Alex Garland wrote The Beach and the screenplay for 28 Days Later, so I was expecting something a bit less predictable from this shortish story, illustrated with woodcuts by his father, political cartoonist Nicholas Garland. The Coma makes the reader think, but our thought-lines run in fairly obvious directions, as does Carl’s, the narrator and coma patient. It has – or could have, if Garland had let it – an interesting psychological angle, and there are moments that provoke an unsettled reaction, but as professional a writer as Garland obviously is, I can’t help feeling that the subject and event line were pulled from a list of college essay-writing options.

An easy read, not a complete waste of time, but I was left with the urge to smack the author about the head and point out that he’s a high calibre writer who can deliver better. ( )

When Carl wakes up from a coma, which he slipped into after receiving the beating of a lifetime while traveling the subway, his life seems very different from his life before the coma. He experiences black-outs, and discovers strange things about himself that surprise him. As more time passes, Carl grows increasingly confused; is he really out there and awake, or is his mind playing a cruel trick on him?

The Coma takes you on a trip, exploring consciousness and how it intertwines with reality. I finished the book in one sitting. That’s rare for me. (I usually need to put a book down every once in a while and mull it over while keeping myself occupied with other chores and hobbies, and then get back to it later, more attentive.)

Then again, the book isn’t even 200 pages long with a large type, wide spacing between sentences and including page-sized (but suitably atmospheric) woodcut illustrations by the author‘s father Nicholas Garland - so that had something to do with it. It didn’t take long, in other words.

Nonetheless, The Coma was unputdownable; it kept me in suspense and wonder. I like being surprised, I like wondering. Oh, I got plenty of that in the form of surreal settings and dreamlike descriptions.

“What the [….]?” (insert curse word of your own preference; mine started with an ‘f’) was exclaimed a countless amount of times. My eyebrows found their way up, nearing my hairline, throughout most of the book. I reread paragraphs to make sense of it all.

Oh yes, I felt intrigued at first, but taken for a fool as I neared the ending. (Yet I kept hoping for something. After all, Alex Garland wrote “The Beach” and the screenplay for “28 Days Later”.) As much as I like being a bit of a detective as I read (which is what appeals me to reading mysteries; feeling as if I‘m actively thinking with the narrator), I also need to feel like I’m going somewhere. Alex Garland didn’t offer me that. And then I reached the end, and I felt robbed.

The experience reminded me of Michael Douglas in that movie, “The Game”. Yeah thanks for watching it was all a joke, SURPRISE, hahahahaha. Haaaaa. There’s two hours of my life that I am NEVER, EVER getting back. And The Coma, similarly, fell flat.

Even though this book was clearly more about the reading experience, exploring the dream state, The Coma was more like an indulgent writing exercise for the writer; in my opinion, it should have stayed in his drawer, or it should have been rewritten to have more substance before being published. I’m positive Garland is a fine writer, I got that from his prose in this book, but The Coma didn’t serve as the best first impression. Luckily, I purchased this book for a few euros at a book fair.

I could end this review cleverly with a, “This book was so boring, it nearly put me to sleep!” But that would be untrue. It wasn’t boring. But with an ending such as this, in hindsight I feel that I have wasted my time. Time I now think would have been better spent actually asleep, dreaming my own dreams.

Find the review and an accompanying portrait at the Reading & Reviewing blog: http://ofbooks.blogspot.com/2009/09/r... ( )

bought the novel The Coma a few weeks back because it is written by the fellow who wrote the screenplay for 28 Days Later, and because it was really cheap. I like buying books that are 80% off at Indigo. You can get it at Indigo for $7—in hardcover no less. I don’t want to tell you much about the novel’s plot, because its twists and turns are probably the best thing about it. I will tell you the book starts with a vicious beating that leaves a man in a coma, and continues from there. It’s quite short, and can be finished quite quickly. I read it on my commute to work over the course of a few days. The book is really quite interesting; it’s very well thought out—at least I thought so. If you are looking for something to read, I recommend you check this out. -- http://funkaoshi.com/blog/the-coma ( )

Have you ever woken up from a dream that seemed so real you had to check your surroundings to make sure you have really woken up? Now imagine that a series of troubling events has occurred and now you’re at your best friend’s house with no recollection of how you have gotten there. Are you losing your mind or have you really woken up at all? This is the question that Carl faces after being beaten into a coma on the London Underground, is he really awake but losing his mind, or is he in fact stuck in his mind?

The Coma was an intriguing, if short, read. The 200 pages took me a whopping two hours to breeze through, and it might not be the book for folks looking for writing of a literary scale. However, I was not disappointed, seeing as my initial interest in the book was, against all sage advice, the cover. (You might find that I pick a lot of books this way, guilty as charged) After picking it up and having an initial flip through I discovered that each chapter began with a black and white illustration which corresponded to what happened in the chapters. Now I know I’m an adult but I felt the illustrations weren’t a bad touch. It added to the dreamlike feel of the book. Read More ( )

Pretty good description of what it feels like to be trapped asleep and trying to wake up. But more so.Really good illustrations. ( )