People Who Get It: Douglas Coupland

In this first installment of what will hopefully become some kind of recurring feature, something must be said about Douglas Coupland. I just finished his newest book, The Gum Thief, last night. I was going to write some kind of lengthy and delightful review, but instead, I insist that you watch this (adult language and themes; don't say I didn't warn you):





This video was made by Crush Inc., a production studio based in Canada. They made these nine shorts as a promotional campaign for Coupland's novel and won Toronto's biggest advertising award for the campaign, the first ad campaign for a book to ever win the 35 year old award.

To be very clear, the book is much more fun to read than to watch in a series of commercials.

Coupland got his 15 minutes of real celebrity back in the early nineties when he coined the term Generation X. This was the name of his first best-selling novel and his voice, the same weirdly calm and natural tone he applies to most of his novels, resonated enough that an entire generation was named after this book.


My personal favorite, Life After God, is more of a collection of short stories than a novel, but it is beautiful in that weird and supernatural way that normally only poetry can achieve. A passage that sticks with me:

"I think there was a trade-off somewhere along the line. I think the price we paid for our golden life was an inability to fully believe in love; instead we gained an irony that scorched everything it touched. And I wonder if this irony is the price we paid for the loss of God."

Coupland is not a Christian, but he has an ability to represent the fallen state of humanity and the lose grasp of our need for grace. A warning- his books are disturbing. They are disturbing without violence or sexuality. They are disturbing because they are so blisteringly honest that you waver between embarrassment and awe while you get into his characters' minds.

So, if you've never read any of his work, pick up any one of the many novels he has written over the last 15 years. Reading his work is always a strange experience, but a strange experience worth having.