A mid-range Coupland, neither his strongest or weakest, which by most standards means superb. His characters are often merely a manifestation of quirks or traits, and situations and events are often absurd. For me what makes Coupland magical is his ability to use unreal elements to tell a story that truthfully reflects our reality, like a bagful of rubbish used to make a beautiful collage. These are not real, or even realistic, people or events, but this IS your world, I always feel I'm being told. And as ugly and horrible as we've made it, there is in Coupland's work always hope. Whatever mess we make, it still might not be too late to salvage something. Modern parables, then, perhaps. Shampoo Planet wouldn't be my starting point for turning people onto Coupland, but it's a fine, fine book nevertheless.

This should have been right down my alley, but the story constantly feels like its digressing into itself and feels claustrophobic inside this one guy's head. I also didn't like the main character and didn't care what he achieved, though his relationship with Anne-Louise was nice. The other wacky characters were a lot of fun.

It was weird revisiting this book after twenty years. So many scenes and images that stuck with me I didn’t even remember came from this book. The characters’ anxieties about the state and the direction of the world don’t seem quaint, but they also don’t quite square with how things have panned out. I don’t know. I enjoyed it. And I also feel like I got it at age 20.

I don’t know why I bother really because every time I read a Coupland, I’m reminded of why I haven’t read one in a very very long time. Shampoo Planet was no different an experience. Yes, we’re all living in a soulless consumer culture; yes, we’re all shallow and self-serving; yes, we’re all lacking in self-awareness and empathy for others; yes, we’re all decadent and grotesque, etc. etc. etc.

Douglas, we’ve heard it all before. Every single book you write tells us the same thing, and you still haven’t got me caring.

I should have given up after Generation X.

It seemed like nothing important happened

The not-as-good next thing from Douglas Coupland after the sensation of "Generation X."

Couldn't help but be charmed by the ending.

I can't say that I enjoyed it. This is only the second Coupland book that I have read; I really liked "Hey Nostradamus," and while "Shampoo Planet" is written in a very similar style, the story didn't interest me. The first couple chapters were fabulous, with some very striking observations of our culture and human nature, but I got bored about halfway through the book.

Notable quotes:

"...a portrait of Jasmine, facing the world as she does at this point of her life, utterly frightened by a monster entirely of her own carving." pg. 19

"When we sleep at night--when we walk across a field and see a tree full of sleeping birds--when we tell small lies to our friends--when we make love--what acts of surgery are happening to our souls--what damage and healing and shock are we going through that we will never be able to fathom? What films are generated that will never be shown?"

"And then we will get even older and our memories will fail almost completely. But no matter what happens--no matter how wide the gulf between us becomes--we will each be the last people we forget in each other's memories. Because we were each the first to be there." pg. 298

Shampoo Planet is the rich and dazzling point where two worlds collide -- those of 1960s parents and their 1990s offspring, "Global Teens." Raised in a hippie commune, Tyler Johnson is an ambitious twenty-year-old Reagan youth, living in a decaying northwest city and aspiring to a career with the corporation whose offices his mother once firebombed.

This six-month chronicle of Tyler's life takes us to Paris and the ongoing party beside Jim Morrison's grave, to a wild island in British Columbia, the freak-filled redwood forests of northern California, a cheesy Hollywood, ultra-modern Seattle, and finally back home. On the way we meet a constellation of characters, among them: Jasmine, Tyler's Woodstock mom; Dan, his land-developer stepfather; "Princess Stephanie," Tyler's European summer fling; and Anna Louise, his post-feminist girlfriend with an eating disorder.

Tyler's dizzying journey into the contemporary psyche -- a voyage full of rock videos, toxic waste, french-fry computers, and clear-cut forests -- is a spellbinding signature novel for a generation coming of age as the millennium comes to a close.

douglas coupland is depressing as hell. i finished this book a bit ago and since then i have been wrapped in this loop of thought about how my generation has absolutely no prospects and will continue to exist in the stasis of unhappiness until we die. and dying would end up being one of the best parts of our lives.

but, then again, i have been trying to figure out whether the moon spins on an axis and around the earth or just around the earth. and, you know, whether or not you walk faster if you walk with the rotation of the earth as opposed to against it.

so, this is why i like doug coupland. who else would inspire such diversity. i dont know. so, like microserfs this book was certainly dated and in the beginning it was way easier to notice it but after you immerse in this time you kind of forget it.

this book reminds me alot of my childhood and that makes it suck more/more awesome.

The worst self-consciously Gen-X drivel. Perhaps the emphasis on consumerism is supposed to be post modern or ironic or something, but this book just comes off as hollow and without any redeeming qualities. There are no complex, believable, or likeable characters. The end of the book is especially off-putting, as the protagonist has learned absolutely nothing and only now values his girlfriend after she's lost weight and turned herself into a shiny consumer object.

Muy buen libro, que como todo lo que hemos leído de Coupland, tiene tres características principales:

1. Es terriblemente depresivo.
2. No se guía por la narración, es el diálogo lo importante acá.
3. Describe a la sociedad industrial moderna con ironía y precisión.

Me gustó mucho: los personajes son entrañables y creíbles, la historia aunque un pelín floja cumple su cometido como base del relato.

Si no conoces a Coupland, es bueno para iniciar, aunque sería mejor darle primero a Generación X y respuesta regresar a Champú, así puede verse la evolución del estilo y la temática.

Lo recomiendo.