Girlfriend in a Coma

In which Douglas Coupland gets all metaphysical on our collective asses.

In 1979 two teenagers, Richard and Karen, have hurried sex atop a mountain while on a ski trip. Later, while at an out-of control house party Karen slips into a coma. Which lasts for 17 years. This first part is introduced by the ghost of a dead friend, the football jock Jared. Who will reappear later. With me so far?

Coupland then details the lives of Richard and Karen's friends as they drift into their 30s, a collection of failures and neuroses and addicts who all end up back in their hometown. Richard drinks and tries to be a father to his daughter by Karen, Megan, a troubled, rebellious goth girl with a druggie boyfriend. Pam and Hamilton drift into drug abuse and aimless cynicism. Wendy becomes a doctor. Straight arrow Linus, after wandering the country for a few years, ends up marrying Wendy. And then Karen wakes up.....

And then the world ends. Literally. People just fall asleep and die. All except this small circle of friends. And a year later the world has turned to shit and they're all living together just....existing. Still the same fuck ups. Raiding stores and collecting jewels like coke bottle tops. Until the ghost of Jared appears and....well, it all gets a bit preachy. But in a good way.

Up to this point Coupland has written a sharp, witty, well observed novel of middle class malaise and the rot at the heart of America. With Jared as his mouthpiece he lays down exactly what he sees as wrong with people: the apathy, the blind acceptance, the rat race. And gives his characters a choice....change or die.

It's a simple message: do better. Change the world. Whether Coupland wanted this to be a rallying cry of some kind I don't know. Written at the turn of the millennium Girlfriend In A Coma is a satire, a commentary and extremely readable. For me the ending is a bit of a letdown. The last quarter kind of derails the novel, but it's still a cracking read.