I could, I suppose, be criticizing Shampoo Planet from a narrow Latin American perspective. There is a sense of hyperactive bustle to the narrative, of moving from one conceptual snack to the next, that is probably a mirror of America's culture. Tyler feels the same about Europe. In his search for some sense of selfhood away from his mother's hippy influence and the cracked future of his hometown, he has spent a summer over here. He writes home: 'Europe lacks the possibility of metamorphosis. Europe is like a beautiful baby with super-distinctive features who, while beautiful, is also kind of depressing because you know exactly what the child will look like at twenty, at forty, at ninety-nine. No mystery.' A page later, however, this reasonable analysis has transformed into a less reasonable (and more honest) view that what is wrong with Europe is that its efforts to be modern always flop. What does modern mean? 'France has never heard of Sunday shopping,' Tyler sulks. Looking for mystery, he seeks his fortune in LA (one wonders how he can be so stupid?). His new French girlfriend leaves him. He is by himself, meeting freaks and psychopaths. In an argument with the French girl before she leaves, he says he thinks it's great to be able to reinvent himself every two weeks. He then reinvents himself sufficiently to be able to sell out completely, working for Bechtol, a multinational hotel and leisure corporation. For the rest of the characters I can only feel identify with Tyler and that is basically for his willingness of been successful in live and environmentally aware of the world. After having finished reading this book I will strongly recommend it for any person that ones to view the world from another generation to read Shampoo Planet.