I quite liked the prose style of this collection of short stories, which I felt managed to tread that fine line between being economical and being evocative. There were some strangely beautiful little tableaux and some striking images.

I was, however, a little puzzled as to how Coupland managed to write so many successive characters as being so distinctly more-hipster-than-thou, yet at the same time not manage to make them at all distinct from one another. I was very confused reading...more I quite liked the prose style of this collection of short stories, which I felt managed to tread that fine line between being economical and being evocative. There were some strangely beautiful little tableaux and some striking images.

I was, however, a little puzzled as to how Coupland managed to write so many successive characters as being so distinctly more-hipster-than-thou, yet at the same time not manage to make them at all distinct from one another. I was very confused reading the second and third stories, until I realised that each story was about a different person; the voices were so similar that I had just assumed they were all being narrated by the same individual. A little too self-conscious for me as well, too hyper-aware of its disillusionment, in that particular manner you get from white middle-class folk who have all the luxury of wallowing and none of the impetus towards change. ( )

Unlike his longer fiction these short stories find Coupland at his best. The tales are succinct, full of heart (despite their usually downbeat tone) and a sort empathy gained from knowing you're not the only one to feel like this. ( )

Douglas Coupland is the voice of Generation X - or that's at least his reputation. Life After God continues exploring the life of that generation, a generation raised without religion. The book consists of eight short stories, told in fragmentary paragraphs decorated with Coupland's little drawings.

The stories are not connected, but circle around the same spiritual and emotional questions. What is the meaning of life, what to believe in when there's nothing to believe in anymore, what is love, what is death, what is being human? These are big questions and obviously Coupland doesn't give answers - he just offers some interesting points of view.

I'm not part of the generation Coupland writes about - perhaps someone born in the 1960's will find this book more important. However, many of the topics are so general, so commonly human that everyone should find something from Coupland's stories. Life After God is casual philosophy, and a rather pleasant little book despite all its sadness. (Review based on the Finnish translation.)

(Review of Life After God in Mikko reads) ( )

http://12frogs.com/reading/reviews/20... ( )

One of my favorite books ever. I did read it while somewhat depressed; it touched me so much. The story about a man as father did not reach me specifically other than the raw emotion. I should read it again now that I am a father. This is more raw Coupland than appears in MicroSerfs and some of his later books - although still set in the Northwest. ( )