jPod

By Rick Levine

ouglas Coupland, the favourite prolific writer of the technoscenti set, has been keeping himself rather busy over the years with a signature art exhibit, coffee table book and yet another geek novel. For the most part, his books are the kind of freakish pop culture phenomenon that inevitably draws in people who rarely read books. His latest, jPod, has him returning to his bizarre roots, bringing together a new breed of techno-geeks, sort of an updated “Microserfs” for the age of Google.

Immediately, we’re introduced to Ethan Jarlewski and five of his cohorts who all have surnames that end in 'J'. They find themselves somewhat abandoned in jPod. jPod, before we go any further, is a no-escape architectural limbo on the fringes of a Vancouver game design company. jPod's universe is unethical and audacious - and hectically fast-paced.

Like Microserfs before it, these six confront the stubborn nature of our era: global piracy, boneheaded marketing staff, people smuggling and the rise of China. Ethan's personal life is shaped an ongoing series of bizarre events - marijuana grow-ops and ballroom dancing. The characters are products of their era even as they're creating it. Everybody in Ethan's life inhabits this similar zone, keeping him quite distracted from the fun he’d otherwise be having with porn sites, math problems, and a cyber version of Ronald McDonald. Instead, poor Ethan must help his mom bury a biker she’s electrocuted in the basement which houses her marijuana farm.

The Podders note that their last names all end in J and that British accents guarantee faster promotion. Add this that "only 20 percent of human beings have a sense of irony." Full of word games, visual jokes, and sideways jabs, this book throws a sharp, pointed lawn dart into the heart of contemporary life. JPod is Douglas Coupland at the top of his game. The characters in Ethan’s life inhabit a moral grey zone. Nobody is excused from this, not even his seemingly strait-laced parents or Coupland himself.

Coupland heaves oddball conversation into the mouths of his characters like 36-ounce porterhouses, counting on the reader to chew along. But amid the book's hyperdrive, the storyline is somewhat of a buzz killer. As both actual and cyber mayhem crest, Coupland, himself a character in this storyline, reminds us that no matter how appealing the virtual realm is, it is real life that is the real story. - R.L.