Douglas Coupland's place in the literary pantheon was ensured with the release of his first book Generation X, which introduced the catchphrase-cum-marketing trend of the same name to the cultural lexicon. That book, about three twentysomethings looking for life, love, and meaning in the desert, painted a surprisingly poignant portrait of modern society. Since then, Coupland hasn't veered very far from that book's themes, with varying degrees of success. His collection of essays, Poloraids From The Dead, and the novel Microserfs worked. Life After God was abysmal. But all of his books lead back to the looming shadow of Generation X. Girlfriend In A Coma, set in Vancouver, takes its name from a Smiths song, and much of the book reads like it's aimed at the same teenage boys and girls who mope to Morrissey. Karen is a 17-year-old who loses her virginity in 1979, then almost immediately falls into a coma that lasts for 18 years. While Sleeping Beauty is out cold, she gives birth to a girl, and her childhood pals all grow up. She wakes up enervated and frail in 1997, to a world only slightly different from the one she left: Technology and history have advanced, but her friends, despite being well into their 30s, still behave like immature high-school kids. Then there's the matter of the apocalyptic visions Karen keeps having, visions that prove prophetic when a plague wipes out most of the world's population. Huh? And then the ghost of a high-school football player who died of leukemia around the time Karen went into her coma returns to Earth as a supernatural advisor. What? What exactly is going on here? Girlfriend In A Coma is a weird, rambling foray into science fiction and It's A Wonderful Life-style hypothesizing that fails to amass much sympathy for any of the characters—who spend much of the novel doing drugs, drinking, and talking about pop culture like leftovers from a Bret Easton Ellis story. And just when Coupland should be getting down to business and more clearly addressing the emotional and social problems of his crew, he spends the final third of Girlfriend In A Coma getting bogged down in a ridiculous pseudo-apocalypse that derails his attempts at literary intimacy.