Coupland may have defined his generation, but unless he injects something into it, his writing will remain sociology rather...
Gen-X guru Coupland's (Life After God, 1994, etc.) third offering is a sprawling, amiable novel filled with the deracinated underachievers who have given their author both audience and theme.
Although Daniel Underwood (alias danielu@microsoft.com.) has his hands somewhat less than full, he hardly counts as a slacker. A 26-year-old bug checker at Microsoft, he lives in a group house with five other nerds, all of them vassals of Bill Gates and true children of their age. Postmodernism has left its mark: Characters are usually described in Jeopardy! categories, or compared to Hanna-Barbera cartoons or 1970s Barbie prototypes. Michael is a recluse who will eat only crackers, Kraft singles, and other flat foods that can be slid beneath closed doors. Susan, bored with the misogynist asexuality of nerd life, starts a movement for feminist techies- -called Chyx. When Daniel's father gets sacked by IBM, he and the kids set up their own software concern, Oops!, and look for venture capital in the usual shady places as Daniel gives us the play-by-play. Although there are plenty of detours along the way here—weird theme parties with female bodybuilders, a giant and never-ending computer diagram made of Lego blocks, raucous arguments over the decadence or salubrity of breakfast cereals—it's pretty clear from the start that Daniel is trying to figure out Life and Love, with a dead brother, a weak father, a sick mother, and an insecure girlfriend as parts of his equation. He manages to work something out by the story's end, although it must be said that most readers will see the finale a good six blocks away. An easy, pleasant read with little to go back for.
Coupland may have defined his generation, but unless he injects something into it, his writing will remain sociology rather than literature. (First printing of 125,000; first serial to Wired; $120,000 ad/promo; author tour)Pub Date: June 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-06-039148-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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