Miss Wyoming

Ted Thring is a book reviewer for the Queen’s University radio
station.

Hollywood is the principal setting of Douglas Coupland’s eighth novel.
The titular heroine, Susan Colgate, is a former winner of a Miss
Teenager contest. When her subsequent movie and TV career is waning, she
is involved in airplane crash. She walks away from the crash site and
disappears, leaving the world, and especially her mother, to wonder
about her fate.

Following the crash, the narrative shifts back and forth between
Susan’s earlier life, her vagabond year, and her reappearance. Among
the characters we meet are Susan’s ambitious mother, Marilyn, who
drives her daughter relentlessly in her pursuit of beauty-contest fame;
John Johnson, a movie producer whose career is in decline; Dreama, a
lesbian numerologist; and Vanessa, a computer whiz. These and other
equally strange characters are mixed up in a bizarre and fast-paced plot
that is confusing at times. Of particular interest is the relationship
between Susan and Marilyn, a relationship marked by Susan’s rebellion
and her later revenge for all the years of being manipulated.

All in all, an amusing and entertaining look at contemporary Hollywood.