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The Coma
by Alex Garland


6.8

based on 18 reviews
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based on 5 votes
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Official Publisher Site

A man is beaten on the subway and falls into a coma from which he struggles to awaken, eventually simulating consciousness in his desire to regain it.

Riverhead, 144 pages
06/17/2004
$19.95

ISBN: 1573222739

Fiction
Horror
Mystery & Thrillers

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Booklist Frank Sennett

Slight but entertaining, this Mobius strip of a novel should fuel the cult following that Garland cultivated among twentysomethings with The Beach.

Salon Scott Lamb

A man wakes after a brutal subway assault to a world that isn't quite right, in this brief but unputdownable summer read from the author of "The Beach."

San Francisco Chronicle Alan Cheuse

Garland's latest, a dreamy haze of a narrative called "The Coma," with stark woodblock illustrations by his father, Nicholas Garland, will only add to his reputation for intriguing, ingenious and intellectually stimulating fiction.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

Haunted by its own incorporeality, The Coma wafts through the gray borderlands of consciousness, exerting a limpid, yogic mindfulness on the internal logic of dream life and the elusive act of waking.

Sydney Morning Herald Jose Borghino

I couldn't help thinking that the book felt like a five-finger exercise for a writer with a lot more talent.

Daily Telegraph Christopher Tayler

The trapped-in-a-solipsistic-dream-world business doesn't have to be a bad thing in itself, and the first half of The Coma is fairly entertaining. But working out how to get out of the dream-world turns out to be a lot less interesting than working out that you're in it in the first place.

Daily Telegraph Theo Talt

The kind of dislocated narrative trickery that works well in film often looks a bit exposed on the page... especially if the writing, as here, is washed-out and anaemic.

Los Angeles Times Bernadette Murphy

Unlike the novels of a century ago with their dignified bulk, "The Coma" can be read in the time it takes to see a film. This crossbreed offers the limitations and richness of both forms simultaneously ... Though the express version may take us to the same location, we miss the ride. [22 June 2004, E9]

The Guardian Alfred Hickling

The novel's objective seems to be to err on the side of subtlety. Garland's prose probes disinterestedly at a variety of banal situations, until the reader is forced to succumb and accept that the banal can be potentially extraordinary.

The Independent James Urquhart

Here, Garland abandons his strengths of subtle plotting and a cinematic ability to capture movement and scene. With information pared to a slender core, not much character and any action bound by hallucination, The Coma offers little more than a tone poem suggesting numinous ramifications. There are depths to be plumbed, but these waters may prove fathomless.

The Onion A.V. Club Scott Tobias

For a while, it's liberating to toe through Garland's dreamscape without setting foot on solid ground, but after he swipes out the rug once too often, the whole thing feels like a silly prank. It's unreasonable to ask Garland to solve the mind-body problem, but loping around in alternate realms of being isn't the same thing as exploring them

The Spectator Olivia Glazebrook

I am convinced that Alex Garland is capable of another brilliant book, but sadly this isn't it. In his efforts to be serious the author has neglected the reader.

The New York Times Michiko Kakutani

Thanks to Mr. Garland's lucid prose, the book is perfectly readable, but it is ultimately static and unsatisfying as a story and disappointingly slight as a metaphysical meditation about the mysteries of identity and the interface of reality and dreams.

The New York Times Book Review Anthony Quinn

Strange to think that not so long ago Garland was being compared, on the strength of ''The Beach,'' to Graham Greene. This odd and somewhat constipated book is unlikely to be mentioned in such august company, or anything like. It speaks of nothing so much as a writer struggling to be heard but not actually sure whether he has anything to say. ''The Coma,'' while it twitches with life occasionally, never seems to be fully awake.

The Independent Christopher Fowler

Such short fiction needs to provide powerful resonance beyond a revelatory, haunting conclusion, but the waking-dream theme of The Coma has been handled with far greater delicacy by many previous authors, and the painful slimness of this version robs it of any power.

Kirkus Reviews

Much like a dream itself: a novel that eludes definition, makes little sense, and is quickly erased from memory.

The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Elizabeth Johnston

Ever since Descartes, reason has been separated from feeling and the senses and been given pride of place in Western society. In The Coma we just might have the logical extension of that line of thought: It gets one nowhere.

Publishers Weekly

By the end of the story, with the narrator unable to tell the difference between reality and fantasy, he finally decides, "None of it was real. I didn't care." Chances are good the reader will feel the same way.

The average user rating for this book is 6.8 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Reinhardt Z gave it a9:
Very good and well written book! I didn't have my hopes up on Alex Garland making another good book after the Beach, but he did. The story is intricate and eluding, which earns it a mysterious aspect. I find this to be very effective. Garland also throws you of your feet when you least expect it, causing you to think about it even after you have finished the book. This can be interpreted as very confusing and perhaps "vague" but I am afraid to say that it isn't, it is EXACTLY as the human mind should be portrayed in reading terms. The human mind is complicated (as we all know) and this is why Garland has added a intricate and complicated side to the book - it does however not make it difficult to read, the book reads quickly and nicely paced. However the story has a main plot, the actual story vocuses on exploring the human mind - this must not be forgotten, if for example you expect a adventure through many places; then this isn't your book. Garland makes a "sketch" in a person's mind about how it feels to be during the different stages of a Coma. He makes it seem as if he has "been there, seen that" regarding Comas - therefore he describes it with excellent clarity and paints an image in one's mind. I would recommend this book to someone that can think furthur than just a simple fantasy/love story (not meaning that in an offensive way) where you can learn to expect all of the book even before you have read it. It also isn't very long which makes this novel very appealing. Well written and good imagery make this a must read in my opinion.

Lelia F gave it a9:
I have heard that a theatre company called "We Could Be Kings" have been given the rights to adapt The Coma by Alex Garland into a stage play. It is going to debut for the first time ever at The Pleasance for The Edinburgh Festival this year. Check it out!

Ronny gave it a4:
i didn't understand everything. i am swiss and sometimes i couldn't say whether it's a dream or real life!

Emma E gave it a5:
This book was a severe let down for me. Garland is my favourite writer and I look forward to reading his work but this just seemed stunted and unable to wake itself up. The Coma was a coma for me.

Andrew D gave it a7:
Garland manages to finger that difficult explanation of a dream world that seems real at the time, but just isn't quite right

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