Book Review: Readings
Douglas Coupland
Reviewed by Don Webb, Fri., Aug. 31, 2001
All Families Are Psychotic
by Douglas CouplandBloomsbury USA, 356 pp., $24.95
Yes, Douglas Coupland gave us the words "Generation X"; his new book is about a postmodern dysfunctional family reunion.
Janet's astronaut daughter Sarah, a one-handed thalidomide baby, is due to fly off in the shuttle. The rest of the family meets amid palm trees, rocket gantries, and real live crack whores. There's Wade, the bad brother with AIDS and his religious wife Beth; Ted the ex-husband, who may be dying of prostate cancer along with Nickie his wife who has AIDS (guess from who?); and Bryan, the wimp brother who meets his wife Shw (yes, that's it: S-H-W) when they tried to burn down a Gap store. Janet has AIDS, too. She caught it when Ted shot his son Wade (for sleeping with his wife Nickie) and the bullet passed through Wade's body and into Janet's. Janet, who maintains a sense of right and love, is the book's 60-year-old heroine.
The one bright spot in Janet's life is the Internet. She feels close to the people who help her find various illegal drugs and alternative therapies. In particular, she looks for thalidomide for her mouth sores. Now this cast is assembled for a comedy, and for comparison to the images of TV families that they have compared themselves to for years. Wade is hoping to sell a stolen letter, a rather nice stolen letter (from Prince William to his dead mom, stolen from her coffin). Shw wants to sell her baby to a baby ring. This takes place amidst a background of Florida palms and alligators and being randomly taken hostage in a cafe. Janet keeps the family together -- well, at least from killing each other -- and even teaches them a little compassion in the process.
Coupland's book is a great study of the surface of things: "All the shrimp you can eat ... dead car dealerships ... helicopter rides ... Bikers Welcome! ... Taco Bell ... discount gold supplies ... acupuncture." The richness and irony of the postmodern world filtered through the values of Canadian GenXers and Boomers make his South Florida as interesting a read as Fredrick Barthelme, or the New Orleans sections of Naked Lunch.
But the novel's ending is contrived. After letting his characters suffer from the same bad decisions that have made them suffer their whole lives, a magical solution to their problems is offered to them, because Janet is a Good Person. This rewarding of virtue is merely an eccentric act, and not a moral response from an amoral universe. Morality and right action are the results of people still believing in some things, even if they're largely TV virtues in a world that is more about surfaces than even TV is.
Douglas Coupland will be at BookPeople on Wednesday, Sept. 12, at 7pm. Don Webb's most recent novel is Endless Honeymoon.
