Thursday, January 10, 2008

Shampoo Planet





Quickie recap: Tyler is a 20 year old kid trying to find himself. His 90s sensibilities clash with his hippie mother, but the more physical distance he puts between himself and her, the more he realizes that maybe it's not her choices he has a problem with.


Quickie review: As much as you could argue that this is about a 90s lifestyle and psyche and culture, it also shows a very sad lack thereof. There's a void that Tyler feels even if he can't quite put it into words, but it's palpable. That being said, I still don't like this book. I haven't liked it any of the times I've read, but I keep trying. I want to like it, I want to like Coupland, but with this book, I feel like he just misses the mark. He goes for the easy mark. He drops so many name-brands it leaves you feeling empty. His characters feel more like cartoons of the people they're supposed to be - too obviously weird, too witty, too cool, too geeky. Sure they illustrate a point, but they don't illustrate people, and I guess that's why I find that this novel is just way too cold. I don't connect. I don't know these people.


Quickie recommendation: Not so much.

1 comment:

tort said...

Nice quickie review. :-) But I have to disagree on the last part. I connect with this novel an eerie amount. Not so much the plot as the thoughts and feelings described. So I guess to each his own. Ah, the magic of fiction.