I spent this Sunday afternoon being lazy and finishing Douglas Coupland's 'Miss Wyoming'. As the story played out and about 50 pages to it's conclusion a passage about life struck me, ".... when you grow up these days, you're told you're going to have four or five different careers during your lifetime. But what they don't tell you is that you're also going to be four or five different people along the way. In five years I won't be me anymore. I'll be some new [person] .... Probably wiser and more corrupt....using words like 'cassoulet' or 'sublime.' ... I have to do [things] now---act quickly, I mean---because the current version of me is ebbing away. ...  Read the complete review

Douglas Copeland is apparently something of a cult writer and it is possible that I should have started my acquaintanceship with his opus from another book - like `Girlfriend in a Coma` or `Microserfs`. Nevertheless it was `Miss Wyoming` that I read recently and I have to say that it left me somehow unimpressed. I can`t say I didn`t enjoy it - it was a decent read by all means and I liked playing with it. But it wasn`t `my` book and neither it was good enough to leave me in awe despite not moving any strings in my heart. But I guess I should start justifying my judgements. The novel has two main protagonists: John Johnson, a 37 year old (but with mental age ...  Read the complete review

If you've read Coupland before, and you took to it like me, then you won't be dissapointed by this book, the intelligence and melding of science fact with emotion is just as good (if not better) than ever. The general theme of the book is similar to a lot of his others, basically escaping from day to day mundane life, but this time, the book feels a lot more grown up, bigger, weightier, once i was into reading it, i found i didn't miss the quirkier stylisms of his earlier books like 'microserfs' variants in typography. It feels like coupland's promise has come of age, blending facts with fiction and feelings. It is a very ...  Read the complete review