Worst. Person. Ever.: A Novel [Paperback]

Raymond Gunt likes to think of himself as a pretty decent guy—he believes in helping his fellow man and all that other good stuff. Sure, he can be foulmouthed, occasionally misogynistic, and just generally rub people the wrong way—through no fault of his own! So with all the positive energy he’s creating, it’s a little perplexing to consider the recent downward spiral his life has taken….

An unemployed B-unit cameraman, Gunt accepts his ex-wife’s offer to shoot aSurvivor-style reality show on an obscure island in the Pacific. Somehow, Gunt suffers multiple comas and unjust imprisonment, and is forced to reenact the “Angry Dance” from the movieBilly Elliott, among other tribulations and humiliations. Could the universe be trying to tell him something?

It is hard to describe, out of context, quite how funny Coupland’s novel can be. A lot of its humour springs from the relentless hideousness of Gunt. And yet, increasingly, it is the very fact that Gunt— in Voltairean fashion—is the only character in Coupland’s menagerie who can see the awfulness of the human apocalypse around him that makes the book so compelling. Coupland’s eye for the strange, mesmerising wonder of modernity is being put, more than ever, to extremely dark use here. The fact that it is all so demented—and so frequently, belly-achingly hilarious—only makes that darkness all the more impressive.”—The Sunday Times
 
“Provocative and entertaining.”—The Daily Mail
 
“Riotous, frequently very funny.”—The Independent
 
“Filthy and funny.”—TimeOut London
 
“Clever bits of observational humour … his best book in recent years.”—The Toronto Star
 
“An entry—a fun&#lóˇ