This is
Coupland's most powerful and technically accomplished novel to date.
Intersecting twin flash-back narratives is pretty hard to pull off.
But here there's
no feeling that I was just getting interested
in this
character and then suddenly we're hearing from someone else.
There is a clear progression and improvement
from the ultra-Zeitgeisty Generation X through Microserfs (which
is nerdy fun but has an incredibly weak ending) and Girlfriend in a Coma
(ambitious millenial angst and references to the Smiths) to the virtually flawless Wyoming.
If one were to critcise Coupland it would have to be his predilection
for ambiguity-free, fully-resolved endings.
But in the case of Miss Wyoming this would be churlish in the extreme given its fascinating insightful dissection of the contemporary American celebrity culture.
The book is full of interesting similies but my favourite has got to
be his likening of a plane crash to the sculpture outside corporate buildings.