When “Microserfs” hit, I was enthralled. It said a lot about my life: popular culture as I was a sprawling 20-something working with computers? C’est moi; second helping, please. Today, “jPod”. I’m still in the same line of work, still surrounded by wonderful autists and Coupland sniffs most of the air out off that atmosphere.

The twists and turns of the book are otherworldly, even Monty Pythonesque, and I shan’t give any away. Wikipedia will give you the plot. I’ll just say that I think Coupland’s existential ponderings are interesting kicks and that I loved some of the characters; Ethan’s mom scared me the most, by far.

Some things in the book are very Coupland, e.g. dressing a lot of illegal refugees in nerd, e.g. a Nine Inch Nails Fragility 2.0 tour t-shirt. Pop culture-references hail while the plot thickens, loosens up and gives way to a sort of Bill Hicks-ish atmosphere, circa “it’s just a ride”.

Not as good as I’d hoped.

I could have done without the countless references to the author in the book. Maybe if I’d been reading Coupland for years I’d be part of the cult, but it was all too smug. I wanted more of the “management are nuts” stuff, less jet-setting to everywhere on Kam’s behest.

I might have dug the puzzles more if I wasn’t sick with the flu. As it was, they just ended up being a LOT of pages to turn through. Maybe I have to hand in my nerd points.

Is Microserfs better, Coupland fans, or more of the same?

I wouldn’t have rated this “wishy washy” if it wasn’t by Coupland. I have crazy high expectations for him, because he’s written so many other AMAZING books. If this was by somebody else, I would have been pretty impressed. It was mainly the ending (just too… neat and tidy?) that made this one lose the most points, which is always disappointing, and puts the rest of the story in a bad light.

I made a film -Dougie agreed. We all had fun. You should watch it; only 4 mins of your life!