Several critics have suggested that this publication marks an early shift in the stylistic vocabulary of Coupland and, according to one critic, he was "excoriated presumably for attempting be serious and to express depression and spiritual yearning when his reviewers were expecting more postmodern jollity".

A contemplation of life’s adversities and a pending divorce, the short story features the two characters’ parallel narratives of development in which both father and the child are at frail and liminal points in their lives.

A frequent stabbing victim, Donny lives for the thrill of the dangerous lifestyle.

The narrator of this story is a lonely man, who pays a visit to his parents’ house.

The narrator contemplates the ability to fly and what it will mean if the one truly good person in the world is gone.

Flashes of light replace the sun, and those who are alive to see it are reminded of their delicate existence.

The second part, The Dead Speak, is a collective letter from those who died in this nuclear war.

It also relays the message that the living should move on, as the dead are in a new place and have changed souls.

The female narrator of this story wonders about her life and the sequence of events that make it up.

She first tells a story of a dog that died of a broken heart after its owner's death.

The story illustrates where each character's life takes them, and their individual searches for meaning.

One researcher has noted that the characters in this story hold "a tacit resentment against the parent generation for" the neglect of not having instilled in them a measure of faith and that this "story in particular, can be read as thematizing the young generation's quest for an alternative narrative of faith.

While researching the Great Famine, Coupland crafted multiple short stories, complete with images drawn by the author.

The original book jacket for the hard cover carried the message "You are the first generation to be raised without religion."

This is because Coupland found the original cover to be a distraction from the text itself: "So the book won't be judged by its cover, and so readers will be aware that they are holding this oddly retro little zero-tech paper-and-word object called a book."

The Ataris have recorded a song based upon "My Hotel Year" with lyrics directly from the story.