From Quill & Quire

by Mark Osbaldeston

Despite its potential, the device of a Grateful Dead concert is a veritable minefield of potential cliches. We meet the teenagers who have driven to the concert in Goodwill psychedelia and a parent's Lexus. The software mogul who regretfully senses that the price he has paid for the $650 shoes he wears on his feet represents an idealism gradually mislaid. Much more successful is the book's second section 'Portraits of Various People and Places.' Some of these pieces, reprinted from various magazines, are excellent. In 'The German Reporter' the reader can almost feel first-hand Coupland's happiness as he recounts three days spent showing a visitor around Vancouver. Vancouver also plays the central role in 'Lion's Gate Bridge, Vancouver,' a wonderful piece in which the city and its environs are depicted with obvious affection and insight.