"Our systems had stopped working, jammed with the odor of copy machines, Wite-Out, the smell of bond paper, and the endless stress of pointless jobs done grudgingly to little applause. We had compulsions that made us confuse shopping with creativity, to take downers and assume that merely renting a video on a Saturday night was enough. But now that we live here in the desert, things are much, much better."
Douglas Coupland's poignant look at cultural listlessness in the late 1980s and early 1990s is hilarious and relatable. "Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture" documents three friends who try to find their identities on the edge of the California desert, trading stories instead of revealing their true feelings.
"'Either our lives become stories, or there's just no way to get through them.'
"I agree. Dag agrees. We know that this is why the three of us left our lives behind us and came to the desert -- to tell stories and to make our own lives worthwhile tales in the process."
The trio purposely takes jobs below their stations, tending bar or working at cosmetics counters -- as much for material as subsistence. The three come from disconnected families and seek to forge a new family together as they experience random vandalizing, mind-numbing parties, misunderstood love, and unattainable happiness.
"Two days before Christmas, Palm Springs Airport is crammed with cranberry-skinned tourists and geeky scalped marines all heading home for their annual doses of slammed doors, righteously abandoned meals, and the traditional family psychodramas."
Coupland has created a memorable novel that aptly captures the zeitgest of its generation, with accompanying definitions and social commentary that are purely hysterical. "Generation X" is a fun, revealing ride that resonates strongly with those of us who are members.
"She chirped away, making all sorts of plans. Tobias merely listened in at the other end like a restaurant patron being lengthily informed of the day's specials -- mahimahi, flounder, swordfish -- all of which he knew right from the start he didn't want."
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