Girlfriend in a Coma

Karen is 17 years old in 1979 when she suddenly falls into a deep coma. The night before, she gives her boyfriend a letter, telling him to only open it if something happens to her. In the letter, she talks of her fear of the future, her terror at what the world will become, from what she has seen in her dreams.

It is hard to write a review of this book without dropping huge spoilers, and as I always hope that some people will read the books that I review, I had better not!

So maybe I can talk about the world in 1997, and after, which the second part of the book covers. Within 18 years from 1979 when Karen goes to sleep, the world changes drastically. Perhaps more drastically than any other short period of time before that, in terms of consequential changes and irreversibility.

People spend all day in a virtual realm of computers and television. There is very little in the way of real ‘free time’, by which I mean really talking to someone, really experiencing something. People work more than ever, to buy what? There are hundreds of time-saving appliances and conveniences, but where does all the time we save actually go?

These are all questions raised in a very probing and innocent way in the book, with a real sense of shock and dismay at the way things have turned out. It is to Coupland’s credit that the questions that he raises are never infused with a sense of injustice, that people were promised a bright and beautiful future and the universe failed to live up to it. It is always the fault of the people, which of course is the truth. It is no one’s fault but ours that things are a terrible mess. We’ve poisoned everything; ourselves, everything around us. Coupland’s solution to the problem of our collective stupidity is beautiful and poetic and impossible, but ultimately very simple. In short, (but the long version is much better) to wake up and stop being idiots and take responsibility. In short.

This is a very wonderful book and everything it examines (14 years ago) is relevant now, but infinitely more urgent. On a day of strikes in the UK when people are standing up for something, it feels appropriate to recommend a book like this.