved me. The central character is the 'almost me', the me I wish I had the courage to be. He has done what I would love to do: drop out of a high-stress, high-demand industry and really learn to live. Get a nice quiet McJob somewhere, tending bar or working in a video store, and just 'work for the weekend', to quote the song by Loverboy. I can really identify with him. Around the same time as I was reading it, a relative of mine was telling me that he'd read it (not knowing that I was reading it), and that I reminded him of the protagonist. I really have come to identify with Coupland's 'Generation X-ers'. Not the whole plaid-wering thing, but the spirit of what makes us different to our parents. Our anxiety and our mid-twenties breakdowns. The fact that the media future we were promised failed to materialise, and we now live in a broken, dysfunctional 'Blade Runner' future. Made to feel as if we have to live up to the standards set by our Boomer parents, expected to keep up in fields that change overnight. Expected by 11 to know what we want to do with our lives, and to plan our 'education careers' accordingly. Don't get me wrong: I'm not blaming anyone for this situation - it just -is-. But it's too much. I can't keep up anymore. God, I want to drop out so much, but I can't. I envy the 'almost me'. I wish him all the happiness that I would want for myself. Someday, I hope I can be an 'almost me', too. This isn't a book for everyone, but if you feel a little lost in your life, if you feel a little older than you're supposed to be, pick it up and spend a Saturday afternoon out on the porch with it. Maybe it'll help you put together some of the pieces of your life. It helped me.
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Summary: Great Writing . . . . . But Plot???
Review: As a fellow Canadian, (and yes, a twenty-something)I felt somewhat obligated to buy a copy of Mr. Coupland's first book. And I'm not sorry that I did. I found it to be a very well writen book, as well as very funny and spot-on true at times. Unfortunately, what the book needs is at least somewhat of a story-line to keep the reader interested. If your a Canadian gen-Xer who's looking for great read, try Coupland's MICROSERFS or even better yet, Deron Hamel's FAR FROM NOWHERE.
Rating: 
Summary: Insightful
Review: A fun, insightful read. Coupland has the ability to put things in words that I've never before seen anyone capture. I especially love the way he describes people. Full of interesting stories told by fascinating characters I wish I knew in real life, this book makes me nostalgic for times I've never had, and places I've never been to. Thoroughly enjoyable, poignant, bewildering - I never wanted this book to end.
Rating:
Summary: A good, insightful book.
Review: Overall, Generation X is a good book. I found the book most interesting when it focused on the main character's observations of their physical surroundings and the people they came into contact with. The way that people are grouped and described (global teens, parents, the customers at Larry's bar, etc.) is right on the money. My only complaint is sometimes the character's story telling becomes extremely bizarre and I found it hard to understand what the point was that they were trying to make. I also found it strange that even though I am a Generation X'er as far as age is concerned, I never had such morbid and obsessive thoughts about a nuclear holocaust. I just found that interesting.
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Summary: Pop!!culture
Review: this book is my favorite book to read repeatedly, in the bathtub, plopped on the bus,eating my nutritous meals of Corn Pops, etc...i don't read the whole thing over and over but instead i nibble on bits and pieces of it....i love the short stories Coupland sprinkles all through the novel (The astronaut who lands on Texlahoma and the Boy with Hummingbird Eyes being my favorites) Coupland can annoy some people, my husband being one of them--though he does enjoy the book alot--because Coupland tends to use too many pop culture oh-so-ironic references and similes....but, i slurp all of it up with a spoon...my friends who dig Coupland and i have very unimaginatively co-opted most of his terms and sprinkled them into our vernacular-slang...(oh, this place is soooooo Marge!---she is such a black hole---) Gen X. and Shampoo Planet are fun digestible books to read...
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Summary: The side-bar definitions alone make this book a good read.
Review: Three disenfranchised twenty-somethings drop out to cure their lives of meaningless consumerism and ambition. Jaded, cynical and mildly depraved, but tres entertaining. Hits too close to home for comfort. Almost everyone will see something of themselves in the side-bar quipisms that pepper the pages.
Rating: 
Summary: Snuffed!!!
Review: This book was pointless - I put it down halfway through and haven't picked it up again. The characters are under-developed and the plot goes NOwhere. The only good quality of this book that ??? confusingly labels Gen X'ers is the little side-line humor on some of the pages. ((Hint-Hint...flip through it at the book store)) Don't buy it!
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Summary: It will touch, it will move you--but only if you're 20+
Review: My parents wouldn't get this. My uncles and aunts wouldn't get this. My boss wouldn't understand this book. But my officemates and friends (alll in their twenties) surely get this book. They laughed, they got sad, they got scared. The book talked to a certain audience, and me presumably being one of them, was moved by the accuracy of the details he uses. The brand names. The company names. They evoke not just the literal image of the objects/entities, but the feelings, the emotions, the texture of the age that we are in right now. Definitely not for everyone, but definitely for my generation.
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Summary: Awesome, man
Review: This book was presented to me in my English Lit class this year. I thought at first it would be another dull piece of literature. I was gravely mistaken. I enjoyed Coupland's stories, within stories, which was what the majority of the book was composed of. Sometimes i felt he was talking about himself, as though he was actually Andy. The Buck the astronaut story was, by far, the part I enjoied the most. It rocks, you should read it sometime.
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Summary: If you miss it, you miss the point
Review: The funny thing is, nearly a decade after this was written and published, this book proved its point without really trying. That's because the real "Generation X" Coupland writes about doesn't encompass much of the one that has been branded with the label. It's really a snapshot of people born in the 60s, or more likely, born between about 1959 and 1968. The jist of the characters' tirade is that the boomers got a lot of attention and own the world; the X generation got lost in the shuffle, which would be OK, but there is no center, no focus, for this agegroup-everything has already been "done." While this isn't the actual plot of the book (which is fairly flimsy and doesn't make it a very timeless book), Coupland hit the nail on the head in that aspect. Anyone who graduated high school in the early 80s will recognize the nothingness that these characters see and carry with them every day. It's even written like a textbook, which I thought was clever. This is, pardon the phrase "the book about nothing," but it isn't that way because it's bad, it's just the bottom line of the story Coupland is telling. Now, we have marketing firms that have figured out Generation X and all their nuances, TV shows and music and education is all geared toward the up-and-coming bunch. But, everyone missed us "Tweeners" again, coming and going. In fact, this book should have been titled "The Tweeners." It's not a great book, but it is a must read if you want the proper perspective on 90s pop culture. Don't use the term "Generation X" unless you've read this book.
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