Rating: 
Summary: My favorite thus far
Review: This is the third and hands down the best of Douglas Coupland's books I have read. While it was not a riveting, sit on the edge of your seat page turner, it did hold my attention. The story centers on a hotshot Hollywood producer who in a near death experience sees the face of God in Susan Colgate, a washed up child TV star and former beauty queen. After his experience he gives up all his earthly possessions and lives for a time as a hobo until he experiences yet another physical collapse. Ms.Colgate's life has also spun greatly off course after serviving a plane crash and disappearing from society for over a year. Their budding relationship is abruptly curtailed when Susan inexplicably dissappears over night. Through twists and turns and with the help of some fringe fans of Susan's the duo are reunited and live, I suspect, happily ever after. To be honest, the ending of this book could have used some work. Everything was wrapped up too nicely in a bundle far too quickly for me to find credible. The rest of the book was paced and plotted perfectly and then seemed to end in a quick jumble. Other than that, it was a pretty good read.
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: Quirky and holds your interest
Review: A middle aged Hollywood film producer finds meaning and connection through coming to the aid of a starlet who's career is over and her life at crisis point. Like Coupland's other works the skill and interest value in this novel lie in the authors observations of the details of early 21st century life and the commercial, over hyped and the past 24 hour history compression, that is US society. The characters are quirky and largely well rendered, but the story meanandered a little too much for me and at times seemed a trifle sentimental. Reminds me somewhat of the dialogue in a Tarrantino film - largely vapid but still amusing.
Rating:
Summary: Full of interesting twists and turns
Review: I have yet to be disappointed by a Douglas Coupland book (this is my third). In this book, the settings may involve the glamorous worlds of television, movies, and beauty pageants, but the themes of loneliness and the search for meaning come through strong and clear. I especially loved Susan's response to winning the Miss USA Teen Pageant, and the reaction she got to what she did. The side characters, particularly Vanessa, are fun, too. The best part -- the themes may be dense, but the reading isn't.
Rating: 
Summary: A Weak First Date with Douglas
Review: This was my first experience with a Douglas Coupland book, and to be quite honest, probably my last. I kept reading and reading and reading, hoping to find something redeeming in this completely stale satire--sadly, it feels dashed off, all the way to the bitter end. Weaknesses? Try the cardboard characters to start with. Any time an author lifts a persona from real life, you have to wonder if they're really trying any more. Here you have real life Hollywood producers Don Simpson (now dead) and Jerry Bruckheimer in the cardboard forms of main character John Johnson and his pal Ivan--Hollywood director and producer of big budget garbage. The other main character is a former teen beauty queen, turned moderate sitcom star, turned rock star wife, turned druggie--talk about cliché. Both come near to dying and subsequently run away from the sad lives they've constructed, trying to reimagine themselves and start life fresh. But they've been living such self-destructive lives in rarefied circles few of us will ever encounter, which makes it hard to feel much sympathy for them. This has all been done before, with characters that actually feel real, and with writing that actually sparkles. The story, such as it is, takes place over a three-day period interspersed with many a flashback. The convoluted non-linear structure feels wholly contrived, as if Coupland realized he'd have to perform some legerdemain to distract from the stale soap opera material. The notion that this book is some kind of masterpiece of satire is ridiculous the moment you look at what is being satirized: Hollywood, beauty pageants, celebrity, pop culture? All have been skewered ten times over and ten times better by a raft of books and films--we are given nothing new or fresh to chew on here. A fairly disappointing book, considering Coupland's reputation. Oh yes, one last editorial annoyance: Why are there Anglicism scattered throughout the book?
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing satire!
Review: This was my first Coupland book. I know nothing about this author or his other works. I was in an airport desperate for something to read, and I grabbed this book at random. This book was excellent! The satire was perfect, the two main characters were extremely likeable, the villain (Susan's mother) was detestable, the plot was great, and the suspense was perfect. This was an excellent read! I could not put it down. I didn't give it 5 stars because there are some serious continuity issues in the book, and I'm sort of a stickler for things like that. These errors should have been picked up by an editor.
Rating:
Summary: Is this the real Coupland?
Review: The story, as highlighted in the accompanying reviews, concerns two stars of the film industry - Susan the soapstar, John the director. They both express a cynical view to their surroundings, which gives rise to their strange behaviour in the book. John throws a curve by purging all his material goods, then does some dreamtime by foot across California and it's surrounding states. Susan becomes the sole survivor of a plane crash, escapes the crash scene, and lives incognito for a year, presumed dead by everybody else. The story picks up from where John meets Susan at a cafe, with chapters alternating between the present time, and the pasts of the characters, in a sort of truncated biography style. All this sounds promising stuff, especially with Coupland directing the characters and building the plot. But from the start, I found the characters absolutely cardboard - Coupland DOES give them some foibles but it's all too transparent - since he gives the characters little in the way of depth, their actions and words are puppeted - they're mouthpieces to Coupland's latest thoughts on life. That's all well and good, since he DOES give them interesting lines....he just dresses his commentary up in a dull and predictable plot. Susan's life is described as a monotonous series of beauty pagaents, with the tyrannical mother determined to feel worthy through her daughter's successes. This story in istelf shows no new insights: We are told that Susan is the victim of how America defines success. Yes, and so what? Is this new information we are getting about beauty pageants being shallow and meanignless with the mothers puppeteering their daughters?? It felt hackneyed to me. And so Coupland continues with similar sub-plots that expose few NEW insights (what Coupland is normally good at). Having read his other books, I was left with the impression that this was written by another author ripping off Coupland and failing.
Rating:
Summary: The bar is set high for coupland
Review: If this was the only Coupland book I had read, I would have declared it a five-star, but compared to "Girlfriend" and (my personal favorite) "Shampoo" it is one minute step below those two excellent books. One thing is clear: with Coupland around, and turning out new novels, readers can find good art outside of Evil Empire of the tear jerker, Oprah's Book Club (I admit I have read a few). I will eagerly await his next book. If you get a chance, go see him at a reading; he is very funny.
Rating:
Summary: Not A Bonfire
Review: There's a scene in the film "Notting Hill" where Hugh Grant's affable and plain-but-charming bookstore owner character, William Thacker, takes mega-star Julia Robert's character, Anna Scott, on a date to his sister's low-key birthday party. Around the dinner table, consisting of William's family and friends and Anna Scott, they all tell sad personal stories to see who is the most pathetic, and thus the most deserving of the last, treasured brownie. After William goes, they decide that he is surely the most pathetic of all and thus most deserving the prize; but Anna Scott asks for a chance and amid the scoffs of William's family, she reveals the true hardships of celebrity. She is responded with a brief, uncomfortable silence, before someone jokingly says, "Nice try!" and they all laugh about (Anna included) and move on with their evening. Still, Anna's point about the fragility of celebrity is made. Douglas Coupland's "Miss Wyoming" shares much with this scene. In it, celebrities are constantly in a state of flux, between their desires for fame, their inabilities to cope with the loss of fame, and their attempts at both hiding away from the spotlight and then exploiting their various disappearances in such a way as to, of futily, re-land them in the territory of celebrity. The story is that Susan Colage, child veteran of beauty pagaents and former hot television actress, has disappeared. Again. The first time was in the wake of a plane crash in which she was the only survivor. Still, mysteries abound about the year she was gone, and slowly Coupland reveals what happened over that year over the course of the narrative. Narratively, Coupland has chosen to jump around in time, beginning his story in the present, but often (and often arbitrarily) jumping into the past to shed light on confusing aspects of the main narrative. In the main narrative, we follow John Johnson, a Bruckheimer-esque Hollywood producer who rose quickly to fame and fell just as fast after a pair of flops, as he seeks the newly disappeared Susan out after he realizes that it was she he saw in a vision during a near death experience. Yes, it's quite the convoluted situation, but this brief description hardly scratches the surface of where Coupland takes his story. And therein lies the problem; while Coupland is undeniably a fabulous writer and extremely talented, at a certain point there's little emotional resonance here. By the time you turn to the last chapter and discover just what the hell is going on, you're left a little more empty than you probably should be considering what happens. On the good side, Coupland fills his novel with intelligent jokes and really relishes in the absolute weirdness of some of his characters. My personal favorites are the video store employee Ryan and his Mensa-worthy girlfriend Vanessa, who see themselves (rightly so!) as the next stage of human evolution; their intelligence and ability to utilize each other's talents is creative-bordering-creepy, and it's fabulously entertaining. I loved these two so much that I'd give anything to see a novel devoted to them. Unfortunately, the bulk of the novel comprises the adventures, mostly told in flashback, of Susan and John (not together, but in their own separate, yet similar, stories). While there are moments of interest, I left the book feeling somehow unfulfilled. Perhaps the book's saving grace is the fact that it reads so quickly that you'll hardly have a chance to be bored. That said, there are enough little splendid moments to make the book a worthwhile read, particularly for fans in need of a Coupland fix, but for those who've never read Coupland, I suggest you start with "Microserfs" or "Girlfriend In A Coma," whichever of the two seem most compelling to you. "Miss Wyoming" stands, at most, as a bright candle to Coupland's previous bonfires.
Rating:
Summary: Okey Miss Wyoming
Review: As usual Coupland delivers a book full of smart pop cultural references and observations about life that makes me smile. It's always a pleasure to read him! The theme is, as in Microserfs, how you can find your true personality and how you can get a good, fulfilling life when you're stuck in the middle of everybody else expectations and in the middle of everyday life. Microserfs is my favorite Coupland-book and I don't think Miss Wyoming is quite as good as that one. The story is certainly entertaining with all that Hollywood and beauty pageant background, but it doesn't really make me stop and think like Microserfs did. What I like best about this one is the many unexpected turns on the way to the end (and don't watch teve or something while you read it because it's _not_ chronological) and all the characters around Susan Colgate and John Lodge Johnson. Think tank-Vanessa and video-Ryan for example! And Dreama with her numbers. Great! But if you want to read a really good Coupland, I suggest Microserfs.
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