Miss Wyoming: A Novel - Hardcover

Coupland, Douglas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375407340 ISBN 13: 9780375407345

Publisher: Pantheon, 1999

Synopsis

A former beauty-pageant contender turned would-be actress and a filmmaker whose hedonistic world has been turned upside down by a medical crisis shed their former identities to wander Los Angeles in search of true love. 60,000 first printing. Tour.

About this title

Review:

Heroine of this outstanding tale is Miss Wyoming, Susan Colgate, teen beauty-queen and low-rent soap actress. Dragooned into stardom by her demonically pushy, hillbilly mother, Susan's career is at rock-bottom. When she finds herself sole survivor of an air-crash, she views it as her opportunity to vanish, embarking on a voyage of personal discovery.

Meanwhile, John Johnson, debauched star of such Hollywood legends as Bel Air PI², also longs to vanish. After a near-death experience, where he is treated to a vision of Susan's face, he roams the badlands of the western States. Back in L.A., a chance meeting sets him on a mission to unravel the mystery of Susan Colgate.

Coupland has a genius for capturing the absurdities of modern existence and using them as backdrop for a tale of hope and fulfilment. The curses of the cyber-age--junk-mail and web-junkies, fast food, jaded TV weather forecasters--teem around the central story, creating a vivid and darkly funny tale. His peripheral characters are just as richly drawn. 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 co-writing Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and you come halfway to grasping Coupland's uniquely funny and thoughtful brand of storytelling. --Matthew Baylis

Review:

‘Picture Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut collaborating on a Tinseltown version of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and you come halfway to grasping Coupland’s brand of thoughtful, supremely funny storytelling.’
amazon.com

‘If Kerouac had been a couch potato, this is the kind of book he might have written.’
New York Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Pantheon
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0375407340
• ISBN 13: 9780375407345
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320