Once I finished rereading Generation X, I reread Shampoo Planet. I remembered being so disappointed with Douglas Coupland's sophomore effort, especially since I had acquired an autographed copy of the novel. I could not relate to the main character at all. Tyler is the complete opposite of Ethan in Generation X. He believes the path to happiness involves gathering all the comforts--the right hair care products, sleek, modern furniture and audio equipment, a sweet ride and a career with a multinational company based in Seattle. He's serious about his education in Hotel and Hospitality Management, not based on a passion and a desire to learn, but based on what consumer products he can gain as a working professional.
The novel follows Tyler's journey to a realization that happiness lies elsewhere, that happiness isn't about STUFF. But, to me, his character was so off-putting--so unrelatable--that I never particularly cared about his trajectory. ( )

coupland does wonders with English. This one doesn't disappointed. There are some super sharp witty lines in the normal rollercoaster ride of his narratives. ( )

I found it very difficult to relate to the protagonist of this, Coupland's second novel. He leaves his dying town in the desert region of Washington State for a summer of rail travel round Europe and cheats on his girlfriend. He returns to Terminaldeclineville (I fail to remember the name Coupland actually uses) and pretends nothing happened. He bemoans the lack of ambition of just about everybody but drops out of college.

When Coupland talks about the USA I recognise the place. In this book he describes a Europe I've never been to, despite living in Brussels.

Coupland writes in the first person most of the time but his unique imagery, ubiquitous in his novels, makes this character seem like a clone of one of his other characters that suffered a lot of gene damage and didn't come out as a Asperger's Syndrome experiencing computer geek border-line genius - instead as a hotel manager wannabe!

So the protagonist is dull, dim, immoral and drifting through life - then the French Girl arrives. She's so unpleasant even our protagonist doesn't deserve her, but she takes charge of his life, until an unbelievable ending resolves matters. (Think fairy God-mother.)

For me this book was a complete failure, which was unexpected - I've read five other Coupland novels and always got something worthwhile out of them. ( )

This was the fourth of his book that I've read. It was good, although as I find with some of his work it takes a few chapters to get into. His way of speaking in his books is a little...not pretentious, but something along those lines. But I do love his stuff, for his ideas about the world, society & the future. He's a very intelligent author, & I have two more of his books at home to read, & at least two which I've not yet bought. ( )

I couldn't connect to the characters in this book, and it does seem to be very much of it's time and maybe a little obsolete. It's still perfectly readable, but just not the best by one of my favourite authors. ( )