Girlfriend in a Coma (1998)

This is a little confusing for me. I read it last year so already my memory is a little fuzzy...
I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a Young Adult book. If it's a kids book I guess you have to cut it a little slack, but it just wasn't that good. I was never sure when I was reading it if it was actually written for adults. I guess that tells you a lot about what I thought of it.

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This is definitely one of the books that changed my life...I've read everything that Douglas Coupland has written and this one is by far my favorite. I'm hesitant to talk of it because i don't want it to sound cheesy but it's alot about second chances, the despair in choices we all make, and the ultimate hope for the ability of human beings to change and actually live a life. ( )

I really did want to enjoy this but honestly, I thought it was a load of nonsense. It started out okay because I figured it was just building up to something bigger. It just continued to drag on, though. I then thought that it would get more interesting once Karen woke up, but it just went even further down hill. The last one hundred pages were honestly tortureous and it was a huge struggle to read them. It was just a load of silly rambling that was supposed to be 'meaningful' or something. Two stars for the idea, but it was poorly executed in my opinion. ( )

It's the late 1970s, and at a party, teenage Richard's girlfriend Karen (who is dieting for her upcoming Hawaiian vacation) takes a couple of valiums along with a weak cocktail. She slips into a persistent vegetative state (Karen Ann Quinlan, anyone? Even down to the name Karen). Richard and their group of friends, who were already scarred by the death of their friend Jared the year before, muddle into adulthood. One has a brilliant but short career as a supermodel, one becomes a physician, and several of them end up working in the film industry. Despite successes in life, they are really a bunch of losers lost in a fog of ennui. Until 17 years later, when Karen awakens from her coma. This is about half way into the novel, and suddenly there is a major change of direction as an apocalyptic illness breaks out and kills everyone on earth except this group. (This is not a spoiler as it is mentioned on the back cover blurb). The initial story of the apocalypse was very entertaining, but then the book sort of wanders off toward its end, with philosophical musings about the meaning and purpose of life. Oh, and the ghost of Jared returns to guide them.

I really liked the first part, and then when it switched to a sci-fi novel I switched mindsets and liked that too. But then it just kinda . . . got weird and not very interesting. Not Coupland's best (I've seen him interviewed and he said he was in a really bad place when he wrote this one). Still, I'd rather read a "meh" Coupland than a lot of other stuff out there.

As always though, Coupland is sharp with capturing cultural snap shots. He has an amazing ability to capture time and place (the 1970s teenage party spot on perfect--down to the Bob Seger music). This is one of his novels set in Vancouver, and he can write about the city with an accuracy that I haven't come across elsewhere.

Recommended for: people who like books set in Vancouver, or books about the apocalypse. There are readers who just love this book, and probably just as many who hate it. If you haven't read Coupland before, don't start with this one. ( )

http://alliscballread.blogspot.com/2011/10/allis-cbr-iii-review-37-girlfriend-in... ( )