‘Generation X’ by Douglas Coupland

Time and again I tell myself not to judge books by their covers, but how is anybody supposed to ignore such a dazzling Day-Glo pink? I have to say, on an entirely superficial note, that I just love covers like this one: eye-catching yet deceptively simple, with clean typefaces that allow the words to speak for themselves. Anyway, now that we've cleared that one up, please allow me to move on to a discussion of the writing itself. Hint: Its good. Damn good.

Generation X (or Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, to provide the full title) is Canadian writer Douglas Coupland's first novel, first published in March 1991 to much fanfare. The novel helped to popularise the term Generation X which is still widely used to refer to the generation born after the post-World War II baby boom, and the book perfectly captures the latent malaise felt by this particular generation of young people.

Coupland (pronounced Cope-lund, for the record) successfully employs the framed narrative technique, used by the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio before him, to tell the story of Andy, Dag and Claire, three friends living together in an isolated patch of the Mojave desert. And while Coupland may have borrowed from the past in structural terms, the writing itself is anything but recycled. In fact it is a work of startling, almost intimidating originality.

Skeptical about the future following their similarly staid Reagan-era childhoods, narrator Andy and his friends Dag and Claire resolve to withdraw from the real world rat race, decamping to Palm Springs, California to live together in adjoining low-rent bungalows. Amongst the ageing neighbours and bad architecture they exchange stories both tragic and hilarious, the very sort alluded to in the full title, tales which offer an insight into their hidden inner lives. The tales they tell range from believable and sympathetic anecdotes to yarns of a more whimsical, farfetched nature. But as Canadian pop-punks Sum 41 will surely agree, the tales are all killer, no filler.

Overall there is a hell of a lot to like about Generation X, but what I love most of all is the glossary of Gen X-related terms that runs from start to finish. While some terms - poorochondria, for example - are bound to a certain time and place, many are still applicable today, and these really resonated with me.

This piece was originally published on alisonlaurabell.tumblr.com in January 2012.