Book review: <I>Microserfs</i> by Douglas Coupland

 

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By Alun Williams

Posted on 20 Dec 2002 at 16:10

The story of Microserfs traces the lives of six self-declared geeks - Dan (the narrator), Michael, Susan, Abe, Bug and Todd. It moves from their live-to-work existence at Microsoft's Redmond campus to a learning-to-live environment in northern California as part of a start-up company in Silicon Valley.

On the surface the story is about life as a programmer, working in an intensive, cutting edge environment. It deals with day to day challenges in producing code and the geeky obsessions that underpin such a life (TV sci-fi trivia, Lego nostalgia, junk food history, etc).

The whole narrative takes the form of bite-sized chunks of journal entries that the Mac-loving Dan keeps on his PowerBook (along with a growing file of random clippings entitled SUBCONSCIOUS).

Introducing himself as 'danielu@microsoft.com', Daniel Underwood is 'a bug checker in Building Seven'. He also explains that his computer password is hellojed, Jed being the name of his dead brother that his uptight family never mention.

The story begins with a housemate locking himself in his office. Bill Gates himself has 'wailed on a chunk of Michael's code'. His friends resort to feeding him 'flat food' that can be slid under his door...

The book is good as conjuring up life on the Redmond campus, a driven existence dedicated to producing product: 'There was mist floating on the ground above the soccer fields outside the central buildings,' writes Dan. 'I thought about the e-mail and Bill and all of that, and I had this weird feeling - of how the presence of Bill floats about the Campus, semi-visible, at all times, kind of like the dead grandfather in the Family Circus cartoons. Bill is a moral force, a spectral force, a force that shapes, a force that moulds. A force with thick, thick glasses.'

Something has got to give, however, and the trigger is Michael's move to Silicon Valley and his decision to develop oop!, a 'virtual construction box, bottomless with 3D Lego-type bricks'. Dan, too, decides to leave the 'tupperware-sealed, Biosphere 2-like atmosphere of Microsoft' behind him. It's more 'one-point-oh', in Dan's words

The story progresses from shared-house life in Redmond to a more hand-to-mouth existence at the house of Dan's parents in California. According to Karla, Dan's girlfriend, 'they are all trying to figure out what we really need in life as opposed to what we simply want'.

As Bug also confesses: 'Sure, I know I'm a geek, and I know that predisposes me to introversion. And Microsoft did allow me to feed the introversion. But as you're all noticing for yourselves, you can't retreat like that here in the Valley. There's no excuse anymore to introvert. You can't use tech culture as an excuse not to confront personal issues for astounding periods of time. Its like outer space, where the vacuum makes your body explode unless you locate sanctuary.'

And so, as they start to work for themselves, they start to learn more about themselves.

The story concludes with a trip to CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas with Interiority (their company) hoping to make a big impression...

The book is slightly overlong, it must be said - there is one too many cute reference to American cultural trivia. But the story does move along quite rapidly as the success of their private and professional lives hang in the balance

Essentially, it is a love story, with the characters learning to become comfortable with their true selves: 'These children' - in Dan's words - 'who fell down life's cartoon holes... dreamless children, alive but not living - we emerged on the other side of the cartoon holes fully awake and discovered we were whole.'