Nobody is a bigger fan of Douglas Coupland then I am. I've read all
of his books, and he is certainly a great Canadian author, who has
his finger firmly on the pulse of pop culture.
Coupland paints his characters as poignantly as in his other books,
and Girlfriend in a Coma begins with great quirky dialog and moody
atmosphere as a group of Canadian friends come to grips with the
sudden unexplained coma to which their friend, Karen MacNeil, has
fallen prey. It's the ending of the book, which seems to be some
sort of rip-off of Stephen King's 'The Stand' that bothered me.
Perhaps Coupland was trying to introduce a metaphor a la Don
DeLillo. Either the book had some deep meaning that I missed, or (I
think) Mr. Coupland just didn't know how to end it. Nonetheless,
the book is a good read for its style, if not its plot. But if
you've never read Coupland before, his better books are Microserfs
(I think it's his best) and Generation X.