Although it is fully accepted that Mr. Coupland's work deserves much better
than the shoddy presentation that Castle Gormenghast is reknowned for, I
really can't be bothered. However, if you'd care to imagine that this page
has a flashy background and well laid out titles then I'd be very grateful.
Meanwhile, to your right (or, if you are using an elderly browser... err...
somewhere else...) you will see a token graphic I ripped off someone
else's Coupland site.
Generation X is centered around three young, middle-class Americans who leave their careers to live in the Californian desert and search for "delicate little insights into life". They express their lives and feelings as stories and these stories, never more than eight pages long, are the tawdry high-spots of the book. Desperately allegorical and totally charming, they leave the reader with a host of vivid visual images - a "cocaine white" egret glides across a field of burning stubble; in a nameless South American conflict hummingbirds dart for the blue irises of a crouching mercenary's eyes; a millionaire heiress meditates for seven years in an isolated mansion; friends kiss at the supermarket checkout as the ceiling melts upwards in the heat of a nuclear blast - images so ridiculous and beautiful that you could advertise soft drinks with them.
If I were the type of person to say "This is about my life," I'd be saying it about this book. If I had to take a day-glo high-lighter pen to the memorable phrases I'd colour in every page. If I had to leave one thing in a time-capsule to sum up 1990 it would be this.