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Shampoo Planet
"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 chroni...more
Hardcover, 312 pages
Published
May 1993
by Washington Square Press
(first published 1992)
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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 (b...more
So, I'd heard of Coupland for years, of course. In fact, this book may have made my reading list way back when I was working in the downtown Oakland Waldenbooks around the time the book originally came out. Some things take longer than others to get to.
Coupland, the disaffected young writer who was supposed to be a voice for my generation. Or, well, for people slightly older than me. Or maybe I came in on the edge of Generation X (which will be another topic for another time). Coupland, who intr...more
Coupland, the disaffected young writer who was supposed to be a voice for my generation. Or, well, for people slightly older than me. Or maybe I came in on the edge of Generation X (which will be another topic for another time). Coupland, who intr...more
This book was fantastic. It perfectly captured the mood and aura of the early 90s. Tyler reminded me of a far less pretentious and whiny and more lovable Holden Caulfield. Anna-Louise reminded me, almost scarily, of myself. Coupland has a way of utilizing small, insidious devices to emphasize a certain attitude; an excellent example of this was the copious use of brand-names, each bearing a trademark symbol. I was fascinated by the way Coupland himself, in writing the novel, was so clearly rooti...more
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...more
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...more
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 multina...more
Sadly, not as brilliant as other works of him I've read so far (Microserfs, Player One: What Is to Become of Us, Life After God, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, Generation A.
It's a nice story all right, yet looking for meaning, ideas and concepts that stick with you long after the book was read (which I so dearly love in other Couplands) proved unsuccessful.
It's a nice story all right, yet looking for meaning, ideas and concepts that stick with you long after the book was read (which I so dearly love in other Couplands) proved unsuccessful.
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...more
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...more
Overall, I did enjoy this book because it was an interesting twist in your typical coming of age story. The book follows a young man by the name of Tyler who lived with his woodstock- age living mother and his step father. Tyler is portrayed as a money hungry young man, who although seems to be somewhat upright, makes beautiful realizations about life and the way we act towards it. Throughout Tyler's six months of travel, he experiences life realizations while at the same time moving endlessly f...more
Coupland is a little overly descriptive for my taste. A few well-placed adjectives go a long way, but there is such a thing as over-saturation in my opinion. However, as I got further into the book, the style didn't seem to bother me. I suppose this style communicates the idea of a shallow, materialistic, consumer-driven economy of 1980's and 1990's America.
For the majority of the novel, I despised the narrator (Tyler). I thought he was stupid and weak. But as the novel progressed and he started...more
For the majority of the novel, I despised the narrator (Tyler). I thought he was stupid and weak. But as the novel progressed and he started...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Jun 07, 2009
Noel
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
fans of wes anderson movies, little miss sunshine, etc.
i was continually amazed by how the money-hungry, status-obsessed young man narrating the book managed to come up with these gorgeous, meaningful observations about life...despite being the kind of person who has a vast collection of hair products, frequently says things like "smoking is for poor people," and adores shopping malls. maybe there was supposed to be some kind of irony there- out of the mouths of shallow babes, etc.- but i missed it, and i don't think it was my fault. it's just that...more
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 monst...more
Notable quotes:
"...a portrait of Jasmine, facing the world as she does at this point of her life, utterly frightened by a monst...more
I was looking for Douglas Coupland's first novel, Generation X, to send to my friend, and I couldn't find it. So, I found Coupland's second novel, and flipped through it. It has been 20 years or so since reading this so I don't remember what it really was about. I know Coupland touched on Generation Y, and it was a decent book. Coupland, over the years, is a "hit or miss" author. Some of his works, like Shampoo Planet, are excellent reads. While other books he has done, like Polaroids From the D...more
It took me a long time to read this. Probably because at times it was too profound I didn't know what the point was anymore. Also, some of the deadpans were just... dead, which was a bit surprising because Douglas Coupland is one of the sharpest writers I've read.
But to be fair, it had three saving graces: Tyler Johnson's thirst for the future (or at least, his), his hippie mother Jasmine whose life is too hip for words and Tyler's witty girlfriend Anna-Louise. More, the story will teach (or re...more
But to be fair, it had three saving graces: Tyler Johnson's thirst for the future (or at least, his), his hippie mother Jasmine whose life is too hip for words and Tyler's witty girlfriend Anna-Louise. More, the story will teach (or re...more
I don't think time was good to this book. If I had read it in 1992 when it was published I probably would have enjoyed it more. Tyler is the child of hippie parents who are now divorced, he lives with his mother who is still a hippie and his younger hippie-wanna-be sister. Tyler's dream is to be the CEO of a company that his parents once tried to bomb. Tyler's European fling, Stephanie shows up in town and turns his world upside down.
My problem with the book is that I am so far removed from myse...more
My problem with the book is that I am so far removed from myse...more
This book was written in the early 90s, and Coupland was considered pretty cutting edge at the time (he also wrote Generation X and allegedly coined the term). Some of the ideas in it now seem a little outdated (e.g. the idea that Silicon Valley is the next "big thing" which has obviously come and gone). Nevertheless, as someone who was a teenager in the 90s, I was definitely able to relate and found it to be sort of nostalgic (kind of like watching Reality Bites or the first couple of seasons o...more
Coupland offers a witty book full of observations and pop culture references, with a plot as aimless as its characters are. Like a good chunk of his work, it's a postmodern coming of age story, here contrasting the twentysomethings of the 90s with their prents from the 60s - from hippie to hipster in a single generation. Perhaps like the movies I reviewed at the top of this post, there is a strong sense of exploring what the parent leaves the child. A fun read which contains some elements Coupla...more
Apr 18, 2013
Eddy Allen
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction-and-westerns
Shampoo Planet is the rich and dazzling point where two worlds collide--those of 1960s parents and their 1990s offspring, "Global Teens," the generation after Generation X.
Tyler Johnson is a twenty-year-old MTV child. Once a baby raised in a hippie commune, he now sells fake Chanel T-shirts, collects shampoo and studies hotel/motel management in a small northwest city saddled with a dying mega-mall and a collapsed nuclear industry. An ambitious Reagan Youth, Tyler dreams of escape and a career w...more
Tyler Johnson is a twenty-year-old MTV child. Once a baby raised in a hippie commune, he now sells fake Chanel T-shirts, collects shampoo and studies hotel/motel management in a small northwest city saddled with a dying mega-mall and a collapsed nuclear industry. An ambitious Reagan Youth, Tyler dreams of escape and a career w...more
At this point it's a bit dated but nonetheless a profound coming-of-age read. It's a Catcher in the Rye for the budding digital age, full of wit, sarcasm and deep questions with which to wrestle on topics like authenticity and imitation, nostalgia and change, meeting and defying societal expectations. The author of Generation X, continues to force his characters into confronting the possibility of being part of history's first Lesser Generation, kids who are anxious of having it worse off than t...more
Generally you will be hard pressed to get a bad review of Douglas Coupland out of me. I like his later work better than his earlier but this is certainly a grand exception to the rule. Coupland's characters always have this keen insight into the future of the world, which says a lot about his ability as a writer. I can't help but feel that if I was a young adult in the time that he wrote this book that my conversations would sound a lot like the conversations he writes into his book, perhaps eve...more
3.5 stars:
This was Coupland's 2nd novel, sorta-kinda a sequel to Generation X. This was for the following generation: Generation Y, or what Coupland called Global Kids. This gets a bit confusing, because the lead in Shampoo Planet seems to be the younger brother of the lead from Generation X...or maybe that's making a point right there...
I enjoyed this, but not quite as much as Coupland's other books. It's kind of a transitional novel for him, as it lacks the anger of his first book, but hasn't...more
This was Coupland's 2nd novel, sorta-kinda a sequel to Generation X. This was for the following generation: Generation Y, or what Coupland called Global Kids. This gets a bit confusing, because the lead in Shampoo Planet seems to be the younger brother of the lead from Generation X...or maybe that's making a point right there...
I enjoyed this, but not quite as much as Coupland's other books. It's kind of a transitional novel for him, as it lacks the anger of his first book, but hasn't...more
"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 ca...more
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 d...more
When Coupland talks about the USA I recognise the place. In this book he d...more
Oct 05, 2009
rabbitprincess
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Coupland fans who liked Generation X, Girlfriend in a Coma
Recommended to rabbitprincess by:
dad
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I was looking for something totally different than what I usually read, and found it!
Coupland writes for the generation before mine, his stories full of witticisms that seem dry now that they're over a decade old. I think the generational gap was too close for my comfort - the things that were ironic and sarcastically funny are now too true, imbedded deeply into the fabric of our national consciousness/experience. This makes them not funny anymore, but rather tragic and frightening. It was a lit...more
Coupland writes for the generation before mine, his stories full of witticisms that seem dry now that they're over a decade old. I think the generational gap was too close for my comfort - the things that were ironic and sarcastically funny are now too true, imbedded deeply into the fabric of our national consciousness/experience. This makes them not funny anymore, but rather tragic and frightening. It was a lit...more
This has been my year of Coupland, having already enjoyed his novels Generation X and Miss Wyoming thanks to some recommendations and prodding from my good pal Tami. I can't enthusiastically recommend this one though; it was just okay for me. The characters were typically sharp and interesting, and the dialogue crackles like you'd expect. But the story just isn't that interesting; the characters aren't given a great arc. I found the tongue-in-cheek product name drops and ironic little copyright...more
I tried to read Generation X when I was 13 or so and, frankly, I just didn't get it. I don't think at that age we can truly grasp the bleak future that is a never ending parade of strip malls and McJobs shrouded in a neon disposable culture. Unfortunately another 5 to 10 years make these realities seem all too possible. I'm sure I would get a lot more out of it now, but instead I moved on to Douglas Coupland's sophomore effort Shampoo Planet.
Like all great Canadians, Coupland has a much keener s...more
Like all great Canadians, Coupland has a much keener s...more
Jun 24, 2012
Michelle Cristiani
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
straight-up-novels
As I expected: light, airy, and 20th century. It was just plain enjoyable, but I didn't find it particularly deep....though ironically, line by line, it's full of richness. Coupland is a fantastic writer, tree by tree, but the forest put together just wasn't as enjoyable for me. I'd recommend it, though, because I can't imagine anyone not liking it. It makes me feel that if I'd read more of his work, I'd count him among my favorite authors, but this particular book doesn't rate among my favorite...more
I remember exactly when I read this book: senior year in high school. I worked at a coffee shop and my supervisor recommended it to me. Mostly I thought it was trying-to-hard-to-be-clever bullshit. But I remember 2 random things from the book:
1) playing catch
2) sometimes you have to break down and be alone
That's all I remember. I don't remember the plot, characters, setting, nothing. I don't remember any context for those 2 things, I just remember playing catch and being alone.
1) playing catch
2) sometimes you have to break down and be alone
That's all I remember. I don't remember the plot, characters, setting, nothing. I don't remember any context for those 2 things, I just remember playing catch and being alone.
Guys finds girl, guy finds hotter girl in Europe, guy does stupid things for hotter girl and loses original girl. You can see where this is going. Although the details between are entertaining, the moral, which coupland has become famous for embedding in his books, is obvious. What makes this books good, is that the main character never laments the loss of the first girl. He recognizes what could have been, but understands that it was the cost of experience. Wisdom ultimately has a price.
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Douglas Coupland is Canadian, born on a Canadian Air Force base near Baden-Baden, Germany, on December 30, 1961. In 1965 his family moved to Vancouver, Canada, where he continues to live and work. Coupland has studied art and design in Vancouver, Canada, Milan, Italy and Sapporo, Japan. His first novel, Generation X, was published in March of 1991. Since then he has published nine novels and sever...more
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“Remember: the time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself. Life's cruelest irony.”
—
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“I am going to give you a piece of advice...advice I wish I'd been told in guidance class back in high school, in between the don't-do-acid and don't-drink-and-drive films. I wish our counselors had told us, 'When you grow older a dreadful, horrible sensation will come over you. It's called loneliness, and you think you know what it is now, but you don't. Here is the list of the symptoms, and don't worry—loneliness is the most universal sensation on the planet. Just remember one fact—loneliness will pass. You will survive and you will be a better human for it.”
—
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Nov 28, 2012 02:32am