I read Douglas Coupland's J-Pod and I all I got was the feeling that I'm not quite "with it"

It's one of my biggest pet peeves, you know. When writers incorporate obscure references or inside jokes into their writing as a way of making themselves seem smarter than they are. Music reviewers are notorious for doing this. It makes me feel like I'm not cool enough to read this. Like there's something wrong with me because I can't pick out the letter o from 10 pages of random numberals from 1-0. It's so annoying. It's so conceited. It's so lazy. It's so Douglas Coupland's new book, J-pod.

I had big hopes for this book, you know. I guess because i've loved all of Douglas Coupland's other works and I felt like he was a nice guy because when he did a signing for his Terry Fox book, he didn't mind that I had just my old Hey Nostradamus book and not the new book he was promoting for him to sign. Also I hadn't read a good book in a while. I'd been reading a lot, mind you. But since the whole James Frey A million Pieces debacle, I haven't really been excited about reading a new book. Until J-pod.

Maybe that's why I happily shelled out $30 for a hardcover edition of the new book the week it came out.
But pretty early into the book I realized that while it followed the same tried and true Coupland formula of using average-joe type young people who get suckered into the weird situations that have always been regulated to old wives tales and urban legends; there was a twist and not good one. This time Doug decided to incorporate about 100 pages of weird drivel. Like 5 full pages of prime numbers; like 20 pages of random oversized text that doesn't relate to the narrative; like a boring plot twist that turns Douglas Coupland into a character in his own novel. ( how self-reflexsive; how self-aware; how self-CENTRED).

This book was not terrible. But it was not good either. Take my advice Doug: go back to writing about what you know: young people dreading the apocalypse and pop-culture references that everyone undertstands and appreciates. No more weird Japanese crap! No more recycling your old books.

Thanks!