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Hey Nostradamus!
Pregnant and secretly married, Cheryl Anway scribbles what becomes her last will and testament on a school binder shortly before a rampaging trio of misfit classmates gun her down in a high school cafeteria. Overrun with paranoia, teenage angst, and religious zeal in the massacre's wake, this sleepy suburban neighborhood declares its saints, brands its demons, and moves on. But for a handful of people still reeling from that horrific day, life remains permanently derailed. Four dramatically different characters tell their stories: Cheryl, who calmly narrates her own death; Jason, the boy no one knew was her husband, still marooned ten years later by his loss; Heather, the woman trying to love the shattered Jason; and Jason's father, Reg, whose rigid religiosity has separated him from nearly everyone he loves. Hey Nostradamus! is an unforgettable portrait of people wrestling with spirituality and with sorrow and its acceptance.
244 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
About the author
Douglas Coupland
85books4,538followersDouglas Coupland is Canadian, born on a Canadian Air Force base near Baden-Baden, Germany, on December 30, 1961. In 1965 his family moved to Vancouver, Canada, where he continues to live and work. Coupland has studied art and design in Vancouver, Canada, Milan, Italy and Sapporo, Japan. His first novel,Generation X,was published in March of 1991. Since then he has published nine novels and several non-fiction books in 35 languages and most countries on earth. He has written and performed for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, England, and in 2001 resumed his practice as a visual artist, with exhibitions in spaces in North America, Europe and Asia. 2006 marks the premiere of the feature film Everything's Gone Green, his first story written specifically for the screen and not adapted from any previous work. A TV series (13 one-hour episodes) based on his novel,jPodpremieres on the CBC in January, 2008.
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Retrieved 07:55, May 15, 2008, fromhttp://www.coupland.com/coupland_bio....
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Retrieved 07:55, May 15, 2008, fromhttp://www.coupland.com/coupland_bio....
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 773 reviews
August 19, 2020
Disappointing. More so for the second half of the book; which veers off in another direction, that the first. Four narrative voices make up the novel, with the theme being the aftershock of a Columbine High School style massacre. Trouble is, with something this serious and deep, Coupland doesn't really go anywhere with it. The highlight for me being two of the narrators: Young Canadian lovers Cheryl & Jason, getting hitched in Las Vegas. I mean, what's not to like about that? This feels like a big shift for the Canadian writer, as gone are the ironic posturings, pop-cultural references, and exaggerated zany characters, with something; dare I say it - more philosophical. There is a harrowing, slow-motion account of the school massacre, and we are remorselessly guided through events, interpreted by the victims as a simple firecracker prank. Couldn't help but think of Gus Van Sant's film Elephant at this point. There is a religious element to the novel too, with a Christian group called Youth Alive! But when turning an eye more in this direction, Coupland's exploration leads to the story losing its focus. What I'd read by him so far felt quite sharp, with some really impressive comic set pieces. This is less goofy and more profound, but overall it just felt rather blunt to me: this after a pretty decent start.
February 27, 2021
Original Sin in British Columbia
Original Sin is real. It’s called language, especially language badly used. Sometimes this sin is redeemed by the beautiful, or startling, or at least interesting, use of language in fiction.Hey Nostradamusis an instance of entirely unredeemed original sin, an example of writing because one can write with nothing much to write about. Perhaps that’s the author’s point, the vacuity of life in Vancouver.
What starts as a YA account of her death by a naive teenage religious fundamentalist turns into a bizarre story of Canadian Noir. The bleak side of Vancouver’s smug suburban calm is the central topic. Although a Canadian city, Vancouver is culturally part of the American Pacific Rim, more like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles than Calgary, Toronto and Quebec. Not a twin but an analog, something with the same general features but a particular identity. Or as religious people say: a soul.
Vancouver has the same chain restaurants as the cities further South, the same automobiles, the same adverts, and the same crumby motels. It faces the Orient with its back to the mountains and the biggest highways run South not East. The Union Jack and the Confederate Stars and Bars are analogous, both designating distinctions with subliminal power. Its snobbery is all West Coast. Even though it thinks itself special, it’s really only Orange County in the rain.
Nevertheless, according to Coupland, Vancouverites are particularly strange folk. High school kids elope to Las Vegas; a man agrees to impregnate his sister-in-law hours after his brothers death (but only in Las Vegas!); the sister-in-law casually commits murder to conceal the conspiracy (once again Las Vegas, the safety valve for all West Coast cities); the man himself disappears, so his girlfriend (not his sister-in-law, pay attention) goes in search of... well not him but his analog who is understandably upset at being ‘found’ (not in Las Vegas surprisingly but in Portland, an analogous city).
What appears to be a constant among these characters is an obsession with self-expression. They all feel compelled to write - about a high school massacre, religious hypocrisy, vague international drug deals, counterfeiting, gangland revenge, the search for the mythical Sasquatch, a phoney psychic who knows about running a good scam, and the psychic’s mark who, incredibly, participates in it.
These epistolary adventures have no real narrative connection with each other. Each occurs and is then left hanging as a fact the reader is meant to absorb and forget. Each narrator refers to him or herself largely in the third person. Obviously they are all the author in not very convincing incognito. Equally obviously, the adventures are not his own. What then is the subject of this fiction? Ah yes, the city, the city whose uniqueness apparently lies in its particularly weird residents, none of whom are particularly believable... or interesting. Too bad about Vancouver’s lack of soul.
Original Sin is real. It’s called language, especially language badly used. Sometimes this sin is redeemed by the beautiful, or startling, or at least interesting, use of language in fiction.Hey Nostradamusis an instance of entirely unredeemed original sin, an example of writing because one can write with nothing much to write about. Perhaps that’s the author’s point, the vacuity of life in Vancouver.
What starts as a YA account of her death by a naive teenage religious fundamentalist turns into a bizarre story of Canadian Noir. The bleak side of Vancouver’s smug suburban calm is the central topic. Although a Canadian city, Vancouver is culturally part of the American Pacific Rim, more like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles than Calgary, Toronto and Quebec. Not a twin but an analog, something with the same general features but a particular identity. Or as religious people say: a soul.
Vancouver has the same chain restaurants as the cities further South, the same automobiles, the same adverts, and the same crumby motels. It faces the Orient with its back to the mountains and the biggest highways run South not East. The Union Jack and the Confederate Stars and Bars are analogous, both designating distinctions with subliminal power. Its snobbery is all West Coast. Even though it thinks itself special, it’s really only Orange County in the rain.
Nevertheless, according to Coupland, Vancouverites are particularly strange folk. High school kids elope to Las Vegas; a man agrees to impregnate his sister-in-law hours after his brothers death (but only in Las Vegas!); the sister-in-law casually commits murder to conceal the conspiracy (once again Las Vegas, the safety valve for all West Coast cities); the man himself disappears, so his girlfriend (not his sister-in-law, pay attention) goes in search of... well not him but his analog who is understandably upset at being ‘found’ (not in Las Vegas surprisingly but in Portland, an analogous city).
What appears to be a constant among these characters is an obsession with self-expression. They all feel compelled to write - about a high school massacre, religious hypocrisy, vague international drug deals, counterfeiting, gangland revenge, the search for the mythical Sasquatch, a phoney psychic who knows about running a good scam, and the psychic’s mark who, incredibly, participates in it.
These epistolary adventures have no real narrative connection with each other. Each occurs and is then left hanging as a fact the reader is meant to absorb and forget. Each narrator refers to him or herself largely in the third person. Obviously they are all the author in not very convincing incognito. Equally obviously, the adventures are not his own. What then is the subject of this fiction? Ah yes, the city, the city whose uniqueness apparently lies in its particularly weird residents, none of whom are particularly believable... or interesting. Too bad about Vancouver’s lack of soul.
December 26, 2021
A school's 'religious clique' gets caught up on the wrong side of a school shooting massacre, andthis book tells the story of the shooting and how it impacted on the lives and families of two of the clique, who it turned out were secretly married!
Four narrators tell their stories mostly in search for meaning or understanding of the massacre. I found this a pretty gripping read from the start, at times tough at other times hard, but all done subtlety. This book gets a an M for Meaning of life - it may not provide the answers, but it asks the right questions. 7 out of 12
2018 read
Four narrators tell their stories mostly in search for meaning or understanding of the massacre. I found this a pretty gripping read from the start, at times tough at other times hard, but all done subtlety. This book gets a an M for Meaning of life - it may not provide the answers, but it asks the right questions. 7 out of 12
2018 read
February 6, 2017
"The heart of a man is like deep water."
Oh wow, what a novel! It's really no accident when novels become international bestsellers.
I'm at risk of sounding like a clichéd critic, but screw it:
Hey Nostradamus!is at times wickedly hilarious, stunningly poignant, and utterly tragic. And I don't use those words lightly. I don't say something is hilarious unless I've laughed, and I often laughed aloud while reading this. If you enjoy a witty and sarcastic (sometimes dark) humour, then you'd enjoy this book. On being poignant and tragic, I shed a few tears, especially at the end. Books rarely draw tears out of me.
Coupland was inspired to write this in part due to the tragedy that was Columbine. I think he wrote this brilliantly and in no way compromised the memory of the real massacre that happened in that school. And today, as regular mass shootings happen, this book is as relevant as ever.
This book is fantastic literature. But for anyone who is intimidated by literature, this book should be a must read. Coupland is a great writer and his style is smooth. This novel reads like a thriller at times; there are twists (and one big surprise in there...) that kept the pages turning.
I think Coupland also really tapped into a nerve here. He really understands the human condition. In all of these characters he shows that every person has varying degrees of cynicism. I enjoyed the honesty. I enjoyed that Coupland showed humans don't always have that happy redeeming quality we like to think exists, but that sometimes there are plights that are unbearable, and which we never truly overcome. The mind is fragile, and sometimes when it breaks into a million pieces, it's impossible to put back together wholly.
He explores the role of religion in our lives, especially in the aftermath of tragedy. I'm personally not religious, but I can well understand how it might be comforting to turn to outside comfort during unbearable situations, or even in everyday life. I can also understand turning against religion when it seems not to provide the right answers. Coupland shows both angles here. I liked this because you never get the impression that the author has a particular agenda.
I've got only one criticism. This book was written in first person, which is fine (Coupland does this brilliantly, which few can do, I feel). What I think Coupland might have benefited from would have been changing the tone and vocabulary of the individual characters. The book is split into the narratives of four different people, yet they allsoundedthe same. In particular, Reg's voice could have been altered a bit. Reg himself admits that he doesn't have a large vocab, but he sounds as intelligent and verbose as the others. Oh well, this is really a minor thing. It's easy enough to overlook if you are reading without the intention of reviewing afterwards.
5 stars. Great literature, thrilling read. As good a fictional account of the human condition as you'll ever read. I'd recommend this to you. I'm also looking forward to reading another Coupland novel.
Oh wow, what a novel! It's really no accident when novels become international bestsellers.
I'm at risk of sounding like a clichéd critic, but screw it:
Hey Nostradamus!is at times wickedly hilarious, stunningly poignant, and utterly tragic. And I don't use those words lightly. I don't say something is hilarious unless I've laughed, and I often laughed aloud while reading this. If you enjoy a witty and sarcastic (sometimes dark) humour, then you'd enjoy this book. On being poignant and tragic, I shed a few tears, especially at the end. Books rarely draw tears out of me.
Coupland was inspired to write this in part due to the tragedy that was Columbine. I think he wrote this brilliantly and in no way compromised the memory of the real massacre that happened in that school. And today, as regular mass shootings happen, this book is as relevant as ever.
This book is fantastic literature. But for anyone who is intimidated by literature, this book should be a must read. Coupland is a great writer and his style is smooth. This novel reads like a thriller at times; there are twists (and one big surprise in there...) that kept the pages turning.
I think Coupland also really tapped into a nerve here. He really understands the human condition. In all of these characters he shows that every person has varying degrees of cynicism. I enjoyed the honesty. I enjoyed that Coupland showed humans don't always have that happy redeeming quality we like to think exists, but that sometimes there are plights that are unbearable, and which we never truly overcome. The mind is fragile, and sometimes when it breaks into a million pieces, it's impossible to put back together wholly.
He explores the role of religion in our lives, especially in the aftermath of tragedy. I'm personally not religious, but I can well understand how it might be comforting to turn to outside comfort during unbearable situations, or even in everyday life. I can also understand turning against religion when it seems not to provide the right answers. Coupland shows both angles here. I liked this because you never get the impression that the author has a particular agenda.
I've got only one criticism. This book was written in first person, which is fine (Coupland does this brilliantly, which few can do, I feel). What I think Coupland might have benefited from would have been changing the tone and vocabulary of the individual characters. The book is split into the narratives of four different people, yet they allsoundedthe same. In particular, Reg's voice could have been altered a bit. Reg himself admits that he doesn't have a large vocab, but he sounds as intelligent and verbose as the others. Oh well, this is really a minor thing. It's easy enough to overlook if you are reading without the intention of reviewing afterwards.
5 stars. Great literature, thrilling read. As good a fictional account of the human condition as you'll ever read. I'd recommend this to you. I'm also looking forward to reading another Coupland novel.
June 23, 2011
Warning: Do not read this while depressed.
My primary coping mechanism whilst depressed is reading. But picking up a random work from the stack of 200 or so unread books isn't gonna do the job. The book has to be undemanding in terms effort to read and preferably plot-driven and gripping. James Blish was my go-to author in this circumstance for many years but I've read all his novels too many times in recent years. Ditto a number of other authors who I know would fit the bill. Which leads back to the unread pile and taking a bit of a risk. Hence Douglas Coupland who has only let me down once in half a dozen or so books and has always been fairly compelling. Now, across all the books I've read by Coupland, the general themes have remained constant; how to cope with a modern world that isolates people and offers no automatic purpose in life. The reason this hasn't become boring or tiresome is that he seems to come at the question from an at least slightly different angle each time, his answers aren't always the same (if he gives any in that particular book) and the general tone and mood varies too. So in Generation X we are offered, run away to Mexico, as a solution. In Microserfs, make virtual Lego (or is that Jpod?) or more seriously, work for yourself, not some giant inhuman corporation. In Miss Wyoming, running away doesn't work - so Generation X turns out not to have the right answer after all. And so on. Some of these are post-modern and ironic, even openly comic e.g. Generation X and Jpod. Others are more or less earnest, like Eleanor Rigby and Miss Wyoming. And here's the risk - some are really upbeat and others are not. This one also shows Coupland's great skill with first person voice character-creation.
So Hey Nostradamus! Starts with a school shooting massacre obviously intended to be reminiscent of the Columbine incident and then gallops off into a discussion of religion, redemption, despair, forgiveness and how parents can screw up their children. The plot is gripping but in retrospect completely preposterous and goes off in directions I would never have guessed. The protagonists have various fates and one is left to sift through the aftermath and try to figure out what, if anything, Coupland is saying about Christianity. It's no straightforward thumbs up or thumbs down. And the outcome for some people is optimistic, for others - well - don't read this book if you are depressed.
My primary coping mechanism whilst depressed is reading. But picking up a random work from the stack of 200 or so unread books isn't gonna do the job. The book has to be undemanding in terms effort to read and preferably plot-driven and gripping. James Blish was my go-to author in this circumstance for many years but I've read all his novels too many times in recent years. Ditto a number of other authors who I know would fit the bill. Which leads back to the unread pile and taking a bit of a risk. Hence Douglas Coupland who has only let me down once in half a dozen or so books and has always been fairly compelling. Now, across all the books I've read by Coupland, the general themes have remained constant; how to cope with a modern world that isolates people and offers no automatic purpose in life. The reason this hasn't become boring or tiresome is that he seems to come at the question from an at least slightly different angle each time, his answers aren't always the same (if he gives any in that particular book) and the general tone and mood varies too. So in Generation X we are offered, run away to Mexico, as a solution. In Microserfs, make virtual Lego (or is that Jpod?) or more seriously, work for yourself, not some giant inhuman corporation. In Miss Wyoming, running away doesn't work - so Generation X turns out not to have the right answer after all. And so on. Some of these are post-modern and ironic, even openly comic e.g. Generation X and Jpod. Others are more or less earnest, like Eleanor Rigby and Miss Wyoming. And here's the risk - some are really upbeat and others are not. This one also shows Coupland's great skill with first person voice character-creation.
So Hey Nostradamus! Starts with a school shooting massacre obviously intended to be reminiscent of the Columbine incident and then gallops off into a discussion of religion, redemption, despair, forgiveness and how parents can screw up their children. The plot is gripping but in retrospect completely preposterous and goes off in directions I would never have guessed. The protagonists have various fates and one is left to sift through the aftermath and try to figure out what, if anything, Coupland is saying about Christianity. It's no straightforward thumbs up or thumbs down. And the outcome for some people is optimistic, for others - well - don't read this book if you are depressed.
July 3, 2018
I had no idea what this book was when I started reading it so I can't say I was expecting great things, I wasn't expecting anything really.
I didn't enjoy this book. Even though it was written from different points of view which is my fav format.
I didn't like any of the characters or their opinions or what they did.
I hated Jason. He simply annoyed me the most.
And I enjoyed Part 3 with Heather chasing up Allison. That was more interesting than the entire book in general.
Easy read, didn't take me long but wished I used the time for something else.
I didn't enjoy this book. Even though it was written from different points of view which is my fav format.
I didn't like any of the characters or their opinions or what they did.
I hated Jason. He simply annoyed me the most.
And I enjoyed Part 3 with Heather chasing up Allison. That was more interesting than the entire book in general.
Easy read, didn't take me long but wished I used the time for something else.
June 3, 2011
I knew basically nothing about this book before I started reading it. And even though the flap mentions a massacre in the high school (not a spoiler), I wasn't prepared for those details, and I as read the first part, I actually felt very scared, which was quite appropriate for what I was reading. At the end, I again felt quite emotional, for different reasons, and was impressed with what the author could do.
Crazy things happen in this book, but only one felt very unrealistic -- and that still kind of bothers me -- though I understand what the author was trying to achieve with it. I thought perhaps I'd end up giving this one less star than I did, but the themes -- the effects of such a tragedy (coupled with the effects of a community's rush to judgment); (mis)communication; extreme loneliness; and the fact that we may never know the inner life and other important things about those people we think we've figured out, or even those closest to us -- are so well done that I did end up 'really liking' this book.
Crazy things happen in this book, but only one felt very unrealistic -- and that still kind of bothers me -- though I understand what the author was trying to achieve with it. I thought perhaps I'd end up giving this one less star than I did, but the themes -- the effects of such a tragedy (coupled with the effects of a community's rush to judgment); (mis)communication; extreme loneliness; and the fact that we may never know the inner life and other important things about those people we think we've figured out, or even those closest to us -- are so well done that I did end up 'really liking' this book.
January 8, 2009
This is the worst book I've ever read and I've read in-progress drafts from beginning writers. There's zero difference in the narrative voices. There's a gimmick for how the story is being told (ex: a letter, notes by a court stenographer compelled to tell her story). The plot is laughable and the character reactions could be called "unrealistic" if the characters themselves behaved the least like actual people. I mean, "Well someone saw us together in this Vegas hotel lobby so, naturally, I killed him." (not actual quote, just actual storyline)
I read this for a book club. It was the only book I read for the book club. I would sell it except that I feel wrong inflicting this literary pain on other people.
BTW: Coupland seems to have some very rabid supporters. When I blogged a longer review after reading it and then a shorter, softer review at Amazon, they came out of the closet to tell me how I didn't "get it" and how ludicrous my opinion is. They're entitled to that opinion and I'm entitled to mine: this book sucks.
I read this for a book club. It was the only book I read for the book club. I would sell it except that I feel wrong inflicting this literary pain on other people.
BTW: Coupland seems to have some very rabid supporters. When I blogged a longer review after reading it and then a shorter, softer review at Amazon, they came out of the closet to tell me how I didn't "get it" and how ludicrous my opinion is. They're entitled to that opinion and I'm entitled to mine: this book sucks.
October 6, 2011
It’s 1988. On a morning unlike any other at a suburban high school in Vancouver, 3 teens attempt to achieve the highest kill count in the history of school shootings. Flash forward 11 years into the future; the incident has more or less been forgotten by most but remains ingrained in the memories of a select few closest to the tragedy.
I was really enjoying this book; I could go so far as to say I was loving it. However, right up to about the halfway point, something so insane occurred that it took me completely out of the story and nearly ruined the entire novel for me. Coupland spends a decent amount of time building a world in which I bought in to, characters that I truly felt sorry for. He then throws this ridiculously unnecessary event that wasn’t even needed! I’ll tag a spoiler at the end so I can complain about it.
That being said, I really did like the characters in this novel. Well, aside from Reg, but you're not supposed to like him anyway. I have this thing with overly self-righteous parent figures that can drive me up the wall. I think it comes from having a few in my family, however, I'm not going to subject you to that.
In terms of writing, it had its fair share of memorable quotes and passages. I can complain all I want about that one problem, but Coupland proved he has some serious writing chops.
It has been drilled into us that to feel fear is to not fully trust God. Whoever made that one up has never been beneath a cafeteria table with a tiny thread of someone else’s blood trickling onto their leg.
Trust me, you spend a much larger part of your life being old, not young. Rules change along the way. The first things to go are those things you thought were eternal.
Those two, especially the latter, really connected with me. Hey, I'm not exactly old (27 years old, here) but I'm starting to get that outlook. I understand exactly where he's coming from.
As iffy as I felt after reading this novel, I’m really excited to try something else of Coupland's. I thoroughly enjoyed his style, I hope that he's bound to impress me. There was enough within these pages to draw me back for another round.
I was really enjoying this book; I could go so far as to say I was loving it. However, right up to about the halfway point, something so insane occurred that it took me completely out of the story and nearly ruined the entire novel for me. Coupland spends a decent amount of time building a world in which I bought in to, characters that I truly felt sorry for. He then throws this ridiculously unnecessary event that wasn’t even needed! I’ll tag a spoiler at the end so I can complain about it.
That being said, I really did like the characters in this novel. Well, aside from Reg, but you're not supposed to like him anyway. I have this thing with overly self-righteous parent figures that can drive me up the wall. I think it comes from having a few in my family, however, I'm not going to subject you to that.
In terms of writing, it had its fair share of memorable quotes and passages. I can complain all I want about that one problem, but Coupland proved he has some serious writing chops.
It has been drilled into us that to feel fear is to not fully trust God. Whoever made that one up has never been beneath a cafeteria table with a tiny thread of someone else’s blood trickling onto their leg.
Trust me, you spend a much larger part of your life being old, not young. Rules change along the way. The first things to go are those things you thought were eternal.
Those two, especially the latter, really connected with me. Hey, I'm not exactly old (27 years old, here) but I'm starting to get that outlook. I understand exactly where he's coming from.
As iffy as I felt after reading this novel, I’m really excited to try something else of Coupland's. I thoroughly enjoyed his style, I hope that he's bound to impress me. There was enough within these pages to draw me back for another round.
January 8, 2020
"What surprises me about humanity is that in the end such a narrow range of plights defines our moral lives."
A strange, endearing novel from 2004 that's sort of about the aftermath of a Columbine-esque school shooting and sort of about the smothering grasp of Christian fundamentalism and sort of about the interconnectedness of all human life and sort of just about the weirdness of being a person in the world, or at least in turn-of-the-millennium suburban Vancouver. Not something I'd have ever picked up or even heard of if it hadn't been recommended to me by my partner, but in the end I'm happy it was.
Throughout the novel Coupland makes use of a snarky, jaded voice which could easily become grating if done carelessly, but he infuses it with enough earnest pathos and genuine affection for his characters that it never crossed that line for me. It's a book in four chronological sections, 1988 - 2004, each with a different (though always Couplandian) narrator. The first section concerns a victim of that school shooting I mentioned above, and you think the whole book is going to circle that topic in one way or another, but by the end—sixteen years later—the massacre is really only a far-off catalyst for a lot of subsequent character development. The event still reverberates, of course, but for better or worse life goes on.
There are a few reviews on here complaining thatHey Nostradamus!is "unrealistic," owing mainly to one (admittedly) melodramatic and undwelt-upon plot twist midway through, but I think so-called "realism" is too much of a preoccupation these days and it's not really what Coupland is going for anyway.Little that happens in this novel is strictly impossible, but it's all heightened, all a little OTT, and that's a perfectly acceptable stylistic choice: what's important is that a book is believable within its own context, which I think this one pretty much is. You just have to accept that context first.
Several of Coupland's characters are current or ex-evangelical Christians, to varying degrees of devoutness, and I can personally confirm the accuracy of those depictions. I recognized everything from the cultlike conformity of the teen youth-groupers to the agonizing cognitive dissonance of a man whose intellectual and moral compasses are leading him further and further from the faith he's built his life upon. There are no shortage of flat, monstrous fundamentalists in fiction, but Coupland writes about these people like someone who's been one of them, or at least known them intimately. That unexpected recognition was my first clue that I was in capable authorial hands, and I'm eager now to see where Coupland's other books take me.
A strange, endearing novel from 2004 that's sort of about the aftermath of a Columbine-esque school shooting and sort of about the smothering grasp of Christian fundamentalism and sort of about the interconnectedness of all human life and sort of just about the weirdness of being a person in the world, or at least in turn-of-the-millennium suburban Vancouver. Not something I'd have ever picked up or even heard of if it hadn't been recommended to me by my partner, but in the end I'm happy it was.
Throughout the novel Coupland makes use of a snarky, jaded voice which could easily become grating if done carelessly, but he infuses it with enough earnest pathos and genuine affection for his characters that it never crossed that line for me. It's a book in four chronological sections, 1988 - 2004, each with a different (though always Couplandian) narrator. The first section concerns a victim of that school shooting I mentioned above, and you think the whole book is going to circle that topic in one way or another, but by the end—sixteen years later—the massacre is really only a far-off catalyst for a lot of subsequent character development. The event still reverberates, of course, but for better or worse life goes on.
There are a few reviews on here complaining thatHey Nostradamus!is "unrealistic," owing mainly to one (admittedly) melodramatic and undwelt-upon plot twist midway through, but I think so-called "realism" is too much of a preoccupation these days and it's not really what Coupland is going for anyway.Little that happens in this novel is strictly impossible, but it's all heightened, all a little OTT, and that's a perfectly acceptable stylistic choice: what's important is that a book is believable within its own context, which I think this one pretty much is. You just have to accept that context first.
Several of Coupland's characters are current or ex-evangelical Christians, to varying degrees of devoutness, and I can personally confirm the accuracy of those depictions. I recognized everything from the cultlike conformity of the teen youth-groupers to the agonizing cognitive dissonance of a man whose intellectual and moral compasses are leading him further and further from the faith he's built his life upon. There are no shortage of flat, monstrous fundamentalists in fiction, but Coupland writes about these people like someone who's been one of them, or at least known them intimately. That unexpected recognition was my first clue that I was in capable authorial hands, and I'm eager now to see where Coupland's other books take me.
December 31, 2007
I wanted the book to be so much MORE. I was really intrigued by the description.
“As far as I could tell, Jason and I were the only married students to have attended Delbrook. It wasn’t a neighborhood that married young. It was neither religious nor irreligious, although back in the eleventh grade English class I did a tally of the twenty-six students therein: five abortions, three dope dealers, two total sluts, and one perpetual juvenile delinquent. I think that’s what softened me up for the conversion; I didn’t want to inhabit that kind of moral world. Truth be told, I wanted everything those kids had, but I wanted it by playing the game correctly.”
I really enjoyed the beginning of this story, I quickly felt that the author dramatically overplayed the school shootings and the violence. (And ripped from the headlines stories rarely excite me, hence my disliking of The West Wing.) Overplayed works, if the entire story is tsatire. But this book didn’t cross that line. One minute it was a story wanting desperately to be telling so much more…and the next trying to be *dark* to make a point, that was printed, but not necessarily developed through the characters stories. Perhaps if the *letters* and the shifting point-of-view ran through the pages smoother the author’s points would have come through? (Past? No present, wait dead? Future? Augh! Nephews? Sons?)
“Redemption exists, but only for others, I believe, and yet I lack faith. I tried building a private world free of hypocrisy, but all I ended with was a sour little bubble as insular and exclusive as my father’s.”
Wah, wah, wah. Somehow I got lost trying to care. I guess the concept of telling the central story (whatever that was) got tangled up in way too many people and tangents and things I could care less about in the following chapters. Which I think is a real shame, because like I said, I really thought the story had potential.
“The harder people try to be the opposite of their parents the quicker they become them. It’s a fact.”
The brother? Yeah. Who cares. He dies. Jason becoming the husband of his brother’s newly-widowed sister turn wife? A little out there, but again, since the entire story didn’t lend itself to outrageousness (or at least well written outrageousness that made me care) I could have done without this whole stupid mess. Getting married in the same chapel doesn’t add any nuances to Jason’s tortured past, it just annoyed me. And the newly-wedded widow becoming a murderer? Whatever.
“I didn’t know what to say, because I was thinking, Oh God, this is how my father left back in 1988.”
Yeah, yeah we get it. Moving on… Part three? Heather. What a waste of space. I didn’t feel like I saw another side of Jason because this chapter read just like all the others. All I learned was, um, nothing.
“In the end, I think the relationships that survive in this world are the ones where two people can finish each other’s sentences. Forget drama and torrid sex and the clash of opposites. Give me banter any day of the week.”
Yeah, highly unusual for a couple to have their own little *code* and *phrases* and *stories* blech. As the book went on, I became more and more frustrated that each character had to constantly remind the reader that they were writing a letter. On pink paper? Into a courtroom system? At Kinko’s? Who cares! I’m smart enough to understand the writing of the letter, thank you very much. Part Four? Reg. (The father) By this point in the book, I wanted it to be over. I thought perhaps something would be resolved through the father’s chapter, but no… All in all? I wanted to read the last two chapters because I wanted to know what was going to happen. What a waste of time.
“As far as I could tell, Jason and I were the only married students to have attended Delbrook. It wasn’t a neighborhood that married young. It was neither religious nor irreligious, although back in the eleventh grade English class I did a tally of the twenty-six students therein: five abortions, three dope dealers, two total sluts, and one perpetual juvenile delinquent. I think that’s what softened me up for the conversion; I didn’t want to inhabit that kind of moral world. Truth be told, I wanted everything those kids had, but I wanted it by playing the game correctly.”
I really enjoyed the beginning of this story, I quickly felt that the author dramatically overplayed the school shootings and the violence. (And ripped from the headlines stories rarely excite me, hence my disliking of The West Wing.) Overplayed works, if the entire story is tsatire. But this book didn’t cross that line. One minute it was a story wanting desperately to be telling so much more…and the next trying to be *dark* to make a point, that was printed, but not necessarily developed through the characters stories. Perhaps if the *letters* and the shifting point-of-view ran through the pages smoother the author’s points would have come through? (Past? No present, wait dead? Future? Augh! Nephews? Sons?)
“Redemption exists, but only for others, I believe, and yet I lack faith. I tried building a private world free of hypocrisy, but all I ended with was a sour little bubble as insular and exclusive as my father’s.”
Wah, wah, wah. Somehow I got lost trying to care. I guess the concept of telling the central story (whatever that was) got tangled up in way too many people and tangents and things I could care less about in the following chapters. Which I think is a real shame, because like I said, I really thought the story had potential.
“The harder people try to be the opposite of their parents the quicker they become them. It’s a fact.”
The brother? Yeah. Who cares. He dies. Jason becoming the husband of his brother’s newly-widowed sister turn wife? A little out there, but again, since the entire story didn’t lend itself to outrageousness (or at least well written outrageousness that made me care) I could have done without this whole stupid mess. Getting married in the same chapel doesn’t add any nuances to Jason’s tortured past, it just annoyed me. And the newly-wedded widow becoming a murderer? Whatever.
“I didn’t know what to say, because I was thinking, Oh God, this is how my father left back in 1988.”
Yeah, yeah we get it. Moving on… Part three? Heather. What a waste of space. I didn’t feel like I saw another side of Jason because this chapter read just like all the others. All I learned was, um, nothing.
“In the end, I think the relationships that survive in this world are the ones where two people can finish each other’s sentences. Forget drama and torrid sex and the clash of opposites. Give me banter any day of the week.”
Yeah, highly unusual for a couple to have their own little *code* and *phrases* and *stories* blech. As the book went on, I became more and more frustrated that each character had to constantly remind the reader that they were writing a letter. On pink paper? Into a courtroom system? At Kinko’s? Who cares! I’m smart enough to understand the writing of the letter, thank you very much. Part Four? Reg. (The father) By this point in the book, I wanted it to be over. I thought perhaps something would be resolved through the father’s chapter, but no… All in all? I wanted to read the last two chapters because I wanted to know what was going to happen. What a waste of time.
August 3, 2019
This book is not very well known, however, I would recommend it to anyone whose mental health is in a stable place. It deals with a lot of dark subjects, and in my opinion, it does so pretty well! I enjoyed most of the philosophical passages in this novel, but sometimes its messages were hard to decipher or would come off as somewhat pretentious. Overall, I would give this one a shot if you like theological philosophy, can deal with triggering subjects (i.e. graphic detail of a school shooting), and can handle a book which can veer into the land of pretension.
December 8, 2023
Reread buddy listen with the husband! December 2023
Whew, this book still evokes so many emotions. But such a great read/listen. And honestly the audiobook is 10/10 stars for me personally. Might pick it back up in another 5 years.
4.5 stars
This book, man I really did enjoy it. There was just something about it that drew me in so wholly. And it gave me a massive book hangover. Some of the content is sad and quite depressing at times, but it's very well written and narrated.
Whew, this book still evokes so many emotions. But such a great read/listen. And honestly the audiobook is 10/10 stars for me personally. Might pick it back up in another 5 years.
4.5 stars
This book, man I really did enjoy it. There was just something about it that drew me in so wholly. And it gave me a massive book hangover. Some of the content is sad and quite depressing at times, but it's very well written and narrated.
January 26, 2016
So we have four narrators for the four sections of Hey Nostradamus!: Cheryl, Jason, Heather, and Reg. They narrate their parts of the story in 1988, 1999, 2003, and 2004 respectively. Cheryl and Jason were high-school lovers in 1988. Heather is Jason's girlfriend in 2003. Reg is Jason's religious fanatic father. A horrific 1988 Vancouver high-school shooting which vaguely anticipates Columbine sets the narratives in motion.
Coupland's characterization of the four narrators is deft and sympathetic, or at least empathetic. The 1988 school shooting is portrayed with a mixture of horror, black comedy, and crazed heroism on the parts of some individuals, including Jason. The media frenzy afterwards, the desire to canonize some individuals, the problems of recovering from such things -- these are all marvelously conveyed.
Douglas Coupland doesn't always get his due as a major novelist because, like Kurt Vonnegut, his novels are so easy and natural to read that the whole thing can seem effortless. Perhaps even too entertaining. Perhaps, given the often bleak but also often laugh-out-loud comic touch Vonnegut and Coupland share, the novels can seem glib.
Hey Nostradamus! isn't glib. But it goes down so smoothly that one can perhaps be forgiven for finding it too entertaining to be taken as a serious novel. But it is serious. If there's closure, it's faint and conditional and human and humane. The plot takes turns at several points that are genuinely shocking in their unexpectedness, though they always remain this side of plausible.
Morally, the novel suggests that moral or religious certainty, the certainty of absolutism, can be horrifyingly toxic. It also suggests that people can change, but not always, and not always in time for that change to be meaningful to those for whom one changed. All this comes in that compulsively readable Coupland manner, funny and witty and floating on a vast ocean of sadness.
Coupland's characterization of the four narrators is deft and sympathetic, or at least empathetic. The 1988 school shooting is portrayed with a mixture of horror, black comedy, and crazed heroism on the parts of some individuals, including Jason. The media frenzy afterwards, the desire to canonize some individuals, the problems of recovering from such things -- these are all marvelously conveyed.
Douglas Coupland doesn't always get his due as a major novelist because, like Kurt Vonnegut, his novels are so easy and natural to read that the whole thing can seem effortless. Perhaps even too entertaining. Perhaps, given the often bleak but also often laugh-out-loud comic touch Vonnegut and Coupland share, the novels can seem glib.
Hey Nostradamus! isn't glib. But it goes down so smoothly that one can perhaps be forgiven for finding it too entertaining to be taken as a serious novel. But it is serious. If there's closure, it's faint and conditional and human and humane. The plot takes turns at several points that are genuinely shocking in their unexpectedness, though they always remain this side of plausible.
Morally, the novel suggests that moral or religious certainty, the certainty of absolutism, can be horrifyingly toxic. It also suggests that people can change, but not always, and not always in time for that change to be meaningful to those for whom one changed. All this comes in that compulsively readable Coupland manner, funny and witty and floating on a vast ocean of sadness.
August 15, 2007
This is not a book that might have gotten my attention on the bookshelf, but was recommended to me by two close friends. So I picked it up at the bookstore when it was on the bargain shelf for $5 and I had a gift certificate. It then sat on my shelf for a few months until I started this whole reading marathon.
I'm sorry I waited so long to read it. The way the 4 narrators told their stories and how you were able to understand how the actions of one person can affect so many people was wonderful. It made me think about how I personally feel about other people's actions and how I might not know the full story behind the scenes that led to how they might act.
I definitely recommend this book. It was a great read and one I'm glad I finally gave a chance.
I'm sorry I waited so long to read it. The way the 4 narrators told their stories and how you were able to understand how the actions of one person can affect so many people was wonderful. It made me think about how I personally feel about other people's actions and how I might not know the full story behind the scenes that led to how they might act.
I definitely recommend this book. It was a great read and one I'm glad I finally gave a chance.
December 6, 2007
I wish I could give this book 0 stars, that's how much I hate it. I bought it for $3.00 from a Barnes & Noble, and thought I'd amuse myself with it on a plane-ride home. Not only did I want to grind my eyes out forever, I wanted to make it impossible to remember by causing permanent brain injury to myself.
Someone told me, just the other day, when I was snarking on this novel that the authors of dime-store romance novels have more artistic and creative prose than Coupland. It is my profound hope that the man stops writing. And soon.
Someone told me, just the other day, when I was snarking on this novel that the authors of dime-store romance novels have more artistic and creative prose than Coupland. It is my profound hope that the man stops writing. And soon.
July 16, 2008
This book really moved me, which is a total surprise being that I grabbed it at the library because I liked its cover. I know this could have been a bad idea, but I guess sometimes a good cover leads to a good inside too. I love how the author gives each character a distinctly realistic voice, something that is rare in these multi-perspective volumes. It is beautiful how we see not only the perceptions of the character's own motives, but each person's perceptions of the other characters' motives as well. But what separates this book from other Rashoman type of tales, is how in the end things come together in a way that shows how even though we all are distinct in our ways of seeing and dealing with life, we're still in it together. And that, I think, is a very hopeful message. Great cover, great stories, great book.
May 23, 2008
*mild spoilers below*
I love Douglas Coupland. He just has this way of seeing through the superficialness of our culture and pulling so much depth and meaning out of it. His characters experience such tremendous growth. And he is so funny. I am always alternating between being on the verge of tears and laughing outloud. Sometimes it happens at the same time.
This story is about a girl who is killed in a school shooting and how the lives of those who love her are affected by it. The first part is told from her point of view, the next three parts from other points of view. The first part of the book is amazing. This high school girl, telling her tragic story, is so sweet and forgiving and loving. She tells it so beautifully.
The rest of the book takes place later, after the tragedy, and you get a look at the damage that it has done. It is a strange, funny look into the lives of some of the other characters, and there are some good bits in there, but I thought it was nowhere near as good as that first part of the book. If I could rate them separately, I would give part one a five and parts two through four a three. Overall, it gets a four and is definitely worth a read.
I love Douglas Coupland. He just has this way of seeing through the superficialness of our culture and pulling so much depth and meaning out of it. His characters experience such tremendous growth. And he is so funny. I am always alternating between being on the verge of tears and laughing outloud. Sometimes it happens at the same time.
This story is about a girl who is killed in a school shooting and how the lives of those who love her are affected by it. The first part is told from her point of view, the next three parts from other points of view. The first part of the book is amazing. This high school girl, telling her tragic story, is so sweet and forgiving and loving. She tells it so beautifully.
The rest of the book takes place later, after the tragedy, and you get a look at the damage that it has done. It is a strange, funny look into the lives of some of the other characters, and there are some good bits in there, but I thought it was nowhere near as good as that first part of the book. If I could rate them separately, I would give part one a five and parts two through four a three. Overall, it gets a four and is definitely worth a read.
April 12, 2012
Given that it is built around at least three moments of murderous violence, I did not expect my post-read reflection on this story to be so... well, peaceful.
Not an apology for violence by any means, but rather a pretty profound cataloging of many various types of tragedy, and a criticism of the endless ways in which people can bring these flavors of tragedy upon themselves and others. However, in the end, the point of the story for me is one of redemption; in the corresponding catalog of the ways in which people find ways to deal with tragedy and move forward, never perfectly or completely moving beyond, but moving, coping, dealing, trying, at least.
Not an apology for violence by any means, but rather a pretty profound cataloging of many various types of tragedy, and a criticism of the endless ways in which people can bring these flavors of tragedy upon themselves and others. However, in the end, the point of the story for me is one of redemption; in the corresponding catalog of the ways in which people find ways to deal with tragedy and move forward, never perfectly or completely moving beyond, but moving, coping, dealing, trying, at least.
April 19, 2014
Read this book. Just do it.
Cheryl's story is so beautiful and elaborate and makes you understand how beautiful this world is and how much we must cherish all the little details of our universe. Her very real perspective forces you to be aware that all of us are very much alive. Everyone feels SO MUCH and everyone is fully living their life second after second just as you are inside your head, and that is a very beautiful concept to be able to grasp. This books exquisite writing makes it very easy to relate to her humanity.
But Cheryl's story is also so ugly and hideous and I had to pause while reading because what happened filled me with so much contempt and hate and negativity because there really is no decent reason and the absence of life right after/amidst such a realization of the presence of life is so ghastly incomprehensible and hard to face or accept. I mean, half the characters in this book you DONT see any humanity in. You cannot relate to them, and it's such a helpless struggle when the person you are seeing the world through believes in God so much, yet there is so little of him present in their world.
It bothers me so much that Jason didn't move on. I believe in the value and beauty of life portrayed in the first part of this book, but after that image was shattered, nobody really put it back together. From then on, everything and everyone was so drowning and negative and after a while I couldn't really stand it. Don't read this book if you're depressed, it really won't improve your condition.
So ya. Some of the things I felt. Not sure if I got what the author wanted out of this book. This book made me feel a lot and it made me feel it strongly. It didn't help me reach any answers to the questions that where contemplated within it ( such as the presence of God, societal acceptance, etc.) but it definitely gave me new perspectives and awareness.
Again, just read it. My words don't mean anything - this book is a very personal mental journey.
Cheryl's story is so beautiful and elaborate and makes you understand how beautiful this world is and how much we must cherish all the little details of our universe. Her very real perspective forces you to be aware that all of us are very much alive. Everyone feels SO MUCH and everyone is fully living their life second after second just as you are inside your head, and that is a very beautiful concept to be able to grasp. This books exquisite writing makes it very easy to relate to her humanity.
But Cheryl's story is also so ugly and hideous and I had to pause while reading because what happened filled me with so much contempt and hate and negativity because there really is no decent reason and the absence of life right after/amidst such a realization of the presence of life is so ghastly incomprehensible and hard to face or accept. I mean, half the characters in this book you DONT see any humanity in. You cannot relate to them, and it's such a helpless struggle when the person you are seeing the world through believes in God so much, yet there is so little of him present in their world.
It bothers me so much that Jason didn't move on. I believe in the value and beauty of life portrayed in the first part of this book, but after that image was shattered, nobody really put it back together. From then on, everything and everyone was so drowning and negative and after a while I couldn't really stand it. Don't read this book if you're depressed, it really won't improve your condition.
So ya. Some of the things I felt. Not sure if I got what the author wanted out of this book. This book made me feel a lot and it made me feel it strongly. It didn't help me reach any answers to the questions that where contemplated within it ( such as the presence of God, societal acceptance, etc.) but it definitely gave me new perspectives and awareness.
Again, just read it. My words don't mean anything - this book is a very personal mental journey.
March 18, 2010
Coupland 1) never convinces me that Reg's unrelenting, myopic, savage pieties could (let alonewould) spring from a Mennonite upbringing and worldview (indeed, Coupland exhibits so little understanding of the Mennonite perspective as to leave one wonderingwhyReg is written as having come from a Mennonite home in the first place), and 2) remains wearily incapable of giving his characters voices and ways of seeing the world distinct either from one another or from himself, and 3) commits the cardinal sin of adding an "-s" to Revelation (a telling, and lamentable, oversight in any book passing even the most conditional -- as this one's is -- critique on the Christian religion)...
But despite all of this,Hey Nostradamus!was enormously moving in the way ofGeneration XandMicroserfs,bracingly perceptive about how two people who love one another communicate and fail to communicate, and adept at subverting (this reader's) expectations without leaving one feeling as though Coupland has cheated his narrative's integrities in doing so.
Light years better than eitherGirlfriend in a ComaorShampoo Planet.
But despite all of this,Hey Nostradamus!was enormously moving in the way ofGeneration XandMicroserfs,bracingly perceptive about how two people who love one another communicate and fail to communicate, and adept at subverting (this reader's) expectations without leaving one feeling as though Coupland has cheated his narrative's integrities in doing so.
Light years better than eitherGirlfriend in a ComaorShampoo Planet.
October 26, 2017
Hey, Nostradamus! I liked the book, but some parts were a little bit weird.
I really liked the genre of this book, that's why I chose this book. But I had no idea where the book was going about. The fact that the story in this book can be true convicted me.
When I understand the story I liked it, so the book has surprised me. But some parts of the book were really weird. One example is Cheryl who was already dead, but still tells some stories in the book. Sometimes that was really difficult to understand. The book makes me think about things like how it is to be married at the age of 17. So that's been a good thing. This is the reason why I give this book 4 stars.
It was worth reading, but sometimes a bit difficult. But when you understand the story, you will be surprised!
I really liked the genre of this book, that's why I chose this book. But I had no idea where the book was going about. The fact that the story in this book can be true convicted me.
When I understand the story I liked it, so the book has surprised me. But some parts of the book were really weird. One example is Cheryl who was already dead, but still tells some stories in the book. Sometimes that was really difficult to understand. The book makes me think about things like how it is to be married at the age of 17. So that's been a good thing. This is the reason why I give this book 4 stars.
It was worth reading, but sometimes a bit difficult. But when you understand the story, you will be surprised!
July 30, 2016
I listened to the audio of this book. It's so well done, with each person having their own voice and ideas. Each person adds more detail and perspective.
Throughout there's a running theme of Faith, pain, isolation and yet always, always hope, belief, beauty and belonging. The beauty of life and the world are always there, between the pain, guilt and longing.
The contrasts (beauty/ugliness, pain/healing, isolation/togetherness and more) run side by side throughout this book. It's so well done, the voices are real & warm.
I've never read a book by Douglas Coupland until now. I'll definitely be looking into his others. Terrific read.
Throughout there's a running theme of Faith, pain, isolation and yet always, always hope, belief, beauty and belonging. The beauty of life and the world are always there, between the pain, guilt and longing.
The contrasts (beauty/ugliness, pain/healing, isolation/togetherness and more) run side by side throughout this book. It's so well done, the voices are real & warm.
I've never read a book by Douglas Coupland until now. I'll definitely be looking into his others. Terrific read.
May 8, 2008
This is one case in which you can judge a book by its cover, and it happens to be terrible. One star could possibly be too high a rating. It reads as if written by a 9th grade student with a C- grade in english.
January 18, 2008
yep. a waste of time and trees.
July 11, 2018
Douglas Coupland sure knows how to tap into prevailing cultural phenomena and weave them into compelling tales. I like it.
August 5, 2013
Once you've read a couple of Couplands, you quickly realize he essentially writes the same book over and over - or perhaps it's kinder to say his books all circle the same set of concerns (like his image of a B-movie star being sucked into a maelstrom special effect). This one covers very similar territory as "The Gum Thief" (recovery from a tragedy - finding connections through collaborate narratives...), but for me, Hey Nostradamus! "didn't work anywhere near as well. That's not to say it didn't have it's moments, there were certainly some powerful passages - but it just didn't jell.
The main problem is Character - Coupland doesn't really do characters - he does himself in disguise. That's normally not a problem because he has an interesting voice in all his disguises, and I've always given him a Hall Pass on this one because I suspect he believes we all have essentially the same character in this hyper-connected globalized world.
Alas in this story I really needed more differentiation between the various voices to make them believable. I suspect he has a very good eye for culture but a very poor ear for dialect.I have just read his biography of Marshall McLuhan, who spent a good deal of time arguing that our culture is sliding from audio biased communication to a primarily visual culture, so I wonder if this has some significance in relation to Couplands strengths and weaknesses.
The character that worked the least for me was the reformed religious zealot Reg. His first person riffs just did not ring true, and I wonder if Coupland spotted this because he actually changed gears into a third-person singular narrative for a while as if sensing it wasn't working. As for stalker Heather, I couldn't work out if I was meant to feel sorry for her, like her, or despise her. The make-believe story characters of the collaborative narrative seemed as fatuous as baby talk - but we were constantly told how deep and meaningful they were.
"The Gum Thief" was written shortly after this one, and is a much more successful arrangement of essentially the same components. I guess he knew he didn't get it right the first time.
The main problem is Character - Coupland doesn't really do characters - he does himself in disguise. That's normally not a problem because he has an interesting voice in all his disguises, and I've always given him a Hall Pass on this one because I suspect he believes we all have essentially the same character in this hyper-connected globalized world.
Alas in this story I really needed more differentiation between the various voices to make them believable. I suspect he has a very good eye for culture but a very poor ear for dialect.I have just read his biography of Marshall McLuhan, who spent a good deal of time arguing that our culture is sliding from audio biased communication to a primarily visual culture, so I wonder if this has some significance in relation to Couplands strengths and weaknesses.
The character that worked the least for me was the reformed religious zealot Reg. His first person riffs just did not ring true, and I wonder if Coupland spotted this because he actually changed gears into a third-person singular narrative for a while as if sensing it wasn't working. As for stalker Heather, I couldn't work out if I was meant to feel sorry for her, like her, or despise her. The make-believe story characters of the collaborative narrative seemed as fatuous as baby talk - but we were constantly told how deep and meaningful they were.
"The Gum Thief" was written shortly after this one, and is a much more successful arrangement of essentially the same components. I guess he knew he didn't get it right the first time.
March 14, 2014
Not long after I began reading this book I found myself wondering ‘Is this young adult fiction?’ it certainly reads like it. Written in a straightforward, no frills style which, no doubt, was shrewdly designed to appeal to the angst ridden teenager it is a trashy ode to ‘my parents suck’ which I could not bring myself to finish.
The book is divided into four different sections each written from the point of view of four of the main characters as they struggle to hold together their lives after a high school shooting. On paper most of the characters are very different however due to lack of skill or effort on the part of Coupland all of the characters seem to have a very similar outlook on life: Everything sucks and none of it is their fault. Somebody else is always to blame.
The characters are very stereotypical and utterly predictable in their outlook and behaviour. The story itself is not interesting or original in any way. In fact sometimes it borders on the absolutely absurd. On more than one occasion I found myself laughing at loud at the ridiculous plot.
By way of example; One of the characters discovers that her husband has been killed in a car accident. She phones her brother-in-law, gives him the news and invites him over for a shoulder to cry on. As soon as he arrives she asks him outright to sleep with her so she can get pregnant because his brother fired blanks! Of course the brother agrees to this but only on condition that they get married before he does it. They fly to Las Vegas immediately and get married in a quickie ceremony. At this point they get spotted in Vegas by a mutual friend who the female then murders so he can’t tell anyone he’s seen them! Of course she gets away with the murder and gets pregnant with twins after having sex just once in a seedy Vegas hotel...Do you see what I mean about absolutely absurd?!
I put the book down shortly after, it is badly written overrated rubbish which should be avoided at all costs.
The book is divided into four different sections each written from the point of view of four of the main characters as they struggle to hold together their lives after a high school shooting. On paper most of the characters are very different however due to lack of skill or effort on the part of Coupland all of the characters seem to have a very similar outlook on life: Everything sucks and none of it is their fault. Somebody else is always to blame.
The characters are very stereotypical and utterly predictable in their outlook and behaviour. The story itself is not interesting or original in any way. In fact sometimes it borders on the absolutely absurd. On more than one occasion I found myself laughing at loud at the ridiculous plot.
By way of example; One of the characters discovers that her husband has been killed in a car accident. She phones her brother-in-law, gives him the news and invites him over for a shoulder to cry on. As soon as he arrives she asks him outright to sleep with her so she can get pregnant because his brother fired blanks! Of course the brother agrees to this but only on condition that they get married before he does it. They fly to Las Vegas immediately and get married in a quickie ceremony. At this point they get spotted in Vegas by a mutual friend who the female then murders so he can’t tell anyone he’s seen them! Of course she gets away with the murder and gets pregnant with twins after having sex just once in a seedy Vegas hotel...Do you see what I mean about absolutely absurd?!
I put the book down shortly after, it is badly written overrated rubbish which should be avoided at all costs.
November 22, 2008
A disjointed story about how pretty much everyone dies alone and lonely, and this is all connected to high school shootings, teen pregnancy, quickie Vegas weddings with murderous recent widows, car crashes, face twins, losing faith, clones, and people disappearing. Actually I might be doing a disservice here because if I read this review I would have got the false impression that this book is actually interesting - it wasn't, I didn't connect with the story or the people, and the plot was weak. It starts off being about a high school shooting, then it turns into about nothing at all.
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