iPod, uPod, we all Pod for jPod! (A review)

If Douglas Coupland can make himself a character (as himself) in his book jPod, then I can declare myself an honorary jPodster.

jPod refers to a cluster of employees at a gaming design firm, in which all the employees have "J" names. The narrator, Ethan Jarlewski, leads us through the professional and personal worlds of the jPodsters, like any 30-something, borderline-slacker character in a Coupland novel. But if you've read Generation X or Microserfs, you'll have a pretty good idea of what these characters are like. So let's not dwell on that so much.

There are a few things Coupland does that I like and a couple that I really don't. To start with the stuff that didn't really do it for me, the first is that there is a character named Douglas Coupland in the book (as mentioned above). He is an author and he's not well thought of and does act like a bit of a dick. Having never met Mr. Coupland, I am left to wonder: is he really a dick? Or is this his chance to make himself a dick without actually having to be dickish? Or is he just taking his dickishness to new levels, exploring how those levels may or may not work out for him in real life? Why do I really care all that much? Of course it's a gimmick - this book is full of them - but I don't really care for it. To have just had a character in the book who is just an author, instead of Coupland, would not have had the same affect, I will say that, but I don't think I really would have missed good ol' Doug.

The other thing he does is not a gimmick, it's just plot, but I still don't like it. There is a storyline that takes a few people to China and stuff happens and Coupland shows up and yadda yadda yadda. Again, not really caring. Could've done without the sojourn to China, but what can you do?

But it's more fun to dwell on what I liked. Back to the gimmicks - since the jPodsters work as designers at a gaming company, they're tech-savvy and nerdy and almost too smart for their own good. (Okay, a little cliche, but that's how it goes.) At one point, Ethan challenges the podsters to write an eBay posting, selling themselves. We then get each of those postings from each person. And another podster, Mark, emails the first hundred thousand digits of pi, with one rogue number, and challenges the others to find said rogue. We are then treated to pages of numbers, which list the first hundred thousand digits of pi. While I could never find the rogue number, one of our podsters does find it, rather quickly too. And the gimmicks like this continue and I love them all.

Coupland also does a great job of developing the characters without overdoing the back story and without being boring. And there are some great back stories too, like why there is a character with the (legal) name John Doe.

Plus, someone builds a hug machine. Who doesn't love a hug machine?

In a way, it's kind of hard to talk about this book without giving too much away. While it has a clear plot and tells a story and interweaves many characters, it is almost like a snapshot of a moment in the lives of these characters and you really have to read it to truly understand and appreciate it. Yes, I know that's lame, but whatever. Just read it, okay?