Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland

Not wanting to start my Christmas present reading and having tried (in vain) Alison Weir's Eleanor of Aquitaine I resorted to raiding Phil's reading, and Girlfriend in a Coma came recommended.

The novel tells the story of Richard and Karen, with occasional accompaniment from their circle of friends and parents, from young love and teenage togetherness in the twilight of the 1970s, through the 20 years of Karen's coma most of which sees Richard lost in any number of emotional wildernesses despite the fact that 9 months after falling into her coma Karen has their daughter, culminating in a strange sci fi / parallel universe / zombie horror section which sees the rest of mankind killed off by a mysterious sleeping sickness and including god/ghostlike intervention from "unexpectedly dead at 16" schoolfriend and high school jock Jared.

I really enjoyed the first two sections, but the third and final part of the novel left me a cold and it felt like Douglas Coupland had really lost the plot by the end. One of the Amazon reviews describes the novel as "ultimately extremely uplifting" - I'm afraid I found it depressing, because having reached the end of the novel I had no expectation that Richard, Karen and co would make a better job of their lifetimes second time round.

Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland