Critical Reception

Critical reaction to Coupland's work has been mixed. Some critics have faulted what they consider his weak plots and characterizations, while others have lauded his portrayals of North American youth and his original dialogue and imagery. Despite the success of Generation X, some commentators have suggested that Shampoo Planet and Life after God are more thematically advanced works. For example, Victor Dwyer has said that Shampoo Planet "shows a maturing writer artfully evoking the hopes and dreams of a generation that has good reason to have little of either," and Wil Blythe has called Life after God "Coupland's most accomplished fiction to date."

Criticism of Coupland by others

The Books Of Douglas Coupland
Doing laundry at the End of History
Douglas Coupland
Five Short Years - Half a Decade of Douglas Coupland
Gen X' author analyzes
On Reading Douglas Coupland
Paper on Coupland and Hornby
Virtual Douglas Coupland
Voice of a Decade

Critical resources in periodicals on him

Canadian Forum, January-February 1993, p.41-42
Esquire, March 1994, p.170-171
Essays on Canadian Writing 58 (1996)
Globe and Mail, September 5, 1992
Maclean's, August 24, 1992, p.60
Minnesota Review, Fall 1992-Winter 1993, p.183-185
New Criterion, April 1994, pp.79-80
New Statesman and Society, May 29, 1992, p.40
New York Times Book Review, May 8, 1994, p.13
Newsweek, January 27, 1992, p.58
Observer, August 7, 1994, p.22
Paragraph, Fall 1994, pp.32-33
People, October 14, 1991, pp.105-106
People, April 25, 1994, pp.31-32
Publishers Weekly, February 1, 1991 p.77
Publishers Weekly, June 15, 1992, p.82
Quill and Quire, February 1994, p.24
Time, October 19, 1992, p.78
Times (London), June 4, 1992, p.6
Times Literary Supplement, February 19, 1993, p.23
USA Today, March 7, 1994, D1-D2
Vanity Fair, March 1994, pp.92, 94
Village Voice Literary Supplement, November 1992, p.25-27