Worst. Person. Ever. by Douglas Coupland

Published by Blue Rider Press on April 3, 2014

Raymond Gunt, a cameraman of little distinction, reluctantly takes an assignment offered by his ex-wife that involves shooting footage for an American reality TV show in the remote island nation of Kiribati. It's the kind of show (Gunt is told) where people shag each other for a few weeks and then turn into cannibals. Recruiting a personal assistant from the cardboard box in which he dwells, Gunt begins his travels. The world tour of detention facilities is not what he had in mind, but he perseveres.

Douglas Coupland (via Gunt) pokes fun at Americans and our "ghastly" pseudonews channels and general dreadfulness, although he also belittles Mr. Bean and other British exports. He takes equal delight in skewering Peruvians, Mexicans, Chinese, Samoans, and pretty much everyone else on the planet. Some of his humor is less than politically correct (children who suffer from conditions that inhibit self-control, homeless people, and the obese are among his targets) but he doesn't cross boundaries in a way that most readers who have a sense of humor would find excessively offensive. After all, you can't expect enlightened sensitivity from the Worst. Person. Ever.

Some of Coupland's humor is too obvious (a product of choosing easy targets) and there are several comedic lulls during the course of the novel. Even so, Coupland has a gift for crafting funny sentences, many of which made me laugh out loud (although I admit that I'm a sucker for camel toe humor; it is possible that more mature readers will be less amused). In addition to Gunt's nonstop commentary on life (including conversations that routinely get Gunt and his assistant thrown out of vans and buses), the novel is peppered with fun factoids resembling Wikipedia entries that are about half fact and half clever invention.

The plot, to the extent that there is one, has little to do with the reality TV show. The novel's weakness is that there isn't much of a story here. Worst. Person. Ever. is amusing in a meandering way but it often seems to be searching for a purpose that it never finds. There is nothing wrong with humor for the sake of humor, but the novel's steadfast avoidance of meaning is disappointing. So is Gunt, who never quite lives up to the novel's title. Worst. Person. Ever. delivered enough laughs to earn my recommendation but did not deliver enough substance to earn unmitigated praise.

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