About this title: A novel about life in the 1990s from the point of view of a computer nerd named Dan Underwood. The story he narrates follows the adventures of six "microserfs," who write software for Microsoft until it's time to strike out on their own, then form their own company, and search for love in the computer-driven world of Silicon Valley.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: ReganBooks
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780060391485ISBN:0060391480
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Solid book with clean pages, small rippling on upper first 3 pages, cover shows shelf, edge & corner wear & scuffing, front cover has scratches with curling. Sewn binding. Paper over boards. 371 p. Audience: General/trade; General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780060987046ISBN:0060987049
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Clear plastic covering lifting from cover. No Writing. No Highlighting. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 384 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"Near perfect in form, presentation and emotional drain. A handful of similarly quirky but unqiue characters handle similarly quirky but unique situations through a variety of historical, current and futuristic technologies, all while building a LEGO simulator that will put their new gaming company on the map. Great portrayl of Bill Gates and the Microsoft culture, as well as the campuses and lifestyles of a variety of other tech companies of the time. Fairly unique in presentation, often incorporating a literal reprinting of computer-related topics presented in each chapter, including the main character's computer's "sub-conscious" files acting as barriers between chapters. Taught me many a random factoid - the amounts of chemicals in the human body and the various uses for them, the body as a form of memory, flatland foods - and many a life lesson - why talking to someone through "license plate" speak can be the most heartbreaking and hopeful communication in the world. Touching, honest, hilarious and surprisingly warm look at the computer industry, nerds, and the Silicon Valley."
"Every once in a great while I stumble upon a book that has everything I hope for and more. I didn't expect to find that in Douglas Coupland's Microserfs--not that I have anything against the Canadian novelist, I just expected his 1996 release to be simply an enjoyable read, not something that would blow me away completely and be entered into my All Time Top 10 List forevermore. But in Microserfs, that's exactly what I found: a novel full of laughter, of tears, of brilliance and heartfelt subtlety.
Perhaps part of my love for the book comes from my desire to live the exact life that protagonist Dan and his coding co-horts are living in Redmond, Washington, just outside of Seattle on the Microsoft campus in the early 1990s. While I was reading the book, I was also waiting to hear back from a job I applied for with Nintendo of America (sadly, no dice), based also out of Redmond. As I read the book, the good-hearted jealousy poured out of me and into Dan in a vicariousness I had not felt since reading, perhaps, the very first Harry Potter book almost a decade ago. Is this why I felt so sublimely affected at the ups and downs that the characters took? Is this why I sobbed as the novel reached its apex for reasons I cannot still fully explain? Probably. But don't let that diminish the full effect, because even reading it as someone with less of a personal stake in its direction, I still could find it hard to look at as any less brilliant.
Coupland has proven to me beyond a doubt at this point, that a keen eye for pop culture and good humor can go hand-in-hand with a level of emotional humanism I only before thought possible in the hands of someone like Kurt Vonnegut or George Saunders. Usually you get one or the other--a battering ram of modernity like Chuck Klosterman (ugh) or the gentle touch of Jeffrey Eugenides. Not all of Coupland's novels are quite so finely tuned as this, but in Microserfs he has managed to make a believer out of me.
It certainly will help if you, as the reader, are something of a culture nerd yourself, with a special geekiness for computers and the baggage and shortcomings of Generation X, but even without catching all of the references Coupland makes, you will most assuredly connect with the people inside. Because they are even more real than the little things Coupland plucks from the world around him to ground the book. Knowing nothing of Silicon Valley, programming or the computing world in general, the characters that inhabit these pages are enough to make you feel their world and feel everything they are going through."
Douglas Coupland, the Canadian author best known for coining the term "Generation X", concocts a wonderful tale that would make any geek weep.
Microserfs is narrated in the form of a journal (which in itself is appealing to me) penned by the main character, Dan Underwood (26). To set the scene, the journal starts in the fall of 1993. Underwood serves as a computer programmer for Microsoft. The entertaining plot revolves around the misadventures of he and his fellow code-crunching computer whizzes. These self-professed 'geeks', obsessed with lego, and who often lament their lack of a social life, board together at a Microsoft "dorm".
Otherwise known as "microserfs", they spend 16-hour days coding, eating "flat" foods (ie. Kraft singles or fruit rollups, which are often passed underneath closed doors), and checking/sending email. Seizing the chance to be innovators and wanting to escape their Bill-run world, this intrepid bunch of quirky coders strike out on their own, as they form a high-tech gaming software company named Oop! located in Silicon Valley.
Spanning about 2 years, the novel lends us the complex and often hilarious story of what life is like for these coders, living together in a sort of digital flophouse as they desperately try to "get a life" and find love amid the dislocated, subhuman whir and buzz of their digitally-driven world.
Coupland's wit never fails to be modern, funny, to-the-point and thought-provoking. The novel itself is comical, illuminating and ultimately poignant. Indeed, literal tears welled up at the conclusion, which was an unexpectedly touching one.
Admittedly, Microserfs is not a novel I would recommend to just anyone. Yet it is definitely a novel I personally wouldn't want to do without. One of Coupland's best, without a doubt."
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