Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Girlfriend in a Coma is an excessively thought-provoking look at the world in the present and the future. The book details the lives of a group of high school friends whose lives fall apart after one of them, Karen, goes into a coma for 17 years without any explanation. Karen’s boyfriend Richard is left with a letter she wrote the day before about disturbing visions of the future she had been having. Well written to an extreme (and quotable to an extreme), this novel is filled with wry wisdom through the various POV characters’ thoughts, especially Karen’s perspective, because she can note exactly how the world changed between when she went to sleep and when she woke up, and the changes are not always positive. Another highlight is Jared, the other protagonist who also happens to be dead. Towards the end, the novel has an apocalyptic twist that eventually serves to comment on the general condition of adults at the turn of the century. Overall, though the novel was excellent, I would caution against it for readers who get bored easily with the mundanities of life. – Elisabeth S. ’16
Harker US Book Blog 