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From Amazon
Microserfs is not about Microsoft--it's about programmers who are searching for lives. A hilarious but frighteningly real look at geek life in the '90's, Coupland's book manifests a peculiar sense of how technology affects the human race and how it will continue to affect all of us. Microserfs is the hilarious journal of Dan, an ex-Microsoft programmer who, with his coder comrades, is on a quest to find purpose in life. This isn't just fodder for techies. The thoughts and fears of the not-so-stereotypical characters are easy for any of us to relate to, and their witty conversations and quirky view of the world make this a surprisingly thought-provoking book.
" ... just think about the way high-tech cultures purposefully protract out the adolescence of their employees well into their late 20s, if not their early 30s," muses one programmer. "I mean, all those Nerf toys and free beverages! And the way tech firms won't even call work 'the office,' but instead, 'the campus.' It's sick and evil." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
From Publishers Weekly
With his nose to the zeitgeist, the author of Generation X again examines the angst of the white-collar, under-30 set in this entertaining tale of computer techies who escape the serfdom of Bill Gates's Microsoft to found their own multimedia company. The story is told through the online journal of Danielu@microsoft.com, an affable, insomniac, 26-year-old aspiring code writer. Together with his girlfriend Karla, a mousy shiatsu expert with a penchant for Star Trekky aphorisms, and a tight clique of maladjusted, nose-to-the-grindstone housemates, he relocates to a Lego-adorned office in Palo Alto, Calif., to develop a product called Object Oriented Programming (Oop!), a form of virtual Lego. Much of the story concerns the the Oop! staff's efforts to raise capital and "have a life" amid 18-hour work days. Dan's journal, like much prose on the Internet, abounds in typos, encrypted text, emoticons-:) for happy and :( for sad-and random snippets of information, a format that suits Copland's disjointed, soundbite-heavy fiction. Yet the randomness and nonlinearity of cyberspace hobble narrative. Amid endless digital chitchat and pop-philosophy, this novel's more serious ruminations about the physical and social alienation of life on the Information Superhighway never achieve any real complexity.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining and moving,
By
This review is from: Microserfs (Paperback)
I re-read this book recently and was amazed by how moving and entertaining it continues to be. It's an incredible portrait of the 90s, post-internet, pre-Google era when Silicon Valley went from geeky to sexy. What holds up especially well are the characters and how they all come to blossom over the book in different, sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic ways. Recommended.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Microserfs a picture of modern day Americana,
By Turquoise Hereford (Rochester, NH USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Microserfs (Paperback)
Microserfs is yet another novel by canadian author Douglas Coupland set in the US. To the blind eye it would seem that Coupland is a bit obsessed with America. To the eye of a cynic he is simply intrigued by all our quirks. Intrigued by our abilty to idolize the "idea" of one. Microserfs takes place during the early 1990's, the era of Bill. Not Bill Clinton, Bill Gates. The whole story is about american tech geeks that practically worship the cpu and business genius. Geeks that are almost non-human untill they branch off on their own to create their own ideas. The minute the group of friends leave the Microsoft compound the story takes flight. The characters become loveable. I admire Couplands writing style because his books don't end with a cliched "happy" ending. He leaves the reader with something to think about. It's as if he doesn't really end his books. He doesn't allow you to say goodbye to the characters. After reading the last page you set the book down knowing that life goes on for the characters. It's kind of like saying "See you later" instead of goodbye. He always leaves you thinking in the end. Microserfs is a great novel, after reading it you may become a Douglas Coupland fan as well. If you do decide to read more of his work please read "Shampoo Planet", it's hands down his best work yet.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buy this book for the geek you love or even like,
By "cyndiz" (Victoria, TX United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Microserfs (Paperback)
This book is hilarious, and so true to life. I like how this book reprensents the characters in a way that makes them real, even likeable, and not just a bunch of nerds with strange quirks. A must read if you or anyone close to you is a programmer.
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