false<![CDATA[Miss Wyoming]]>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167348522m/22305.jpg2230517The eponymous heroine of <I>Miss Wyoming</I> is one Susan Colgate, a teen beauty queen and low-rent soap actress. Dragooned into show business by her demonically pushy, hillbilly mother, Susan has hit rock bottom by the time Douglas Coupland's seventh book begins. But when she finds herself the sole survivor of an airplane crash, this "low-grade onboard celebrity" takes the opportunity to start all over again: <blockquote> She felt like a ghost. She tried to find her bodily remains there in the wreckage and was unable to do so.... Then she was lost in a crowd of local onlookers and trucks, <I>parp</I>ing sirens and ambulances. She picked her way out of the melee and found a newly paved suburban road that she followed away from the wreck into the folds of a housing development. She had survived, and now she needed sanctuary and silence. </blockquote> She's not, of course, the only Hollywood burnout who'd like to vanish into thin air. Her opposite number, a producer of big-budget, no-brainer action flicks named John Johnson, stages a similar disappearing act. After a near-death experience, in the course of which he is treated to a vision of Susan's face, he roams the western badlands. And even after his return to L.A., Johnson is determined to unravel the mystery of this woman's fate.<p> Throughout, Coupland displays his usual gift for capturing the absurdities of modern existence. The distinctive minutiae of our age--junk mail and fast food, sitcoms and Singapore slings, and the "shop fronts bigger and brighter and more powerful than they needed to be"--come to vivid, funny life in this author's hands. And while Susan and John occupy center stage, Coupland is just as generous with his peripheral characters. A scriptwriter and his supernaturally intelligent girlfriend, a recluse who spends his evening generating Internet rumours--all manage to be blessed and cursed, numbed by their pointless existences but full of humanity when put to the test. Picture Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut collaborating on a Tinseltown version of <I>Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance</I> and you come halfway to grasping Coupland's brand of thoughtful, supremely funny storytelling. <I>--Matthew Baylis</I>233531999Miss Wyomingtotal:1626|5:175|4:561|3:641|2:213|1:36|1626550420367430falsefalseThu Dec 11 00:00:00 -0800 2008Thu Dec 11 06:06:40 -0800 2008Thu Dec 11 06:19:27 -0800 2008 "Be my assistants. I need help right now."
There was a pause. Krista said, "I don't know, Mr Johnson."
"No. No. It's not a sex thing. I swear, no sex. You gu...more...]]>
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40falsefalseSat Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006Sun May 10 10:00:41 -0700 2009Tue Sep 01 13:10:06 -0700 20091Pop Culture Trash Coupland Rather than Indie Kid Coupland
Those who know and love his more indie-kid classics such as Generation X Tales for an Accelerated Culture or JPod A Novel may be a little disappointed as there's no interesting footnotes, slogans or other playing with the f...more...]]>
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30falsefalseThu Jun 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009Thu Jun 04 20:08:50 -0700 2009Thu Jun 04 20:10:22 -0700 2009 i think i...more...]]>
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"We're young and in love, John Johnson," Vanessa teased.
"People like you were never young, Vanessa. People like you are born seventy-two, like soft pink surgeon generals."
I love broad, witty, sly, self-impo...more...]]>
40falsefalseTue Oct 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009Sun Oct 04 08:25:57 -0700 2009Tue Oct 20 05:44:44 -0700 2009 It might not be his best, but it's still he...more...]]>
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Microserfs and Generation X. When he's bad, we get wooden novels like Miss Wyoming. MW starts with promise--its characters are D-list celebs who are, like most of Coupland's protagonists, in search of meaning in a culture that encourages...more...]]>
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