Rating: 
Summary: Great characters, but . . .
Review: I've read most of Coupland's other works and love his quirky characters and settings. The character development is right on track in "Miss Wyoming", however the actions of the characters do not always match what we've come to believe is their motivation. I found this frustrating at times. Otherwise, I did find the characters very intriguing. The story of John's mother Doris was particularly well told.
Rating:
Summary: The most doug yet
Review: Miss Wyoming, though not as fantastic as I found Microserfs to be, or as poingent and moving as the first time I read Girlfriend, is still an outstanding novel. And very fast too. I read it on holiday; on the plane and during long, hungover mornings, and it just went. It was gone.Maybe it is because my brain is tuned into the style and the form, maybe it is because I knew what to expect, but just as soon as I had started, I had finished. And it is just so Doug. All of it is packeed with absolute dougiisms. But that is not to say that is predictable. Far from it, as in Microserfs it all comes together in the last 20 pages. And I loved the cut and paste style, the leaps of time and space; the swapping and matching of a characters mindset depending upon where the you are in their lives. All very good and all very doug. And no, perhaps it doesn't have as much to say to everone as Microserfs or Life after God, but it spoke to me. And that, that is all I ask for in a novel Not as RAGGGHHH as Girlfriend the first time, but still relevent and still very good
Rating: 
Summary: Still Reading It And Love As Much as "Girlfriend"
Review: I'm about 3/4 of the way through the book as I write this from my laptop with satellite link while locked in a dumpster full of Big Macs. I am loving this book as much or more than "Girlfriend in a Coma". Have read all of Coupland's stuff and want to see him write MORE! This is a great read and the characters have really grabbed my imagination. Don't hesitate...buy it!
Rating: 
Summary: Just a so-so from Coupland
Review: I have read all of his books, and have to say it's not one of my favorites. If you lean toward "Girlfriend in a Coma" or even "Polaroids from the Dead" as your preferences to "Generation X" or "Microserfs," then you may enjoy "Miss Wyoming." I tend to enjoy the quirky character profiles and general observations on life and lifestyles found in the latter two, so the straight-ahead storyline type of read wasn't for me. He does a great job with the character development, and as usual, it's well written. I anticipate his next release, in hopes he returns to his roots, and gives us more of his hilarious, almost cynical(?) writings...
Rating:
Summary: Well, the screenplay adaptation should be a snap
Review: As a fan of old-school Coupland, I was surprisingly satisfied with "Miss Wyoming", which is a good sign, and more than I can say about his previous two works. "Miss Wyoming" was a nice story, but didn't instill me with the profundity/randomness exhibited in his early days. It will probably be the first Coupland work to become a movie, albeit probably a TV one - endless upcoming "Microserfs" projects-still-on-the-horizon-after-five-years notwithstanding. "Miss Wyoming" is heavy with backstory that is spooned-out professionally in a by-chapter basis - allowing the reader to get deep into the main character's personality only as the novel is coming to a close. But Coupland doesn't delve as deeply into his characters as he has in his other works - we think we know what makes his characters tick, but we aren't really certain. Coupland is still several levels deeper than Po Bronson has ever been with his characters, however. (Microserfs is considered to be far more revealing to Bronson's oft compared "The First $20 Million is always the Hardest".) This is what makes Coupland's works so fulfilling, whereas Bronson's books follow nice plotlines and minimal character depth, which makes the screenplay adaptation almost as difficult as cut-and-paste. Set in Hollywood over a three-day period, the two main characters, Susan Colgate and John Johnson, are right off-the-shelf from Central Casting, and that is perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of "Miss Wyoming". From the start, it's all too familiar, too easily digested, and too similar to character development one would find in popular cinema. That's probably done with purpose, however, given the background of the lead characters and their straight-from-the-tabloid-pages lives and the whirlwind connectivity between characters. Like a Raymond Carver novel time-compressed into a weekend. If you know anything about Hollywood in the last 15 years, you'll recognize John Johnson as the late Don Simpson reincarnate, and Johnson's business partner Ivan McClintock as current Hollywood high-budget-action producer Jerry Bruckheimer. That duo brought us Beverly Hills Cop 1 and 2, (along with Top Gun, Days of Thunder, The Rock, Crimson Tide, et al) as well as stinker Thief of Hearts. Coupland's Johnson/McClintock duo (in backstory) brought us Bel Air PI 1 and 2, Mega Force, and stinker The Other Side of Hate. Coupland reached into his magic bag of place names and phrases that have served him well in the past. Fans will recognize McMinnville, Oregon (Microserfs), "Mush" (Shampoo Planet), and general desert wandering and nuclear paranoia (Gen X and, well, basically every previous book). For the avid Coupland fan, I guess I was expecting more *new* thinking, and came up empty handed. I was happy to see that Coupland at least seems to have consulted a map for this novel, as some of his previous geographic citations were a little off. Smack the love story of "Get Shorty" (right down to lunching at the Ivy) with the true-life story of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and it's all too formulaic, but still enjoyable. Just like the movies. Maybe that's the point.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it
Review: I've read all of Douglas Coupland's books, and while some rise better than others, this one rose. What's different about this book is that it is strictly a novel, with a story surrounding its characters, and there aren't any stops and starts with some statement of society, or some moral question that he has posed in his previous books. The beauty of this book is that it is a pure story, that contains its own fun, and insight, and isn't written with a particular moral viewpoint in mind. This isn't to say it doesn't carry its own insights, but they are carried within the novel and not plastered in ontop of the story. I couldn't put the book down, i thought the characters were great, believable, realistic, and instead of them being depressive, cynical, and overtly jaded, there is a subconscious level of hope that runs through them all. Its a really rewarding read, it kept me rapt, and after finishing it, like with all good books, hoped for more pages. The only drawback was the ending which i found a bit flat, but it didn't spoil the novel. If you are a Coupland lover, this book is different from his others, and you might be surprised by there being no overt "statements" or opinionated observations. Give it a try though, and you might be happily surprised with the turn. Those who don't know Coupland, or haven't liked his earlier stuff for some of the reasons said, you will enjoy this book, as it stands on its own, without any interference with opinions from outside the narrative. Defintely worth reading....
Rating: 
Summary: Sadly Not Worth Reading To Me
Review: This is clearly a new direction for DC, a direction I would rather he do a 180 from. It feels like a plot-driven, emotionally inert, shell of a tale about characters I won't even remember and probably don't relate to much at all. There is a second-hand, ghost-written feel to this novel that I have never sensed in any other DC work. The 1 star is partly due to knowing that the author can do better. I have a similar sense of disappointment as I had after Poloroids. Another reviewer seems right when s/he says it reads like a screenplay for a film, a venture I would dissuade for my $.
Rating: 
Summary: Please go back to the suburbs!
Review: I have to admit, I was very disappointed by this novel. I have read Douglas Coupland's previous books, multiple times, in fact, and I have loved them all. My favorite characteristic of his books has always been the flashes of brilliant insight that he seems to find in the austere desert, a suburban mini-mall, in the woods. The Hollywood backdrop for this story rang hollow, and didn't provide for that same kind of insight. I was also disappointed in the dialogue--usually I find his wording to be charming and intelligent, but here it sounded like the unedited prose of a precocious 10th grader.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully entertaining; touching characters
Review: I looked beyond the sometimes self-conscious pop culture references (there are loads) and found two characters drawn with sincerity and tenderness. Anyone who's ever fallen in love, or suddenly felt lost when everything seemed OK, or wanted to totally reinvent themselves, will be able to relate to John and Susan and their journeys.
Rating:
Summary: Coupland's first finished novel.
Review: In the past Douglas Coupland's books have felt more like collections of pithy observations and good story ideas than like finished works. Miss Wyoming is the first of Coupland's books that feels like a finished narritive. The book still has the extremely funny bits and mournful tone of Coupland's previous work, but is finally free from the author's habit of continually interrupting his story to insert some tangential observation. Overall, this book is a big improvement from Coupland's previous efforts.
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