Synopsis
A novel of life in the nineties explores the world of computer giant Microsoft, viewing it as a microcosm of modern society
Reviews
With his nose to the zeitgeist, the author of Generation X again examines the angst of the white-collar, under-30 set in this entertaining tale of computer techies who escape the serfdom of Bill Gates's Microsoft to found their own multimedia company. The story is told through the online journal of Danielu@microsoft.com, an affable, insomniac, 26-year-old aspiring code writer. Together with his girlfriend Karla, a mousy shiatsu expert with a penchant for Star Trekky aphorisms, and a tight clique of maladjusted, nose-to-the-grindstone housemates, he relocates to a Lego-adorned office in Palo Alto, Calif., to develop a product called Object Oriented Programming (Oop!), a form of virtual Lego. Much of the story concerns the the Oop! staff's efforts to raise capital and "have a life" amid 18-hour work days. Dan's journal, like much prose on the Internet, abounds in typos, encrypted text, emoticons-:) for happy and :( for sad-and random snippets of information, a format that suits Copland's disjointed, soundbite-heavy fiction. Yet the randomness and nonlinearity of cyberspace hobble narrative. Amid endless digital chitchat and pop-philosophy, this novel's more serious ruminations about the physical and social alienation of life on the Information Superhighway never achieve any real complexity.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Imagine being lost somewhere between the unreal worlds of The Brady Bunch and the information superhighway. Coupland, coiner of the term Generation X, takes us to the land of twentysomethings in this journal-as-novel about the lives of young computer geeks. Dan, who writes the journal, is one of several people working for guru Bill Gates. When they are not programming, coding, or debugging, the group members spend their time wondering what it's like to be Bill--what it's like to have Bill's genius and money. They live in a group home a few miles "off campus" --that is, a few miles from Microsoft's Seattle headquarters--making it easy to put in the usual 11 hours 7 days a week. They discuss with wonderment the days when companies were lifetime employers, when people envisioned their jobs as careers. But these seemingly depressing truths do not drown the story; the characters are fascinating, and the relationships they develop, though unconventional in every way, are vivid and lovely. There is a new world out there, and Coupland's story grants young people their own reality, their own voice, and consequently, their own tradition. Expect demand from Generation Xers, who will love the novel; others may get lost in the technobabble and the 1970s and 1980s pop-culture references. Mary Frances Wilkens
From the author of the sneak hit Generation X (St. Martin's, 1991) comes a look at some stressed-out Generation X employees at Microsoft.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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