By Dahl Botterill
Binge is a collection of 60 very short stories, each about three to four pages long and focusing on a different primary character. Many of the characters pop up again in other stories, but each is the main focus only once. Sometimes this multitude of perspectives provides an opportunity to see an event from a different angle, and other times it only provides a different look at a particular character as they live through some totally separate moment in time. There’s plenty of opportunity for the curious reader to map out these events and interactions into a larger whole, but such effort isn’t really necessary; even with the most casual read, these interlocking parts provide each story with a little more depth and breadth than it contains solely within itself.
This isn’t to say that the stories require the overlap to thrive. Each story stands successfully alone, and while some are obviously going to be stronger than others, nothing feels like a lost cause, especially when you’re on to the next story within a couple of minutes. Many of these characters are not good people, or even likeable, but they all feel real—if a little absurd—and none of them seems so far gone that one can’t relate to them a little. Relatable characters that feel intriguingly real is an aspect of storytelling that Douglas Coupland has always excelled at, and so Binge winds up being perhaps the perfect way for him to return to fiction after almost a decade of focusing on other projects. There are some larger plot arcs to be found here, but they aren’t the essence of the collection. Binge is all about the characters. It’s much more about people and what they’re capable of than it is about what they are all doing.
For somebody that’s never enjoyed Coupland, this short story collection is unlikely to change their mind. Reading Binge, with its focus on characters that run the gamut of moral and charismatic possibilities, is like steeping oneself in the most polarizing aspect of books like All Families are Psychotic and Worst. Person. Ever. On the other hand, for somebody that enjoys Coupland’s character work in all its forms, the book feels brilliant for the exact same reasons. Dynamic characters of the wild and weird variety are a trademark of Douglas Coupland’s, and Binge is a collection that really works to show that off.