super brief review: jpod

It seems like such a good idea on the surface:  a thick new Coupland in paperback (after all, you wouldn’t buy it in hardback, would you?), with the cute lego characters on the cover, and the “it’s almost like Microserfs but set in a game company this time” vibe. 

But about halfway through, when you realize that two of the main characters have parents who grow marijuana for a living and a character named Douglas Coupland is going to play a pivotal role in the plot, you start to lose interest.  But because you’re on vacation, and you can’t stand the thought of driving up the strip to the supersized Barnes & Noble to pick up a new read, you power through.  And then, about three quarters of the way through, when he actually includes the first 100,000 digits of Pi in the text, you start to wonder “just where the hell was his editor?” and give up hope completely.