This book actually caused me to break up with Douglas Coupland. Don’t bother reading it, it’s Microserfs only longer and without the charm.

Coupland is back. And this time it’s personal.

I was pantwettingly excited about getting it through the post. And then very quickly consumed the book in two sittings. Yes, the book is bleaker in places but it’s also Coupland on top form. All the elements from novels you’ve loved: the computer geeks from Microserfs (but this time they’ve gone global), the existential questioning from Elenor Rigby (but this time the questions get more bizzare in places) and the dysfunctional families we all grow to love.

I particularly enjoyed the “Pick Me” letters to a certain multinational clown…

As for these characters being unsympathetic… I work in a basement based office with 6 people and we play the “quickest person to google” and “write an ad for yourself as if you were an ebay item” games. We kill time in much the same way the jpodders do. Unsympathetic? Oh dear… I better get some therapy.

Coupland making an appearence in his own novel. Isn’t that all a bit too po-mo? I still don’t know if Coupland loves the culture he writes about it or if he’s mocking them.

First one to find out the answer and email me wins this… stuffed toy camel from my desk.