A 20 year look at the course of events surrounding the friends of the titular character starting from the night before the tragic event to 20 years after when she wakes up. You know you're in for a strange ride right from the off with the first of the narrators being the ghost of a character that died a year before. It's a post-apocalyptic dystopian story set in a Canadian mountain town that rushes through the intervening years between the going into and coming out of the coma to concentrate on events before and after and takes a look at how people and society have changed during that time. An interesting book but not a great one. ( )

A slog to get through especially in the end. I was waiting for it to be over and then unfulfilled. Am I dumb? ( )

i agree more with the negative reviews than with the positive. it starts strong but I should have heeded the warning signs that it would devolve into paranormal babble and over bearing how do we save the world psychology. the early parts of the book that raise the question of which characters are in stasis and which are dynamic are worth exploring but the ghost tale that follows is a cheap gimmick. ( )

Odd. Have to think about it awhile. When deciding to read it, I wasn't particularly intrigued by the premise. I was intrigued by the promise of bigger ideas, of how the title motif fit into the grand goal of the book.

The weaving of smaller & larger stories was indeed interesting. Also on the plus side, I was impressed by how the author made the kind of people I normally refuse to read about into sympathetic and engaging characters. On the minus side, the grand idea was just a little too odd for me. Also on the minus side were too many minor implausibilities, even given the suspension of disbelief for the major fantastic elements.

I could go on, but it was kinda draining to read, and I want to be done. So,in sum, my star rating reflects my mixed feelings, *not* a lukewarm reaction. ( )

Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland - Good

What a strange but interesting book. I've read other books by Douglas Coupland and enjoyed them, but I have to admit the title of this one kept putting me off. I needn't have worried, it's not particularly depressing.

One snowy night in Vancouver, a couple of teenagers decide to lose their virginity, by the end of the evening, Karen has slipped into a coma leaving a strange message for her boyfriend, Richard. For 17 years he and their group of friends try to live their lives while Karen 'sleeps' and then...

Hard to categorise without giving too much away. Starts as a teenage, coming of age, sort of book, slips into a middle age crisis type of thing, then dystopia, then redemption of a sort. It really defies description and I suspect for that alone, it deserves its place in The Guardian's 1000 best novels
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction

The fact that it's a page turner and you really want to know what happens to this group of friends makes it well worth reading regardless of listings.

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