Argument: Coupland uses noteworthy pop-culture to name and create his novel Girlfriend in a Coma. The Smiths' a popular band of the '80s was the reason behind the books title while Karen Ann Quinlan was the true reason the teenage girl in the book who slipped into a coma was also ironically named Karen. Starting with the basics Coupland constructed Girlfriend in a Coma to mean more than what was put on the surface. The turning point of Coupland's career as a serious author blossomed after he successfully published Girlfriend in a Coma, a dark and daring book that involves post-apocalyptic events. Difficult overbearing situations was what fascinated Coupland and was one of the main influential reasons Coupland wrote the novel Girlfriend in a Coma; the thrill of watching teenagers and later on adults survive in a world where their only worry was to find their true purpose on Earth. Evidence: "On the surface, the book seems vintage Coupland, taking a cue from pop-culture icons like Karen Ann Quinlan, the New Jersey teenager who spent 10 years in a coma before dying in 1985, and The Smiths, the quintessential band of '80s disaffection from whose song the book takes its title." ". And yet, Girlfriend in a Coma is Coupland's most audacious novel to date, and it marks something of a watershed in his career." "Sitting in a posh Toronto hotel lounge sipping coffee, Coupland struggles to find words to describe the genesis of Girlfriend in a Coma. "It's so weird to talk about this out loud," he says. But eventually, between frequent changes of subject, he remembers that it began with a quote from novelist Thomas Pynchon. "He said the way young people deal with the overwhelming-ness of existence--I'm paraphrasing--is through time travel or sleep," Coupland says. "So what I wanted to do was present sleep and time travel, and the coma as the embodiment of both." "Then there was his fascination with Karen Ann Quinlan. "I just remember in the '70s, every

Argument: Coupland illustrates the characters in Girlfriend in a Coma as confident and collected while simultaneously demonstrating their struggle to find their place in the world. Each chapter interrupts the flow of the story, often jumping from one major event to another, skipping the minor details in between. Hamilton is concerned that they are not doing anything to change the world on their own but rather wasting their time with careers such as modeling that have no positive impacts in the world around them. Karen's fears transform into a reality when she falls into a coma for seventeen years. As time passes, her friends lose all of their dreams, hopes, and passions for their careers. An apocalyptic event has not taken place so Coupland takes his story Girlfriend in a Coma to the extreme by inventing and transforming the book from a story about teenagers into a story about teenagers whom are trapped in adult bodies. Evidence: "And they don't cope well. "There's nothing at the centre of what we do," Hamilton complains, and Coupland homes in on his true subject. Waking from her coma, Karen is alarmed that her friends mirror the new soullessness she sees in society: "Their dreams are forgotten, or were never formulated to begin with...they seem at best insular, and without a central core, which might give purpose to their lives." "Coupland successfully raises the pitch to the apocalyptic with his sarin-style, X Files-ish mass sleeping, but then stumbles headlong into adult fable by pursuing his Big Moral Question. Why are our lives empty? Jared, a ghost, takes over from Richard as narrator, introducing a dangerously glutinous, pan-Christian murk of cosmology as he leads the adult-kids though fumbling dissolution towards an ethical gravitas." "Such chapter headings as "Reject Every Idea" (familiar from Generation X) slice across the continuity of Couplan