JPod, by Douglas Coupland

I have to say that if I could spend the day in any writer’s head, I’d probably choose Douglas Coupland’s. If this book is any indication (although I’ve also read his Miss Wyoming), it would be a riot. JPod is a glimpse into the life of Ethan Jarlewski and five other computer game programmers whose names all begin with J. All are brilliant, unashamedly eccentric and completely bored. Part of JPod simply relates the things the pod does to get through the day including random challenges such as writing the best love letter to Ronald McDonald, finding a non-prime number in 30 pages of digits, making arbitrary lists and seeing how many clicks it takes to get to porn. The loose narrative that exists outside of the JPod involves the protagonist Ethan’s wannabe actor dad, grow-op running mom and Kam Fong, the Chinese people smuggler who becomes part of their intimate circle of friends. Needless to say, it’s a fairly amoral world, but it’s all the more entertaining for it. The narrative is punctuated by spam, random information and gaming code – simulating how technology has permeated everyday life while enacting our inability to concentrate in a world of constant media interruption (Curiously though, I was able to read this book in large chunks, perhaps because it had the distractions built in). Coupland also makes a guest appearance in his own book, tellingly stealing Ethan’s computer to reconstruct his life. On the whole, Coupland made me laugh and held my attention, and he even managed to keep me away from my computer for a few hours.