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: If you like Gen X, you will also enjoy this book
Review: Coupland's fresh look at Hollywood is quite entertaining. Here is a book that can be read on two levels: 1. A beach read, and read as is, or 2. Or the complex interworkings of the human psyche.
Rating:
Summary: A Comedy of Manners For Generation X
Review: Douglas Coupland is the writer whose book, Generation X, was so smart, hip and slightly disillusioned that it coined a phrase to describe a generation of smart, hip and slightly disillusioned Americans.This book, Miss Wyoming, follows the parallel stories of Susan Colgate and John Lodge Johnson and encompasses everything from the American beauty pageant culture to near death experiences. Susan Colgate is a former pageant "work horse" and low-budget television star. Typical of pageant hopefuls and television aspirants, she embodies a surgically-enhanced, plastic kind of unnaturally-endowed beauty and, as would be expected, her life unfolds much like a trite and manipulative soap storyline. One racing toward a definitely unhappy end. Susan, however, is a survivor. She has survived a manipulative and grasping stage mother, a plane crash in which she was the only survivor, and a year in which she "went along" with the story of her own apparent death. John's life hasn't been a whole lot better. The son of a downwardly-mobile and rapidly-fading socialite and her constantly-disappearing husband, John endured a childhood filled with endless illness and depression only to come into his own as a successful maker of films. Success for John, though, is narrowly defined and means the constant ricochet from one stimulus-induced high to another. For John, the bigger the high, the more thrilling the thrill, and no amount of money is too much to spend. His "thrilling" lifestyle, however, comes to an abrupt crash landing when he falls prey to a particularly virulent virus and experiences an astral projection, the likes of which he has previously only dreamed. It is when Susan and John meet that Miss Wyoming really takes off. Coupland is one of those rare authors whose subject matter suits his writing style perfectly. Yes, much of it is "mind candy" but it is mind candy written with such an infectious joyousness that it is difficult for even the most jaded reader to resist its allure. His characters are victims of the too-much-too-often, freeze-dried, quick-fix excess, yet they are never trite and never fail to amuse. The plot ricochets from one event to another, much like the characters, and they do their best to struggle and survive and even, at times, connect. Miss Wyoming is definitely satire and it is modern satire of the highest order. Surprisingly so. The patron saint of satire, Oscar Wilde, defined the genre as being not only witty, succinct and accurate, but also imbued with a love of humanity and all its quirks. Coupland's writing shows this same generosity and love of his fellow man and it is this quality, more than any other, that pulls Miss Wyoming far above other novels in the genre. What could be more ripe for criticism than the youth-and-beauty-worshiping, celebrity-obsessed, consumerist culture of America today? Yet, Coupland embraces this culture with a sweetness that brings his flawed and failing but always-hanging-in-there characters to life. Our priorities, says Coupland, are genuinely laughable, but we can and sometimes do, transcend them. While lampooning the excesses of America today, Coupland still manages to cherish his fellow man, quirks and all. It is this very innocence and love that, in the end, make Miss Wyoming a very hip, very smart and very compassionate book to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Wow, this is bad
Review: For all of the clear-sighted, rambling and often hilarious pop-culture regurgitation Douglas Coupland has gleefully provided over the years, his control of prose may ultimately reveal as much about his generation than the thousands of details he's cross-referenced. _Miss Wyoming_, a screwball blend of satire and tongue-in-cheek formula romance, is a perfect example; it coasts along on delicious, eloquent rants on the intricate facades of American life but lacks the sincerity and attention to the subtleties of human behavior desperately needed to get under our skin. As a character, Ramsay-esque child beauty pageant queen-turned-sitcom star Susan Colgate is vaguely drawn (every aspect of what passes for her personality is justified by Freudian pop psychology) and never seems quite clever enough to pull off some of the stunts the narrative requires. Her mother is a pastiche of great camp icons - part Mommie Dearest, part Divine - and between her trailer-trash upbringing, her constant exposure to female rivalry, and her brushes with the rich and famous, you'd think she might be able to wrap her enhanced lips around some juicy (or at least campy) dialogue. But like her carrot-tanned, straight-outta "Valley of the Dolls" romantic destiny, failed Hollywood director John Johnson, she's moved through an outrageous set of circus acts and freak coincidences with many chances to meditate on her failure but no memorable sound bites to call her own. Giving more space to fewer characters is not the best tactic for Coupland, who has perfected his dry, witty monologue on the banal images littering the American consciousness but has yet to infuse them with a strong sense of vernacular or lend them to the rhythms of intimate conversation. This tactic works well when writing about overeducated slackers or codependent geeks, easy surrogates for Coupland's rants, but feels out of place in a narrative about ordinary people in incredibly bizarre circumstances. And the circumstances here, while often whimsical and amusing, veer too far beyond the realm of believability to sustain the caustic bite we might expect from a parody of our image-obsessed, youth-driven pop culture. In _Miss Wyoming_, we are treated to a series of events recycled from soap-opera plots - including a plane crash, a surprise death, and a kidnapping - that are good for a few jokes but veer too far away from the novel's satirical aim to strike any targets. And while the parallel plotlines are very tightly constructed, the characters within them are not drawn thoroughly enough to make the payoff truly rewarding. As a collection of quotables, _Miss Wyoming_ has enough playful prose and incisive observation to remain fun and engaging. But with more focus, a sharper edge, and fewer flights of fancy, it could have retained its relevance long after its references became "retro."
Rating:
Summary: Coupland's weakest effort
Review: I like all Coupland's stuff, but the appeal of some of his books lies more in the ubiquitous pop culture references and codification than in the storyline. In "Miss Wyoming," Coupland creates a recognizable, compelling plot to drive his trademark off-beat but heartfelt characters. Don't get me wrong -- the story's still obviously (and delightfully) fed on 80s TV and consumerism, from Nikes to New Age, but instead of being the point of the book, like in "Shampoo Planet," these items become the backdrop for the engaging story of two burnt-out minor celebrities, their near-death experiences and the long haul back to normalcy, or something like it.
Rating: 
Summary: Coupland's best fictional work
Review: Miss Wyoming is simply a great book. While I enjoyed Microserfs for it's witty and satirical look at life in the mid to late 1990s, but this book has much more depth. Life After God, a super book, shows the depths that Coupland is capable of. Again, he does not abandon the style that brought him this far. Colgate and Johnson (who seems supiciously like Don Simpson, if Simpson had lived and found redemption) are fully drawn and lively characters. You care about what happens to them. Colgate's Jonbenet/Tina Yothers (okay, not a beauty queen) life rings true. Johnson sets out like John Sullivan in Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels. The results of his journey are different, but just as important. The love story and mystery work well. Miss Wyoming works as satire, love story, and social commentary. A terrific read.
Rating:
Summary: Miss Wyoming is a fun, serious novel
Review: Miss Wyoming, Susan Colgate, has had enough of fame and not quite enough of fortune. This non-linear novel by Douglas Coupland tells her story, from her childhood as a beauty pageant contestant to her young adulthood as the star of hot 1980s sitcom, to her late 20s as a has-been -- though not in that order. Coupland loops her story in and around John's -- a Hollywood director who bears remarkable similarity in lifestyle to infamous Tinseltown badboy Don Simpson -- life story. Filled with references to pop culture, Miss Wyoming leads the reader through several lives. Coupland captures the lack of purpose in late twentieth century America, and lets his characters show the struggle of existing in a world where tragedy is not tragic but is new, but is hot news, where children are in the express lane to adulthood, and consumption is the supreme goal. The picture he paints of society is not pretty, yet it is optimistic. Much like in his earlier novels Microserfs, Shampoo Planet, or Girlfriend in a Coma, Coupland's characters find the stuff in life that makes it worth living -- despite society's lack of interest in love, friendship, and sincerity. The ironic words spoken by Susan and John are only fronts for their craving for something more.
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: 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: The Coupland Touch
Review: The book didn't have the philosophical bite that others do but Coupland excells at, as another reviewer mentions, pointing out absurdities of modern life and the common struggles we have. I heartily recommend this book although as a first Coupland I'd start with Microserfs or Generation X.
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