Customer Reviews

Miss Wyoming

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

Though not my favorite Coupland (Life After God), I enjoyed Miss Wyoming every bit as much as I've enjoyed all of his other works. If you get nothing else out of his works, you get rich characters and an almost philosophical look at meaning in life. In addition, Miss Wyoming is a great love story. As you read it, you sympathize with the characters to the point that you feel anxiety and love as if you were them. You understand John Johnson's lovesickness and why he can't sleep or eat. You crave resolution. You want John to be able to express everything he feels for Susan. You want the happy ending. You desire the only thing that seems to bring a sense of meaning to the lives on the characters in the book. Miss Wyoming is a gripping book that is hard to put down and at the same time it is a cerebral book that asks the tough questions about life. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Get this book, and put it in the hands of people who have never read Coupland's work.

I think Coupland has found a great balance between character and plot in this novel. The characters in this book are interesting, engaging, and feel realistic. The dramatic tension from the different story threads moving back and forth in time worked well, I couldn't wait to get back to each thread.

In some of Coupland's earlier books I liked the style and fresh point of view more than the story. In Miss Wyoming the style serves to propel the story, the story stands on its own. Read it.

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!

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.

Douglas Coupland is my favorite author. I have loved all of his books--until now. The quirky characters in "Miss Wyoming" often made me laugh, but the novel as a whole did not bring me through the depths of emotion that his other books have. I don't feel like i'm a better person for having read "Miss Wyoming." I realize it's a lot to ask of a writer to change my life, but in the past, it was a challenge that Coupland had no problem meeting.

I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of this book is August. I was very excited, as Douglas is my favourite author (in the spirit of you knowing my bias). I must say the book was great. It reminded me on one level of a Vonnegut novel, but this book was just so 'there' for me. It may not have touched me like Microserfs did, but the books was satisfying.

It was like receiving a letter from an old friend and hearing that not only is their life going well, but also that they still think about you. There was just something reassuring in this novel, maybe it was that you don't have to be the persona that you are. It gave me hope that I can stop being cynical (the generations cliched attitude) and project the happy, optomistic person that I am on the inside.

I know this hasn't been just about the book, but to me when I read a good book it will bring out these emotions. This isn't like watching EdTV, a shallow, pointless, cliche movie, this is like watching American Beauty or even, dare I say, Fight Club, movies that just touch you inside because they are real. Thank you Douglas for writing a novel that is real and honest.

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

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.

The novel seemed much more shallow, not really concentrating on the characters, rather the events. Unfortunately, this lost sense of intimacy with the characters is what made books like Microserfs and Generation X great.

Overall, it didn't really fell like a Coupland novel. Perhaps someone attemping to write like him, but not quite getting the point.

I'm not sure what Doug's plans are, but this book certianly feels like a screenplay. If Mr. Coupland wants to his his work in to cinemas, I suppose Miss Wyoming is quite perfect. I would probably bet that Miss Wyoming would be 1000x better on film.

Overall, an interesting novel, but somewhat predictable in places.