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JPod
by Douglas Coupland


6.5

based on 18 reviews
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based on 19 votes
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Eleanor Rigby

Sort of a 21st century version of his earlier novel "Microserfs," "JPod" follows the lives of six employees of a Vancouver-based videogame company.

Bloomsbury USA, 448 pages
05/16/2006
$24.95

ISBN: 1596911042

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Los Angeles Times Kai Maristed

What's new here? For one thing, however hit or miss the lobbed content, Coupland's writing style is vastly improved. And "JPod" turns out to be the perfect vehicle for his funny and poignant evocations of near-term nostalgia. [6 May 2006, p.E4]

Slate Michael Agger

In JPod, Coupland still turns fine phrases... but his connection to quotidian life is fainter than ever.

The New York Times Book Review Dave Itzkoff

It is a work in which his familiar misgivings about life on the technological cusp are again invoked, but also one in which the skills he's been developing as a novelist pay off, where his satirical streak and his social consciousness finally stop fooling around with each other and settle down together.

USA Today David Daley

Imagine a cocktail of The Office, Weeds and Wired magazine, shaken not stirred.

Sydney Morning Herald Natasha Cica

Coupland's publicists are right: JPod is "very evil ... and very funny".

The Globe And Mail [Toronto] T.F. Rigelhof

A seriously funny book.

The Independent Matt Thorne

I used to think Coupland was slightly too benign a novelist. Now he feels like one of the most nihilistic: a change that has improved his fiction immeasurably.

The Observer John Elek

JPod is without a doubt his strongest, best-observed novel since Microserfs.

London Review Of Books Matthew Reynolds

It is an extraordinary book, wide-ranging and wildly inventive yet also overwhelmingly drab.

Publishers Weekly

Coupland derives his satirical, spirited humor's energy from the silly, strung-together plot and thin characters.

The Spectator William Brett

While JPod is as virtuoso, as culturally sharp and as funny as we have come to expect from Coupland, its obsession with contemporary culture - with nailing the zeitgeist - leaves it lacking as a novel.

The Independent Scarlett Thomas

Is this is a sickeningly realistic portrait of postmodern culture? Or is it a product that's so easy to consume you can keep MTV on in the background while you read it? It's actually very hard to tell.

Washington Post John Freeman

Aggressively clever and yet oddly forgettable.

Daily Telegraph Sam Leith

Coupland is looking a bit like a novelist who doesn't have a novel to write, but writes it anyway.

Daily Telegraph Mark Sanderson

Coupland may be up to his old tricks of satirising corporate culture and channel-surfing the Zeitgeist but his refusal to be judgemental about anything - substance abuse, infidelity, murder - draws the sting of his sharp-eyed observations.

The Guardian Patrick Ness

At the very least, it makes for a quick read because there are so many pages you can skip.

PopMatters Jason B. Jones

If Microserfs was up-to-the-minute, JPod is a few months behind--and in our modern world, this means it might as well be issued on papyrus.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

It reads as if the author, routinely patronized as a marketing savant, zeitgeist chaser, and slick neologist throughout his career, had absorbed every single negative criticism of his work and set out to confirm them all with self-loathing vigor. Accordingly, JPod is smug, vacuous, easily distracted, and often supremely irritating.

The average user rating for this book is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 19 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Sach O gave it an8:
If you're looking for a profound generation inspiring novel you'll be better off looking elsewhere. If you're looking for a hilarious look at modern culture then look no further. That said, I related a lot to this book. Accusations lobbed against it for being empty, shallow and entirely too meta miss the point: this is your society. Be afraid.

TS Lewis gave it a10:
I picked up this book the day in came out and was really blown away by how many people hated it. I've read every Coupland book and this by far his funniest work yet. Sure, the story is zany, the characters unbelievable, and there's Pi listed for 10 page, but I laughed the whole way through.

Nagham E. gave it a10:
one of the best books i have ever read.

Karen gave it an8:
Classic Coupland: Self-important navel-gazing zeitgeist-chasing brilliance. If you love him, you'll love this.

Kerri R gave it a0:
ive pretty much loved all his books, especially the early ones like microserfs and shampoo planet....up until now. I agree with henry...just...yikes...and wow. it was CRAPTASTIC.

Chris L gave it an8:
My first Coupland book. I actually only started reading JPod because I happen to work at a Burnaby-based videogames company... And I liked it! I laughed a lot and enjoyed the extreme traits of each character. I read during commute, so the absence of plotline and the shortness of each 'episode/chapter' was in the end a plus.

Anne gave it a3:
I am a huge fan of Couplands but found JPOD to be an extremely weak rehash of Microserfs. Nothing of substance seemed to happen in the book, just loads of ridiculous plotlines. Hated it....

JPod by Douglas Coupland

JPod
by Douglas Coupland