This is a fantastic and highly original novel by the Canadian author who defined a generation. It deals with a group of Vancouverites whose teen angst and emptiness only grows as they age, exacerbated by the lengthy coma suffered by one of their best friends. While the novel is decidedly apocalyptic in nature, these characters are forced out of their apathetic existentialism and disillusionment with modern values, or lack thereof. It ends with a very optimistic future. Let us hope it does not take the drastic events of this novel to bring us out of our collective coma.