Forget what MTV, the Gap, and those annoying CK1 ads have taught you about the slacker, twenty-something X generation. For term-coiner Douglas Coupland, Generation X was never about specific age group, but rather the individual lost in his or her surroundings. Dag, Claire, and Andy shed their on-target lives in urban corporate cultures, move to the California desert, and adopt a bedtime storytelling ritual. Through their tales of hand-carved religions and the end of the world, you witness these characters transforming isolated cool moments into larger meaningful lives. Coupland’s layered and inspired first novel is forever my favorite.