Girlfriend in a Coma

by Douglas Coupland

Book Overview

On a snowy Friday night in 1979, just hours after making love for the first time, Richard's girlfriend, high school senior Karen Ann McNeil, falls into a coma. Nine months later she gives birth to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060391782
• ISBN13: 9780060391782
• Release Date: March 1998
• Publisher: William Morrow
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

A Story about Friends, Love and the End of the World

This Stephen Kingesque story follows a group of friends who live on Rabbit Street in Vancouver, BC as they grow from their senior year in high school to their mid-thirties. Jarrod, or rather his ghost, narrates the first chapter. He was the jock, the football player who balled all the hot chicks, then one day he falls sick, shortly after he dies of leukemia. He was sixteen. The following year, Richard and Karen are on the slopes. The live next door to each other, have been friends since they were children and Karen wants Richard, wants to lose her virginity this night, right now, in the dark, in the snow. Afterwards, she gives him a letter to give back to her tomorrow, unless for some reason, he can't, then he's to read it. Later they meet up with other friends from their street, Hamilton, the guy who always looks for the easy way, Pam the girl who will become a famous model and cover girl, Wendy who will become a doctor. They're supposed to go to a party where they're going to meet the last member of their troupe, Linus who will become an electrician before he becomes a seeker. Karen who has been dieting like there is no tomorrow, because she wants to get into a size five bathing for her upcoming Hawaiian vacation, takes two Valium before drinking two week drinks. Then she falls into a coma. In the hospital Richard reads the letter. She predicted her coma and asks Richard to wait for her. And he does, for seventeen years. Even though she's pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl, Karen remains in the coma. When she comes to she's thirty-four, frail, but lucid. She predicts the end of the world as we know it. And then everybody on the planet, except her five friends from the block and her daughter, who is now seventeen, dies. And if that's not enough to suck you in, I don't know what is. Mr. Coupland's writing is lyrical, magical and captivating. His message is frightening, even though he gives his characters hope. This is a must read. I don't know why it took me so long to find it.

A winner!

I've read every book by this author (Douglas Coupland), and I've noticed several themes which apply specifically to readers of my generation (I'm 27 right now), but would apply more generally to anyone. This book follows the lives of a group of friends who are friends in high school and then stay in the same neighborhood, more or less, throughout their lives. This is something that Coupland has included in most of his books, and it's a theme that's endearing to me as I watch the departures and familial relationships among my own friends and family. Without saying too much about the plot, I'll say that if you've read other books by Coupland, you'll PROBABLY love this book. The style is very similar to his other works, very introspective, very self-aware without becoming as self-obsessed as say, Dave Eggers. The story takes place in Vancouver (which is a bonus in my book, since I've always wanted to live there), and covers a span of about 16 years. Other reviewers have said that Coupland goes "too far" in this book, in that he departs from his usual topics by going in a sci-fi/fantasy direction. When he does, this book goes from being one of a dozen "normal" books written in the 1990s to being a gem. Maybe I'm the screwed up one, but two thirds of the way through the book, when things start getting freaky, this book became a page-turner. Couldn't put it down. And it was in a way that seemed completely natural, completely realistic, and the course these characters would take. By the end of the novel, it had given me cause to reflect upon my own life, and the lives of my friends, and the things we take for granted, the goals we assume we have in life, and the goals we should have. Change Your Life. Any book that gives me an impetus to think about my own actions (not just observe the characters' actions) is a winner in my uh, book. You should check this book out at the library first, but I went ahead and bought it. Hardbound even. You should also check out "Generation X" and "MicroSerfs" by the same author....if you're between the ages of 25 and 35, it'll be like watching Your Life in print. Also recommended: THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez

Dare to Think Deeply

A woman comes out of a coma after almost 20 years to discover that the world has changed for the worse and her friends have barely changed. All the newest inventions have left people with less and less time and made everyone shallower and shallower. She predicts that, 3 days after Christmas, the end of the world will come and only herself and her slacker friends will be left. The question is, can they learn from being the only people left in the world or will they continue to be slackers. I have never been swept into a book in such a way; I found my dreams getting tangled up in this book at night. But it's fitting, since it seems that much of the book takes place in the realm of dreams. I love the mandate given to the characters at the end of the book to go out and ask questions and make people think. Without asking questions about how we got to where we are, the purpose of it all, and where we are going, the world stagnates. The author touches on my own feeling that technology is actually causing many people to stagnate. You can tell this if you've ever been in an internet chat room and have tried to procure any intellectual conversation from anyone. Great book.

how to put a title on something like this...

foremost, this book is moving in ways one may not realize they are even thinking. it kind of creeps into your subconcious and comes out at odd times. when reading this, multiple times, i discovered each time how strange our surroundings can be, how we kind of warp things into whatever temperament we currently flow under. after reading this, one tends to question their place, desideritum, etc. in the collective scheme of the prodigious world and those that reside under it's sky... the same sky we forever try to grasp, and seemingly sometimes get close. douglas coupland is a master of emotional connection regarding the reader. sometimes backing grounds for weeping, in moments when things don't make much sense, when we seemingly lose the sky. "Girlfriend in a Coma" is quite possibly one of my favorite books, for it's emotion, for it's questioning, for whatever else it induces. READ IT... in reading it i am forever changed, in small ways, in rare moments, in obscure corners... An awesome book.

My Coupland withdrawal has been satisfied

Since 'Gen X' and then 'MicroSerfs' I've waited for another Douglas Coupland novel to grab me and slap me with a little optimism for my times, for my generation. As we approach the millenial turnover to 2000, Girlfriend in a Coma presents a fresh perspective in which to embrace a not so bright future for us humans. Coupland conveys a yearning for the next evolutionary step for humans, to open our eyes and take notice that our culture, technology and society at large are taking us someplace utterly meaningless. These are the things that Girlfriend in a Coma made me think about. Coupland's writing style is at it's best, taking me to a place that I could totally visualize and see myself participate as if it were my own girlfriend in a coma. The unique narrative perspectives of the Dead Football Star Jared and then Richard as well as Richards daughter Megan roll us around in a captivating plot that sends us over to a surrealistic armegeddon filled with pharmacy pillages and crunchy leakers everywhere(what a riot!), and then on to a conclusion that demands an introspection, a reevaluation of our own attempts at providing our lives with meaning with the space and time alotted to us by our maker. A profound subject painted by a master of our generation.