Book reviews - Reading of Redemption

Douglas Coupland - Life After God

Coupland is the same age as me and I have no idea of his connection with Christianity but boy his books are a real cool commentary on today's age. This one is like an Ecclesiastes for 1997. He asks what makes as human as cats are cats or dogs are dogs:

"I thought of how odd it is for billions of people to be alive, yet not one of them is really quite sure of what makes people people. The only activities I could think of that humans do that have no animal equivalent were smoking, bodybuilding, and writing. That's not much, considering how special we seem to think we are."

He goes on to ask the question about nothing to believe in.

"I was wondering what was the logical end of product of this recent business of my feeling less and less. Is feeling nothing the inevitable result of believing in nothing? And then I got to feeling frightened - thinking that there might not actually be anything to believe in in particular. I thought it would be such a sick joke to have to remain alive for decades and not believe in or feel anything."

His search for meaning leads him to the same conclusion as the writer of Ecclesiastes.

Now here is my secret... My secret is that I need God - that I am sick and can no longer make it alone...

But I better not quote the whole book to you. An easyish read to. It even has a few wee pictures. His other critically acclaimed works include Generation X, Shampoo Planet and Microserfs.

Back