Shampoo Planet

by Douglas Coupland

Book Overview

From the author of Generation X comes a visionary first novel about today's 20-something generation and their baby boom parents. A 20-year-old, tree-hugging Reagan youth with a "shampoo museum" in his bathroom deals with love and loss and forges a much-needed style of common sense for life.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671755056
• ISBN13: 9780671755058
• Release Date: September 1992
• Publisher: Atria Books
• Length: 299 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.9" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Witty, Humorous, and Fun!

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 an

Witty & unromanticized view of "now" & where we're heading

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.

Shampoo Planet: A Portray of Consciousness

If I have to describe Shampoo Planet in one single phrase, I will say that it is an exciting journey to the inner world of thoughts of a want-to-be-yuppie man. Douglas Coupland's work is extraordinary because he accomplishes by means of the plot, the creation of an image, which reflects the way of thinking of two different generations that got to get along: the hippies and the yuppies -represented by the characters of Jasmine and Tyler respectively. His humorous and easy-going style is a useful instrument to understand what is going on in the mind of the characters. The noun-phrase descriptions let the readers practically feel the characters' experiences. Through the entire novel, one can be able to discover all the expectations and difficulties that they have and even one can identify oneself with them. Reading Shampoo Planet is an opportunity to enter other people's minds and it gives you the delight of a whole world of reflections. In my opinion, every word in this novel becomes an art that portrays consciousness. Read it!

Welcome to Reality

This book is the quinessential look into the values and zietgeist of the 1990s. Coupland's brilliant use of the aging hippie mother, Jasmine, who used to protest the same companies her son wishes to work for, against Jasmine's neo-hippie daughter shows how the youth of today is too paralyzed to create their own world and are obsessed with recreating decades past. As a college student, Shampoo Planet is the one book that I can always turn to to show that the disillusionment, warped priorities, and overall sadness of America today is not just all in my head. Coupland's metaphors are twisted and ridiculously effective. Have a pen handy because you'll be underlining and quoting this book like crazy.

You'll Either Love This Book or Hate It.

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.