Player One: What Is to Become of Us
Title aside, 'Player One: What is to Become of Us, a Novel in Five Hours' is an almost-perfect synthesis of what Coupland's writing has to offer.
Ever since a savvy librarian recommended me 'Generation X' in high school, I've been a fan of Coupland's. His ironic commentary on modern life suited my sensibilities, which were jaded as only an introverted teenager's can be. What's kept me with him, though, are his metaphysical and spiritual meditations, his characters' search for meaning in our information-soaked world, and the ridiculous collision of scientific and cultural minutiae he brings into play.
Reading fiction, for me, is about recognition. For it to have been worthwhile, I have to have had that moment of eureka from reading and recognizing a suddenly self-evident truth that I hadn't realized before. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't have to be world-class philosophy, but there has to be something beyond the basic plot of the book to get me involved.
On the surface 'Player One' is simple enough: four strangers in an airport cocktail lounge witness a global catastrophe. Thematically its closest to 'Girlfriend in a Coma', but Coupland choosing to make this one a 'Novel in Five Hours,' pares his ideas to the bone and turns out a quick, and tightly constructed, book.
His last few novels, enjoyable as they could be, seemed to be trying too hard to be topical and funny, loaded down with bizarre situations and characters and pop culture references in place of substance.
'Player One' may be too timely, we'll see. It could be that I've merely read this at the right age, at the right state of mind, at the right time, and that's all; but I have never come across a novel that so effortlessly seems to define, sometimes literally*, the attitudes and the times we live in. Coupland seems to go beyond universal truths and touches on something essential going on right now.
Coupland is one of the smartest, strangest and funniest novelists writing today. Some might not appreciate the philosophizing, which is fine I usually don't care for it either, but I thought this was brilliant, the guy obviously writes whatever he damn well pleases. Suits me just fine.
*The back pages of the novel are an extensive glossary of terms, reminiscent of 'Generation X's margin notes, that humorously, sometimes soberingly, define situations, events and ideas that before now haven't had popularized names.
