Advantages: good location, lovely hotel, good food and atsmosphere Disadvantages: N/A
The Isle of Man was the place I spent most of my summer holidays with my family when I was younger and I have great memories. Now I have a family of my own I decided that we should go and visit the Isle of Man as I had not been there in about 20 years or so. We got a great deal on active hotels and stayed at the Empress Hotel for five nights. The hotel is situated right on the sea front and there are fabulous views just sitting in the lobby looking out. It is very impressive both inside and outside. The hotel decor inside is very rich in taste. The bedrooms are nice and spacious and most importantly clean. They provide tea and coffee making facilities, tv all the usual things you would find in a hotel. For dining you have a good choice if you just want to stay in the hotel, they have a choice of two restaurants. During our stay ...
Advantages: It has a nice cover Disadvantages: The stuff in between is bad
"Oh God, I feel like a refugee from a Douglas Coupland novel."
"That asshole"
"Who does he think he is?"
As opening lines to novels go that was a first for me. I've never known an author name check them self so brazenly and I have to say it set me off on the wrong foot with this book.
I've never read Coupland before so wasn't really sure what to expect. As the celebrated author of 'Generation X' I was looking forward to an IT literate book for the information age. What I got was something far less, a self serving work lacking irony and intelligence. A book that wastes the reader's time and provides little in return.
But I'm rushing to a conclusion so let me step back and tell you a little about it before I completely trash it.
The story follows events over a year or so of Ethan Jarlewski's life. A regular kind of guy he ...
Advantages: An intelligent read Disadvantages: A bit on the light side
I must be such a sucker. A year or so back I bought the book Jpod by Douglas Coupland and hated it with a degree of hostility out of all proportion to its inherent quality, yet here I am shelling out good money for another one. I?d bought that first book largely on the basis of the author?s reputation as a modern, zeitgeist surfing writer with a savvy appreciation of the turn of the century world. A reputation almost entirely earned with this break through novel; ?Generation X?. Unfortunately, Jpod was so annoyingly self-regarding, so out of touch with the 21st century that I felt almost personally insulted that I had been so duped ? hence my disproportionate loathing. Still, once bitten ? never learn is my motto and I resolved to go back to the source of all this trouble and actually read Generation X, the book that created a reputation ...
