Shampoo Planet : Shampoo Planet

Rating:
Summary: Lighten up
Review: A weak plot held together by an endless string of self absorbed commentary about the shallow values of the nineties and their effect on young people and the future of this country. Lighten up, Dougie, it's not that bad.

Rating:
Summary: Witty, Humorous, and Fun!
Review: Douglas Coupland definitely has an amazing way with words and a knowledge of the conundrum felt by those in their late teens and early twenties. Parents simply don't understand. How could they? They are from a different era. A simpler era. What do they know of the current zeitgeist? Such is the thought process of so many youngsters trying to find their place and discover their purpose in a world overwrought with technology and consumerism. Thus, such are the thought processes of Tyler and his odd array of peers in this amazing novel. Can Tyler and his mother find some way to work out their differences, and is there some lesson to be learned from a washed up hippie?

Shampoo Planet begins with Tyler's mother, Jasmine, waking up to find the word "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" written across her forehead. From this point forth, Jasmine and Tyler both set sail on a roller coaster ride of self-discovery, seeking to reclaim their self-worth from a new perspective. From the small, cozy town of Lancaster, Washington, in which many suffer from the closing of "the Plants," Tyler branches out seeking what else life has to offer. Using his ambition as his fuel, Tyler aims towards escape from the mundane.

We learn of Tyler's trip to Europe, during which he met an opportunistic French girl named Stephanie, and from whom he will learn to appreciate the past. Once Tyler returns home, we are introduced to his sister Daisy, who seems eager to escape the present by living vicariously with her boyfriend through her mother's days as a hippie. Tyler's now-ex-step-father, Dan, would rather create false realities than face his true existence. Tyler's grandparents have lost their money and are trying desperately to regain their societal stature by becoming involved in a pyramid scheme. We also learn of Tyler's post-feminist girlfriend, Anna-Louise, whose aim is to help Tyler get through college and achieve his dream of becoming a big-wig for a large corporation, and whom Tyler seems unwilling or incapable of acknowledging the fact that she has an eating disorder.

Tyler later reconnects with his summer fling, Stephanie, who, after stirring up controversy between Anna-Louise and Tyler, convinces him to venture to California in attempt to "make it big" as a photographer. On the way south, Tyler pays an uncomfortable visit to his estranged biological father. Once in Hollywood, Tyler realizes that the "good life" isn't easily handed to you on a silver platter.

Though Tyler and his friends are living in a time of modernity and seemingly shallow introversion, where "what's on top of your head says what's inside your head," there is really more to them than meets the eye. Disillusioned by magazines and television into believing a romanticized version of the future exists, one in which people really do get what they want and are actually happy with mere material possessions, Tyler clearly has a lot to learn.

Coupland's writing is chock full of witty banter and intelligent, humorous analogies that make for a highly entertaining read for those of any generation. The cast of well-rounded, realistic characters is simply unforgettable. Coupland has several good points to get across and he knows how to do so in a way that is easily accessible, extremely fun, and profoundly lighthearted. This is definitely not the last Coupland book I will pick up. Very highly recommended!

"Clean hair; clean body; clean mind; clean life. You could become famous at any moment and your whole personal history could be unearthed. And then what would they find? Turn on the shower" (Coupland, 133).

Rating:
Summary: Great Beach Read
Review: Douglas Coupland is not an acquired taste: you will like him or you won't. His pages are crammed with pop culture references and the musings of twentysomething malcontents. But if you like him, you will love this one, his best. It pulls you in from page one. He is also surprisingly serious underneath the banter, witness expecially two followng books, "Life without God" and "Girlfriend in a Coma." A great discovery.

Rating:
Summary: Life after shampoo
Review: Douglas Coupland made his biggest mark on literature with "Generation X," a witty satire on the jaded "Gen-Xers." This time, we have one instead of several, but Coupland's writing might be even tighter because of that. Witty, unpredictable and full of Coupland's little flickers of bitterness and sweetness.

Things start to go awry when ex-hippie Jasmice wakes up with "divorce" written on her forehead. Ambitious twenty-year-old Tyler is a living anti-hippie, devoted to hair-care, sleek technology and big corporations. He considers Jasmine the living figure of sixties idiocy, but he consoles his mother about her rotten husband's departure.

As he comforts Jasmine, he contemplates his own life, his sweet girlfriend Anna Louise, and his oddball family, which was based in a weird hippie commune when he was little. Things in Tyler's life are disrupted when the haughty Stephanie, a summer fling, comes to visit -- and stay. Tyler travels with his fling-turned-new-girlfriend to California, but finds himself more alone than he has ever been before.

In this book, Coupland takes a look at a small group of people -- young, intelligent college graduates who aren't sure whether to follow their dreams, or chain themselves to a big corporation. Don't worry -- it's not half as boring as it sounds. Coupland keeps the book vibrant with snotty Europeans, scraggly ex-hippies and the offspring they drive crazy.

Theme aside, Coupland has a way of tugging at the heartstrings, without becoming really sentimental, and reminds us that "the time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself." His writing is sharp, solid and strangely evocative of a split world: half sand candles and flowers, half leather furniture and big-screen TVs. And he has a unique sense of humor -- he doesn't make readers really laugh, but just exposes the absurd side of things.

Tyler starts off superficial and rather snotty, and he spends much of the book doing the wrong thing. But Coupland makes him grow up slowly, making him see the worth of people he thought were freakish before. Not to mention his long-suffering girlfriend Anna Louise, who is obviously The Girl for Tyler. Jasmine is a very real portrait of an aging hippie -- full of life and sweetness, yet incredibly naive.

Douglas Coupland's "Shampoo Planet" tackles some of the same turf as "Generation X," yet it gets more intimate and sweet than his first novel did. Remember -- what's on top of your head does not say what's inside your head.

Rating:
Summary: Benetton Teens In A Decayed World
Review: Douglas Coupland's follow-up to the "yuppie-busting" book, Generation X, has a heart of it's own and message devised through hip words and a journey for self-discovery. The book is about 20-year-old Tyler Johnson, who lives in the poor town of Lancaster, with his hippie mom, Jasmine, and his girlfriend, Anne-Louise. He's majoring in hotel management at the community college, while dreaming of wealth and wondering which hair product he should wear that day. The story is written perfectly, in a sardonic "teenty" voice, talking about things that happened in the past six months.

The book is meant to talk about the generation after Gen-X, which would be what scientists and researchers today call "Gen-Y" or "The Millenial Generation." Douglas Coupland predicted a lot of our qualities (materialism, mall-ratting, computer-savvyness) but made his character's too old. I don't wanna rag on Douglas, because this book rocks (I'm 14 so I'm Gen-Y), but if Tyler says, "My memories began with Ronald Reagan" then he must be talking about the kid sisters and brothers of Gen-X because Gen-Y was just born in 1982, a time when at five, they would've seen Reagan's end and Bush, Sr.'s beginning. Tyler is 20 in 1992, so that would mostly be of the tale-ends of Gen-X (born in 1972).

This book is a satire, so Douglas wasn't trying to be really accurate. He called them "Benetton Teens" because of the colorful attitudes that they have. This book is truly a classic and belongs and some kind of summer reading list.

Rating:
Summary: Benetton Teens In A Decayed World
Review: Douglas Coupland's follow-up to the "yuppie-busting" book, Generation X, has a heart of it's own and message devised through hip words and a journey for self-discovery. The book is about 20-year-old Tyler Johnson, who lives in the poor town of Lancaster, with his hippie mom, Jasmine, and his girlfriend, Anne-Louise. He's majoring in hotel management at the community college, while dreaming of wealth and wondering which hair product he should wear that day. The story is written perfectly, in a sardonic "teenty" voice, talking about things that happened in the past six months.

The book is meant to talk about the generation after Gen-X, which would be what scientists and researchers today call "Gen-Y" or "The Millenial Generation." Douglas Coupland predicted a lot of our qualities (materialism, mall-ratting, computer-savvyness) but made his character's too old. I don't wanna rag on Douglas, because this book rocks (I'm 14 so I'm Gen-Y), but if Tyler says, "My memories began with Ronald Reagan" then he must be talking about the kid sisters and brothers of Gen-X because Gen-Y was just born in 1982, a time when at five, they would've seen Reagan's end and Bush, Sr.'s beginning. Tyler is 20 in 1992, so that would mostly be of the tale-ends of Gen-X (born in 1972).

This book is a satire, so Douglas wasn't trying to be really accurate. He called them "Benetton Teens" because of the colorful attitudes that they have. This book is truly a classic and belongs and some kind of summer reading list.

Rating:
Summary: You'll Either Love This Book or Hate It.
Review: I personally loved it, but I'll admit there are some people out there who have a hard time grooving on it. Coupland has an incredible way of stating things that you didn't even realize you were feeling because you've locked those thoughts too deeply inside yourself. He pulls these things out into the light and lets you get a good look at them. Shampoo Planet is perhaps not as mainstream as Microserfs and not as likely to hit you in the pit of your stomach as Life After God, but it's my favorite of his books because it's so well written. Don't read the general reviews of it; they don't tell you enough about what the story is ABOUT. As someone on the young edge of Gen-X, I can totally relate to the main character Tyler, as he tries to work out who he is and where he belongs. It's a great book.

Rating:
Summary: A Winner!
Review: The question that seems to burn in the mind of Douglas Coupland is "What Will the future of the world be like?" Unlike most authors who see a future of progress, Coupland tends to favor a future of regression. We live in a consumer's world -- a world with 100 different types of shampoo to choose from. And we buy, not the best, but the best advertised. Are we even able to think for ourselves anymore, or are we becoming a slave to the degenerating devices of modernity?

SHAMPOO PLANET is set in the early '90s. The small town of Lancaster, Washington, is beginning to shrivel into near-oblivion after the "plants" close down. The once-rich now live in RVs, stripped of their wealth. No one has a job, but no one leaves. The mall only has a few stores left open. The town is dying.

The past seems more promising than the future, so Tyler leaves the town in search of the past. He travels around Europe, only to find that the young people there have become complacent and content to party by night and take jobs as civil servants by day. History seems more exciting and progressive than the impending future of Generation Xers.

Tyler returns to Lancaster but then leaves again in search of his own past. He travels to the small island in Canada where he was born in a commune to hippie parents. All that is left to suggest that the island was once inhabited is a crumbling stone chimney. All other signs of human habitation have rusted and rotted, returning to the earth.

He then travels to California to seek his fortune. Like everyone else around him, he struggles to make it and finds himself only a-day-at-a-fast-food-restaurant away from being on the streets. He's working just to survive so that he can go back to work another day.

Coupland sees a future where consumerism leads to shallow existence. Perhaps we are regressing back to a a new series dark ages rather than progressing. Here's a bit of food-for-though from the book:...P>Coupland has, once again, written a witty and thought-provoking novel that gives a candid and un-romanticized view of what the present looks like and where it could be leading us. For the sake of humanity, I hope that he's wrong.

Rating:
Summary: hyped up and nowhere to go
Review: the title of my review says it all.

Rating:
Summary: Very Nicely Done Trip With 20-somethings!
Review: This is a very fine multi-generational tour with the junior college crowd in the town of Lancaster, Wa., with stops in Paris, Vancouver, and LA. A very funny ride that you'll breeze through! We go thru half-vanished malls, trailor parks, grandfathers busted in bad real estate deals who sell multilevel cat food, a very loving ex-hippie mother, and a vacuous stepfather, and other eccentrics of all ages. Well worth the ride and the time!