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A review by daphnesayshi
Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland
4.0
This is a book of Heavy Thoughts, some of these Heavy Thoughts include:
1. The relativity of time, the importance of other human beings around, as a way to keep sane for us social beings or at the very least as a referential frame – the latter without which relative time ceases to exist.
2. The modern day plight, of how ironically as we become more efficient, "better" at living faster, healthier, we live less.
3. People who are little more than hollowed out empty shells chasing after the next high, the next achievement, the next milestone in life, all without believing in very much at all
What is the value of such a life? Not very much at all, as the characters in this book show. The difference between living and existing is in the meaning and value we attach to it, it seems, not with all the gew gaws and distractions we surround ourselves with.
I'm surprised that the first few reviews on Goodreads are so negative. Yes the book is a little heavy handed on the moralising, but it's a pretty good read as it successfully merges some heavy thoughts with a pretty compelling narrative. Even if the narrative requires a massive amount of suspension of disbelief, and the philosophising is pretty heavy handed at times. It's also pretty prescient - considering this is a book published in 1998, it feels very relevant today.
1. The relativity of time, the importance of other human beings around, as a way to keep sane for us social beings or at the very least as a referential frame – the latter without which relative time ceases to exist.
2. The modern day plight, of how ironically as we become more efficient, "better" at living faster, healthier, we live less.
3. People who are little more than hollowed out empty shells chasing after the next high, the next achievement, the next milestone in life, all without believing in very much at all
What is the value of such a life? Not very much at all, as the characters in this book show. The difference between living and existing is in the meaning and value we attach to it, it seems, not with all the gew gaws and distractions we surround ourselves with.
I'm surprised that the first few reviews on Goodreads are so negative. Yes the book is a little heavy handed on the moralising, but it's a pretty good read as it successfully merges some heavy thoughts with a pretty compelling narrative. Even if the narrative requires a massive amount of suspension of disbelief, and the philosophising is pretty heavy handed at times. It's also pretty prescient - considering this is a book published in 1998, it feels very relevant today.