Ethan works in JPod, writing software for computer games with several other dysfunctional programmers. His father is an aspiring actor, his mother a cultivator of 'plants'. His brother is a real estate agent mired in dodgy dealings with a Chinese people smuggler and gangster.

So far, so unbelievable. Coupland has truly eaten himself with this one, going so far as to include himself as a character in the book. Thing is, I was a big fan of Microserfs when it came out, and even though Coupland still has an eye for the zeitgeist, JPod was just a step too far.

In typical Coupland style, pages in the book are interspersed with pages of random jargon/rubbish/advertising detritus/ingredients - the type of images that we are bombarded so much with these days that we see them without seeing any sense in them. You know, the sort of stuff that you read on the back of a cereal box. We see so much text that it becomes senseless (if that makes sense, ha ha!). I quite liked this about the book - the author has always been able to see the inanity in modern life. The plot was fantastical and ridiculous though, and the characters were unsympathetic.

Coupland used to be one of my favourite authors. In addition to Generation X, I like Girlfriend in a Coma and Eleanor Rigby, and my favourite is probably Hey Nostradamus! He does relationships really well - crazy plotting like that in JPod and All Families Are Psychotic? Not so much.