Douglas Coupland
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Douglas Coupland is a Canadian author, designer and visual artist, living in Vancouver. His early novels feature characters struggling-to-come-to-terms-with-the-conditions-of-post-modern-life, later works tend to be comic and use Refuge in Audacity plot twists.
Works written by Douglas Coupland include:
- Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture (1991)
- Shampoo Planet (1992)
- Life After God (1994)
- Microserfs (1995) A group of junior Microsoft programmers quit their jobs and move to silicon valley to make their own product and "get a life"
- Girlfriend in a Coma (1998)
- Miss Wyoming (2000)
- All Families Are Psychotic (2001)
- God Hates Japan (2001) (Published only in Japan, in Japanese with little English. Japanese title is 神は日本を憎んでる (Kami wa Nihon wo Nikunderu ))
- Hey Nostradamus! (2003)
- Eleanor Rigby (2004)
- JPod (2006)
- The Gum Thief (2007)
- Generation A (2009)
- Player One: What is to Become of Us (2010)
Douglas Coupland provides examples of the following tropes:
Girlfriend In A Coma
- Apocalypse How: somewhere between Classes Two and Three. Although wild animals still exist, by the third part of the book, all human life has ended, save for the main characters. Heavily implied to be an engineered catastrophe by the same forces that incapacitated Karen; Jared makes it clear that if Richard and his friends don't make the best of their second chance, the world will end for good.
- Dead All Along: Jared, who died of cancer while in his teens. See Posthumous Narration.
- Depopulation Bomb: the Sleep.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: the characters save for Karen get to re-live their lives, with the added bonus of Pam and Hamilton being drug-free and Jane being able to see. However, they have to experience the world ending and everyone they love dying first. YMMV on how happy their ending is, however - see Go Mad from the Revelation.
- Five-Man Band
- The Hero: Richard
- The Lancer: Hamilton, who also doubles as The Big Guy
- The Smart Guy: Linus and Wendy - she's a doctor, he's an electrical technician
- The Chick: Pam
- Tagalong Kid: Megan, Jane and Jared and Wendy's baby
- Foreshadowing: Karen's letter to Richard, in which she describes what is about to take place. Later, Pam and Hamilton experience visions of international death and destruction in tandem while they're unconscious and undergoing detox.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Richard, Pam, Hamilton, Linus, Megan and Wendy - at least, to outsiders who aren't aware of the things they experienced after the world ended. Jared is fully aware that they'll all be viewed as crazies while on their quest for the truth.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Karen. She goes back into her coma at the end, so that her friends may have a second chance at life and the world will be restored to normal. Although Richard tries to stop her, she makes it clear that she's always known this will have to happen, and there is no way out.
- It Got Worse: when Karen comes out of her coma, it signifies the beginning of the end of the world.
- I Will Wait for You: Richard continues to visit Karen for seventeen years after she goes into a coma, never once even considering breaking off the relationship.
- Jerk Jock: subverted with Jared. While at first glance he may appear to be a womanising jock - which he admits himself - he's actually the wisest character in the novel, thanks to the years of insight he gained after death, and ultimately the one who saves Richard and his friends, with Karen's help. He's also not that jerkish - he shows Linus what Heaven looks like, stops Wendy feeling lonely, detoxes Pam and Hamilton, gives Jane eyesight and cures her mental disabilities, and restores Karen's legs.
- Posthumous Narration: most of the book is from Jared's viewpoint, as he's the one who oversees events and acts a sort of guardian angel to the characters (and tells them about their Plan B). Richard narrates the first part since, according to Jared, he's 'the best talker'.
- She Knows Too Much: Karen believes this was why she went into her coma in the first place - she caught a glimpse of the future, and it wasn't pleasant.
- Shout-Out: spot the numerous Smiths song titles scattered throughout the book. 'Oscillate Wildly', 'Every Day Is Like Sunday' and 'The Queen Is Dead', to name but three.
Player One
- Aspergers Syndrome: Rachel. Or high-functioning autism, anyway. She's very forthright, has trouble recognising patterns and faces, has to attend social skills classes, and takes an obsessive interest in breeding white mice.