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madmooney's review
5.0
"Storytelling is ultimately a creative act of pattern recognition. Through characters, plot and setting, a writer creates places where previously invisible truths become visible. Or the storyteller posits a series of dots that the reader can connect."
Every couple of years, Coupland scribes a 'generational pulse check', with a main focus on the pop culture and youth at the time of its writing...
...in [b:Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture|3378|Generation X Tales for an Accelerated Culture|Douglas Coupland|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1485623844l/3378._SY75_.jpg|2851520], we had a group of Gen Xers who worked in offices, hated their corporate life, did whatever they could to escape off the grid and tell each other stories throughout the book.
...I am pretty sure [b:Microserfs|2748|Microserfs|Douglas Coupland|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546099595l/2748._SY75_.jpg|851428] belongs here as well, but I have not read it.
...in [b:JPod|221059|JPod|Douglas Coupland|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1316729451l/221059._SY75_.jpg|820439], you have a pod of youthful characters at a video game company (collected together due to a HR glitch due to their name starting with "J"). An off the grid lifestyle is anathema to these programmers, they are more entrenched into their office lives, but are just as quirky. They also tell each other stories throughout the book.
...[b:Generation A|6093864|Generation A|Douglas Coupland|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320492748l/6093864._SY75_.jpg|6270883] is the story of a cohort of individuals who have never lived without the internet (and a world where bees are extinct). In the near future, five individuals around are stung by bees, and are then collected by a scientist on a remote Canadian island to determine what made these individuals worthy of attacting the long thought extinct bees. There is also a plethora of story telling between the characters throughout the book.
In the above books, we see a slight trend of humans who are not entrenched in their professional lives, and then each following cast of characters become more and more swallowed into the office world of tech, the internet and becoming more complacent with each retelling of this theme - but it is through storytelling that these characters are able to redeem and escape from this trend.
Douglas Coupland's fiction marvels in the storytelling microcosm - I find myself by the smaller stories being told in his fiction. My main gripe with this style is that he will drop an OMG BOMB on ya (have a very profound premise of extremely interesting idea), but then move onto the next crazy idea in another microstory without wasted breath. I am pretty sure people who have read Coupland also wish that he fleshed out some of these story seedlings.
I think one valid criticism of this title is that you have a sextagenarian trying to capture the current 'youthsphere' in his stories. While he is very capable of distilling current pop-culture in Binge, there is a bit of cringe when speaking of the language, and the motivation of characters between 15 and 30. I must state that this is only a minor issue: the stories advance so quickly that this temporal discordance between author and cast is not too distracting.
Early on, my excitement of reading Binge was that I could treat it as a simplified [b:Cain's Jawbone|50074593|Cain's Jawbone|E. Powys Mathers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1567840884l/50074593._SX50_SY75_.jpg|73224814], and work to solve a mystery of connection as I enjoyed the micro-stories, but I realized that not all the mysteries were meant to be purposefully cryptic, so I decided to treat this as one of those logic puzzles where you have to complete a more whole picture on a grid. Knowing that these 60 stories would have connections, I decided to map the network of plots & characters- scrawled in pencil in the blank pages of the books. It was a quite fun side quest! Some of the characters do not introduce/reference their identities in their stores, and so this extra activity was helpful to determine the bigger story clumps.
Much like Coupland's ability to come with interesting story concepts in the short run (before moving onto the next story), I really wish that I could have seen more of a certain character or receive the conclusion of a plot (perhaps in the form of a longer short story or even a novella). A character like /Erik could have been cast in a longer book (but it is also equally likely that perhaps some of these sparks of genius only work in the microverse).
While I will not review each microstory here, I do want to list my top 5 faves (please note that some of these top 5s have extended plots in the narrative clumps of the other 60, but I am only going to refer to the singluar story):
- RHnull: story of a person with an extremely rare blood profile, and the repercussions of having a phenotype that is more important that the individual
- Incel: exchange between a young man and a semi-famous drag queen on an air flight
- Clickbait: exchange between young man and his mother when he peeks into her browser search history
- Dasani: mudlarker with a metal detector finds a 20 year old message in a bottle and tries to trackdown the sender
- LAN: character's printer is printing material from one of his neighbours who is accidentally connected to his network, decides to messaround with unknown person to interesting results.
Final note: while it is possible to read the stories in a random order, ticking off the table of contents as you roll along, I would recommend it that you read it in order.
"I realize this isn't even an actual story, with a beginning and end, I am telling you here. It's bits of autobiography, but if our lives aren't stories, what are they? Glorified microbes on a petridish?"
Every couple of years, Coupland scribes a 'generational pulse check', with a main focus on the pop culture and youth at the time of its writing...
...in [b:Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture|3378|Generation X Tales for an Accelerated Culture|Douglas Coupland|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1485623844l/3378._SY75_.jpg|2851520], we had a group of Gen Xers who worked in offices, hated their corporate life, did whatever they could to escape off the grid and tell each other stories throughout the book.
...I am pretty sure [b:Microserfs|2748|Microserfs|Douglas Coupland|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546099595l/2748._SY75_.jpg|851428] belongs here as well, but I have not read it.
...in [b:JPod|221059|JPod|Douglas Coupland|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1316729451l/221059._SY75_.jpg|820439], you have a pod of youthful characters at a video game company (collected together due to a HR glitch due to their name starting with "J"). An off the grid lifestyle is anathema to these programmers, they are more entrenched into their office lives, but are just as quirky. They also tell each other stories throughout the book.
...[b:Generation A|6093864|Generation A|Douglas Coupland|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320492748l/6093864._SY75_.jpg|6270883] is the story of a cohort of individuals who have never lived without the internet (and a world where bees are extinct). In the near future, five individuals around are stung by bees, and are then collected by a scientist on a remote Canadian island to determine what made these individuals worthy of attacting the long thought extinct bees. There is also a plethora of story telling between the characters throughout the book.
In the above books, we see a slight trend of humans who are not entrenched in their professional lives, and then each following cast of characters become more and more swallowed into the office world of tech, the internet and becoming more complacent with each retelling of this theme - but it is through storytelling that these characters are able to redeem and escape from this trend.
Douglas Coupland's fiction marvels in the storytelling microcosm - I find myself by the smaller stories being told in his fiction. My main gripe with this style is that he will drop an OMG BOMB on ya (have a very profound premise of extremely interesting idea), but then move onto the next crazy idea in another microstory without wasted breath. I am pretty sure people who have read Coupland also wish that he fleshed out some of these story seedlings.
I think one valid criticism of this title is that you have a sextagenarian trying to capture the current 'youthsphere' in his stories. While he is very capable of distilling current pop-culture in Binge, there is a bit of cringe when speaking of the language, and the motivation of characters between 15 and 30. I must state that this is only a minor issue: the stories advance so quickly that this temporal discordance between author and cast is not too distracting.
Early on, my excitement of reading Binge was that I could treat it as a simplified [b:Cain's Jawbone|50074593|Cain's Jawbone|E. Powys Mathers|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1567840884l/50074593._SX50_SY75_.jpg|73224814], and work to solve a mystery of connection as I enjoyed the micro-stories, but I realized that not all the mysteries were meant to be purposefully cryptic, so I decided to treat this as one of those logic puzzles where you have to complete a more whole picture on a grid. Knowing that these 60 stories would have connections, I decided to map the network of plots & characters- scrawled in pencil in the blank pages of the books. It was a quite fun side quest! Some of the characters do not introduce/reference their identities in their stores, and so this extra activity was helpful to determine the bigger story clumps.
Much like Coupland's ability to come with interesting story concepts in the short run (before moving onto the next story), I really wish that I could have seen more of a certain character or receive the conclusion of a plot (perhaps in the form of a longer short story or even a novella). A character like /Erik could have been cast in a longer book (but it is also equally likely that perhaps some of these sparks of genius only work in the microverse).
While I will not review each microstory here, I do want to list my top 5 faves (please note that some of these top 5s have extended plots in the narrative clumps of the other 60, but I am only going to refer to the singluar story):
- RHnull: story of a person with an extremely rare blood profile, and the repercussions of having a phenotype that is more important that the individual
- Incel: exchange between a young man and a semi-famous drag queen on an air flight
- Clickbait: exchange between young man and his mother when he peeks into her browser search history
- Dasani: mudlarker with a metal detector finds a 20 year old message in a bottle and tries to trackdown the sender
- LAN: character's printer is printing material from one of his neighbours who is accidentally connected to his network, decides to messaround with unknown person to interesting results.
Final note: while it is possible to read the stories in a random order, ticking off the table of contents as you roll along, I would recommend it that you read it in order.
"I realize this isn't even an actual story, with a beginning and end, I am telling you here. It's bits of autobiography, but if our lives aren't stories, what are they? Glorified microbes on a petridish?"
mattwong93's review
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
bentrevett's review
2.0
sixty interconnected short stories. all are about 5 pages long so you can easily binge them (ha ha get it that's the name of the book jeez coupland you are so clever). however, because each is so short they lack any actual substance. it's just a bunch of short vignettes that go from boring to mildly interesting. nothing here will make your brain feel different at all.
kinnimomo's review against another edition
dark
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
I like those very short stories that turn out being intertwined. Jumping from the POV of many characters creates this artificial fast pace that is bringing you along no matter what. Some stories I just didn’t get though but I appreciated the fast rythme and the wit of it all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Cursing
Minor: Xenophobia and Racism
kinnimomo's review
dark
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
aaronlindsey's review
5.0
Douglas Coupland is freaking amazing.
Regardless of what you've heard, or read on the cover of this book, it's not 60 short stories. What it is is a beautiful novel with 60 chapters, told from 57 characters. I know what you're thinking... This has been done many times before, where short stories connect to each other to form a bigger story... David Mitchell is a master of this style...But Douglas Coupland but the magical Coupland spin on this one.
I flew through this book in record time because it was so much fun.
Regardless of what you've heard, or read on the cover of this book, it's not 60 short stories. What it is is a beautiful novel with 60 chapters, told from 57 characters. I know what you're thinking... This has been done many times before, where short stories connect to each other to form a bigger story... David Mitchell is a master of this style...But Douglas Coupland but the magical Coupland spin on this one.
I flew through this book in record time because it was so much fun.
maddysoup's review
3.0
3.5⭐️
this was an interesting listen for me, i loved how the stories would slowly intertwine with one another
this was an interesting listen for me, i loved how the stories would slowly intertwine with one another
trennum's review
dark
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0