Rating: 
Summary: Boy Meets Girl...
Review: Told in typical Coupland style, Miss Wyoming is essentially a romance at heart. We get Susan Colgate, a washed-up, has-been, young movie star, a former child beauty contest winner. Insert John Johnson, a similarly washed-up movie producer who has a penchant for drugs and sex. Both of these characters take off on separate disappearances, forging into the unknown, huge highways leading them into the unknown. These impromptu road trips occur for different reasons: Susan as the lone survivor of a plane crash that gives her the sudden anonymity she has never had; John through a near death experience at Cedars-Sinai hospital. When both return to the real world, they meet, then are suddenly separated again. John feels he must find Susan at any cost.Coupland is at his usual with references to American culture abounding. He name-drops at every turn, his cynical eye tuned to the Hollywood way of life. The story moves back and forth in time, giving us insight into both John and Susan's past and the paths they take to escape it. It's a wonderful way to get to know both of them, and we can't help rooting for them to finally connect. The ending is a bit abrupt, but it still satisfies in its own way. The journey that Coupland weaves is a fun ride, and that it has to end is the only down point.
Rating:
Summary: A novel - good or bad thing?
Review: Whereas Coupland's other books relied much less on narrative, and much more on observations of modern life (with the possible exception of 'Girlfriend...'), this is a novel, pure and unadulterated. Is this a good or bad thing? Well, both. Coupland, judging from his back catalogue (all of which I have read), is the supreme master of observing people, places, things, events, time periods and societies. Well, after his last two books, he can add novels to that list too! Both this and 'Girlfriend...' are superb books, with a strong, funny narrative. Going through all his books, you can actually see his writing style mature from the (dare I say it?) slight over-indulgence of Microserfs and Generation X to the disembodied despair of 'Life after God' (my personal favourite), from his first attempt at a novel, Shampoo Planet (which was simply an observing-style book disguised as a novel) and finally to Miss Wyoming, a brilliant, funny, thoughtful book, with very few problems, other than his departure of style. If you need any more recommendation, consider this: I saw this book in a bookshop, and bought it, there and then, on the strength of his reputation, and not once have I regretted it. The biggest problem is that the edition I have, which has a different cover to Amazon's one, looks a bit like one of those paperbacks for women, about women, by women with names like Penny and Shirley. Oh well!
Rating: 
Summary: Coupland's weakest effort
Review: I was sorely dissapointed by this novel, being a fan of all of Coupland's previous work. This book lacked the charm, humor & meaning that made all of his previous books so enjoyable. While this is not necessarily a "bad" book, I gave it such a low rating because I KNOW he can do so much better than this. My main complaint is that most of this book is spent developing the 2 main characters, spending 75% of the time giving detailed descriptions of their past. While this is all fine & dandy, he seems to have overlooked the minor detail of a plot. The main plot is very very weak & hardly an incentive to continue reading. I bought this book brand new when it first came out & have "started" it many times, but given up shortly after due to an extreme lack of interest in any of the characters or events. Obviously, I have finished it since then, but only because it was the one Coupland book I hadn't read. One last thing I'd like to say is to those people who gave this a low score & stated that this was their first & last Coupland book. DO NOT judge Coupland by this book...this was in many ways the black sheep of all his work & is by no means a worthy respresentation of his abilities. I would recommend this to die hard fans only...thank god his newest book, "Hey Nostradamus", restored my faith in this guy.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't miss the point of this book
Review: I came to Coupland late, so I don't have the axe to grind of "not as good as Generation-X". In the last 12 months, I've read all Couplands books and I think that this and Shampoo Planet are my favourites. I've read the reviews below and cannot understand some of them. One complained of the number of Anglicisms in the book. Now, for one Coupland is Canadian so uses more Anglicisms than someone from Dead-dog Indiana, secondly - try being British and having Americanisms rammed at you all day. The worst comment was that the satire was pointed at targets that were too easy. This misses the point of the book. What Coupland does so well is to take easy targets and make you care about them -- it would be easy to mock a grown-up child beauty queen and her monster of a mother, it's a lot harder to make you understand what makes them tick and see them as real people. Buy and read this book, then go away and buy and read all Coupland's others (apart from Lara's Book).
Rating:
Summary: Read it if you want something offbeat by accessible
Review: This book came to me at the perfect time. I like quirky, unusual stories that poke fun at the establishment and make me laugh. I was in the mood for such a book and lucked out when I read "Miss Wyoming." The story was thoroughly entertaining. While it may seem like a no-brainer to make fun of a beauty queen and her white-trash mom, Coupland keeps you entertained with a chain of events that is anything but predictable. He knows that these characters could and probably do exist, but the combination of all these weirdos in one book and the journey they take is laugh-out-loud funny. No one takes themselves too seriously, a keen point which keeps the story fresh. The characters know they have foibles, personality quirks and such, but they face life and deal with it with results that are fun to watch from the sidelines. His writing is clear and keeps the momentum going. It was a perfect book to read before bed or while sitting in the sunshine.
Rating: 
Summary: Mediocre
Review: Some descriptions were cute and unusual ("his eyes were the pale blue colour of sun-bleached parking tickets" - p.5), others were just plain ridiculous ("the doctor and nurse inspected his body like it was a skimpy Christmas tree" - p. 98). Overall the book was ok. Not "ok good or ok crap", just ok. I liked the way the storyline skillfully jumped from place to place, without ever confusing the reader. However it read more like a pre-teen novel, its inhabitants caricatures rather than real people. A pleasant read, yet highly forgettable.
Rating:
Summary: Well-written, but not his finest
Review: At its heart, this book is about identity: shedding identity, losing identity, finding identity, all set against a presumably shallow Hollywood backdrop. The characters are basically stereotypes -- the burned out producer, the former child model -- bumping up against each other in an attempt to create meaning. Coupland's talent shows through here, despite the hackneyed premise of the book. He manages to invigorate many of these old stereotypes and create a novel which does redeem itself to some extent from its iffy initial premise. But I agree with a previous reviewer that this is NOT the best introduction to Coupland's work. What he accomplishes here is a demonstration of his considerable skill, working himself into and out of corners most writers wouldn't touch. But in the end, this book is unsatisfying, leaving me dreaming of the realistic characters he gave voice to in Shampoo Planet, Microserfs, and perhaps most strikingly, Girlfriend in a Coma. Coupland may have begun the Gen-X literary revolution, but he has dropped the ball rather obviously with "Miss Wyoming". I hope he'll find his way back on track in time for his next novel, due out this fall.
Rating:
Summary: Great read; Coupland-esque themes explored again
Review: Though not quite as vivid an exploration of the spiritual themes of "Girlfriend in a Coma," Coupland again looks at characters who would appear to have it all (fame, money, glamour), but who feel a spiritual emptiness. The flashbacks used in the book are never confusing and give the book a cinematic feel. While the ending may not be as powerful as that of "Girlfriend in a Coma," or as poignantly simple as "Microserfs," "Miss Wyoming" does give the reader the feel that he has accompanied these characters through their soul-searching, and that it was an altogether satisfying journey for John, Susan, and the reader. Quite an enjoyable book. A fast read at 344 pages. Gripping enough that you could probably finish it in one or two free afternoons.
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre
Review: Some descriptions were cute and unusual ("his eyes were the pale blue colour of sun-bleached parking tickets" - p.5), others were just plain ridiculous ("the doctor and nurse inspected his body like it was a skimpy Christmas tree" - p. 98). Overall the book was ok. Not "ok good or ok crap", just ok. I liked the way the storyline skillfully jumped from place to place, without ever confusing the reader. However it read more like a pre-teen novel, its inhabitants caricatures rather than real people. A pleasant read, yet highly forgettable.
Rating:
Summary: Coupland's weakest effort
Review: I was sorely dissapointed by this novel, being a fan of all of Coupland's previous work. This book lacked the charm, humor & meaning that made all of his previous books so enjoyable. While this is not necessarily a "bad" book, I gave it such a low rating because I KNOW he can do so much better than this. My main complaint is that most of this book is spent developing the 2 main characters, spending 75% of the time giving detailed descriptions of their past. While this is all fine & dandy, he seems to have overlooked the minor detail of a plot. The main plot is very very weak & hardly an incentive to continue reading. I bought this book brand new when it first came out & have "started" it many times, but given up shortly after due to an extreme lack of interest in any of the characters or events. Obviously, I have finished it since then, but only because it was the one Coupland book I hadn't read. One last thing I'd like to say is to those people who gave this a low score & stated that this was their first & last Coupland book. DO NOT judge Coupland by this book...this was in many ways the black sheep of all his work & is by no means a worthy respresentation of his abilities. I would recommend this to die hard fans only...thank god his newest book, "Hey Nostradamus", restored my faith in this guy.
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