Generation A by Douglas Coupland

Generation A is the story of five previously unconnected individuals living some time in the near future in which bees are extinct. They become minor celebrities, and their lives begin to change and merge after they each get stung. I make no secret of the fact that I am a huge fan of Coupland’s writing. He manages to pick out the seemingly minor aspects of our culture and imbue them with humour, cynicism and hope. Despite his more recent output not nearly reaching the heights of his early 1990s work, a new Coupland is always something to look forward to.

In Generation A Coupland manages to capture the essence of the isolation of virtual existence. Connections are made, but they are temporary. All of the characters here are technologically savvy – engaging in new forms of web 2.0 memes, creating fake commerce sites that become instant internet sensations or playing World of Warcraft – however, rather than the utopian ideal of this new form of communication bringing them into the greater social fabric of the world, it isolates them. Julien, a young French student who never attends class frequently describes his disgust and hatred of the physicality of the world, as compared to his “ideal reality” in World of Warcraft.

“I saw how each of us led lives that were deeply isolated in their own ways. I think the modern world isolates people – that’s its job – but there are so many different ways to be lost and there was a unity to the texture of all our lives when the stingers went in.” (Diana)

The introduction of a powerful fictional drug – the phenomenally successful Solon – which induces in its users a sensation of contented solitude further drives the message against social isolation while simultaneously critiquing the current appetite for potent medication, both legal and illegal. These themes, however heavy and contemporaneously relevant, are immersed in Coupland’s traditional prose style, heavy on references to common pop cultural experiences and illuminating humour.

“When I was still pretending to go to the Sorbonne, I took a class called Heroes and the Monomyth. The moment I started attending, I simply stopped caring about grades or anything else. I decided that knowledge comes from real life and from travel and interacting with others. So I decided to spend all of my awake time playing World of Warcraft. How amazing to see all that mythology acting itself out in real time, fuelled by genuine human sentience!” (Julien)

Coupland focuses on how shared experience can create a genuine desire for social, human connection, and how the act of telling stories figures into these connections. As the five are brought together in a unique, twisted form of group therapy under the guidance of scientist Serge, their act of transforming their current situation via the method of reframing them into fictional narratives allows them to come to a greater understanding of themselves. Generation A acts as a suckerpunch of a wake up call to contemporary society, while offering a cast of colourful characters and some unexpected plot twists. Cynical, but with a strong sense of hope that things can (and must) change.

Generation A will be released in Australia on October 1. Many thanks to the good folk at Random House Australia for providing me with a review copy.