It took me a little while to get into this book but having finished it I am impressed. I think it is better than his debut novel whose title caught the zeitgeist and labelled a culture: Generation X.

Tyler, the son of hippy mother Jasmine, wants to become an entrepreneur (his first memories are of Ronald Reagan). But he is growing up in Lancaster, an American town whose raison d'etre has been its nuclear processing plant, now closed. He studies hotel management at the local community college; his friends have dead-end jobs. His rich grandparents become homeless after their investment fund goes bankrupt; they start pyramid-selling a cat-food scheme. Nutrition involves the by-products of the oil industry or the processing of the unwanted and unmentionable bits of animals. This is a critique of American consumer culture by a narrator-protagonist who wants to be a part of it.

What helps is that the narrator is himself conflicted. He scorns the "sand candles" and "rainbow merchandise" of his Mum's hippy past. A visit to his natural father, living with two women and ten children in the wilds, has elements of nightmare. When visiting Europe he castigates Europeans for having no ambition. But when he goes to Hollywood he ends up working in a chicken reprocessing plant and then becomes a sidewalk artist. He is seduced by the future but all the time he lives among the wreckage of consumer culture. His descriptions of an American town past its best-before date reminded me of the town in The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold.

On the other hand, the way in which the narrator describes his world using detailed lists of consumer items reminded me of American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis. And another bit made me think of William Burroughs (the author of eg Naked Lunch). So Coupland is in some good company.

He can certainly turn a phrase, frequently adding modern concepts to describe something in an original way:

"an auto-mall rezoning both deleted and reformatted the landscape." (Ch 7)
"Monkey-suit cocktail parties with the fashion-android wives." (Ch 9)
"Monique and her libertarian sexual mores, while not exactly sluttish, have a kind of unclean tinge, like a pack of white sugar that has burst, and is overflowing onto a supermarket aisle." (Ch 36)
"Parisians visibly wincing with anticipation for their August holidays, like a man who has to pee badly." (Ch 22)
"unplugged computers dreaming of pie charts." (Ch 61)

I loved this book for the way the author set up the hippy vs consumer culture clash, enabling him to critique them both. His hero is a true Colin Wilson Outsider, being both seduced and alienated by a world that holds out so much false promise while delivering such a squalid reality.

He writes well too!

“Catcher in the Rye” but not nearly as annoying. Really enjoyed it. A lot of philosophical rambling but enough plot interspersed to keep it moving. I liked the contradictions of the protag and how you can see how they were formed by generational trauma and his upbringing. How all that affects his relationships and how he treats people. Didn’t empathize with him very much but definitely did with the writing. My younger self that actually enjoyed “Catcher in the Rye” in middle school probably would’ve freaked over this book

I feel like I've already reviewed Shampoo Planet because I've reviewed (I think) three other Coupland books. Don't get me wrong, I like Coupland and I like Shampoo Planet. But the Coupland novels I've read hold at least a few common elements:

1) An articulate, hyper-self aware protagonist.
2) His/her messed up but well-intentioned immediate family.
3) A focus on consumer culture and changing technology.
4) Fear of poverty and crappy jobs.

I think I could go on with more common elements, but I'll stop there. Now, and I want to make this clear, if I'm criticizing Coupland for recycling themes, settings, and characters, he gets a slap on the wrist at most. He's good enough to get away with these small crimes, and it's not like other authors don't navigate the same territory over and over again, anyway. I'm tempted to argue that recurring themes fit well with Coupland's nod to disposable culture, but that might be pushing it.

Although the author's books kind of read the same Shampoo Planet is my favorite so far and will probably stick in my memory more than the other three. This novel's ending is much more emotional and surreal than the others'. The varied settings (Paris, L.A., Eastern Washington) keep the storyline and characters moving. If I'm not mistaken Shampoo Planet was Coupland's first post-Generation X (I've not read that one) novel. Assuming he was under pressure to notch another hit, Coupland deserves credit for producing a strong, quick read. His books are perfect for plane rides and summer afternoons. They're thoughtful without requiring intense attention. Coupland writes best paragraph to paragraph, comparing and connecting disparate elements and analogies, seeing more than most observers do in, for example, a depressing, mostly shut down mall. If I were to recommend any Coupland (but remember, I've only read four of his books), I think I'd start with Shampoo Planet. I'm also curious as to why Coupland seems to occupy his own space, if you will, as a writer; he's carved out his own niche better than most, I think, although I've never met anyone who said “My GOD, Doug Coupland is my favorite writer!” I don't believe I've even ever met a huge fan. He's good, though, and perhaps overlooked and pigeonholed because of the Generation X hype. Next summer I'll read another one. And I'll probably remember most of Shampoo Planet, or at least more about it than the other Coupland books I've read.

Andra romanen av Coupland. Här träffar vi Tyler Johnsson som bor med två syskon och sin mor i Lancaster, Washington. Tyler är besatt av schampo och har ett antal olika sorter i sin samling. Han drömmer om att jobba för företaget Bechtol – ett av många företag som hans mor protesterade mot i sin ungdom under hippieåren.

Han har precis rest runt i Europa och har bland annat träffat fransyskan Stephanie som han haft en affär med. En affär han inte berättat något om för sin flickvän Anna-Louise. Några kapitel in får vi reda på att mamma Jasmine har fått ett samtal från två franska tjejer som är på väg för att hälsa på Tyler...

Som i Generation X är det övergripande temat generationsskillnader. Kan tycka att denna är lite mer sammanhängande och utvecklad än sin föregångare, då karaktärerna får större möjlighet att fördjupas.

Jag läste denna ungefär fem år efter att den fått svensk översättning och då var det lätt att känna igen samtiden i boken. Det har nu gått trettio år sedan boken kom ut - nu kan man läsa den som ett dokument över den tidens generationsklyftor, vilket också är värdefullt.

Like DeLillo light. And that's not a fault. I think it's a more accessible White Noise in a lot of ways.

Hilarious satirical compendium of the west coast post-hippie Gen X world.

"On a beach we find clams. Unidentifiable violet berries grow in the scrub beside the beach. How strange to find food just sitting there-unregulated, unhusbanded, inefficient. We look at these items and experience severe difficulty relating to them. "Not the least bit modern," we pronounce."
pg 191

I was really into this book and Microserfs when I was 16 in the early/mid 90s and thought it would be fun to revisit 30 years later. My younger self adored the cool lifestyle of conspicuous consumption and the freedom Tyler enjoys. I used to like the glorification of hair care products and the ironic humour of Tyler and his friends as they interact in the post-industrial landscape surrounding the mysterious Plants. This modern Americana of diners and motels, long drives and fancy cars and malls is always intoxicating to British teenagers.

But now I found it a bit flat. There was some heart in Tyler's self-realisation that he had destroyed his relationship with the saintly Anna-Louise and his acceptance of himself but I was disappointed that after the big focus on environmentalism, he had sold himself to the corporate world of Bechtol. I wondered whether the paper-thin characters of his family and friends were an ironic comment on Tyler's inability to see beyond himself or just quite lazy writing.

The European part of the book was enjoyable but all the capitalised writing of gnomic sentences on dollar bills was infuriating! I also found the short chapters here annoying because I like a lot of description and characterisation. Still, overall it was OK to read and I liked remembering the feelings all those years ago.

I heard about this book in high school and every once in a while I think about it in the context of Gen-X stuff, so I picked it up when I saw it at a used bookstore.

The characters are archetypes, and they live typical lives. It's set in a landscape that's familiar and idealistic in terms of how well it captures a typical experience. This reads as a cynical, cog-in-the-machine worldview. I felt a little bit disconnected from the characters, and it felt like Coupland was telling a story with the intention to accomplish a novel. It's self-reflective of this whole generational malaise, and it felt heavy-handed.

There were nuggets of greatness. Even though she was an antagonistic force in Tyler's life, I thought Stephanie was a catalyst for Tyler's growth. Even though she's presented as a sort of "phase he has to go through" there are moments where she's the most real character in the whole cast. Her statements on class and pleasure during the break-up dinner struck a chord with me, maybe because I have my own memories of a foreign exchange student from France, whose insistence on pleasure in everything from bath products to hiking rocked the boat I was trying to hold steady.
I really hope she didn't get kidnapped by human traffickers in the end, but those guys she was with and the stuff she was saying about passion and her mother... ugh.  
It was interesting to look back at Silicon Valley before the silicon became so ubiquitous that the rest of California died under its weight. I've been to San Francisco a few times in the past couple months, and it's not magical the way it was in the 90s. The world is changing and Tyler's obsession with "modern" looks naive from here. I guess that's not a fault of the book - it's just a snapshot and it reflects the times it captured well.

"This novel is the second novel by Douglas Coupland from what I know and is also probably his ""not up to par"" novel for me so far. I may reread it one day but for now, I am taking it as is. This novel is about two different generations and how they end up working together and of course how they colid against each other. In this one, the generation gap is the 1990s children and their 1960s parents. This is the reading hook for this novel and though it is a good hook it was taken a little too casually to the point that some people will just see it as ""another novel about Generation X"".

The story of six months within Tyler Johnson's life is a very entertaining read I have to agree but it is more of a pilgrimage of discovering oneself over anything that can be believable for person to relate to. Instead it is a step into the head of how the 1990s offspring can see the world and percieve their surroundings and all that happen to them. Events include wild parties right next to Jim Morrison's grave in Paris, France, a wild island in British Columbia, and a freak-filled forest in northern California. This novel explores all the different faucets of the 1990s offspring including raver, fashionista, diva, geek, tree hugger, and even anarchist. I truly loved that part of the novel and found it that was why I kept on reading.

Once again, this is a ""as is"" and ""not up to par"" type novel for me. Though good in its own accord, it doesn't per say stand out compared to Copeland's other novels but it is still a very good novel nevertheless. I suggest this novel as a rental at the library first before puchasing unless you have all of Copeland's books and just want to keep up with the collection."

I love the works of Douglas Coupland anyway, but this is easily one of his top 4 books. There are chapters which could easily be read as parables for the digital age. His style, the individual mindsets of each character and the tone of the novel made for an cathartic trip through millennial America

Six word book review: Interrupting the manufactured life of youth.

An early Coupland (his second novel), I probably didn't pick the best time to read this as a lot of it deals with money worries. In fact, there's a whole 'Down and Out in L.A.' section and—yeah. Bit close to home, that. I don't know if it's the result of my trying to subconsciously distance myself, but this book didn't reach me as much as some of his others; there were sequences I loved, like the bits about 20-year-old protagonist Tyler's trip to Paris, and his visit to Père Lachaise Cemetery (burial place of  Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison, among others, and a place I visited when I was 17), but I couldn't get into it as much as some of Coupland's other books, even the insane ones. However, as is often the case with Coupland's novels, the closing scene is—almost atypically in relation to the rest of the book—beautiful, serene, and moving.