Hey Nostradamus!

Rating:
Summary: eh
Review: Not Coupland's best, but not half bad. Some people hate it when he delves into the mystical. Personally, I think it's kind of cool.

Rating:
Summary: Hey!
Review: People really freaked out about school shootings a few years ago, but Douglas Coupland cranks back the dates a little for "Hey Nostradamus!", his latest satirical, poignant book. It resembles a non-apocalyptic, smoother "Girlfriend in a Coma" in some ways, but stands alone entirely.

High-schoolers Jason and Cheryl were secretly married in Vegas; shortly afterward Cheryl told her new husband that she was pregnant. Only hours afterward, she was dead -- gunned down by three outsider classmates who decided to shoot their classmates. Jason kills one of the assassins, but is too late to save Cheryl. Media spin casts him as a possible conspirator, and his manic-religious father brands him a murderer (just before Jason's alcoholic mother hits his dad with a lava lamp).

Years later, Jason is still haunted by the death of his pregnant wife (nobody knows that they were married), angry at his rigid father and the hardcore, empty Christian group YouthAlive! that added to his pain. Now he is gradually slipping into a new relationship with a woman named Heather -- one with a difficult secret of her own.

The book is split into four sections: the first is Cheryl's, looking back on her life and her death, then at Jason (before, during and after the shootings), then to Heather, and finally to Jason's ultra-religious father Reg. It's a bit reminiscent of Coupland's "Girlfriend in a Coma," with the teen boy growing to manhood haunted by his lover/wife and child, and the passages by the POW of a dead person, but there the resemblance ends.

Coupland touches tricky subjects like religion and school shootings carefully. Though he comes down hard on preachy, gossipy, judgemental types, his beef is not with religion or Christianity so much as people who use it for themselves; at one point, Jason says that his father has a "pagan" mentality that sacrifices everyone else. (After his dad said that one of two identical twin boys didn't have a soul) The YouthAlive people are thoroughly disgusting, but the worst part is that there are actually people like these, vultures and gleeful puritans.

Needless to say, the most vivid characters are Jason and Cheryl (even though Cheryl's dead as it ends); Coupland does a good job with feelings of teen desire, frustration and maturation. Heather's a less 3-D character, while Jason's parents are a little different -- his mom rises above the alcoholic cliche, and while Coupland provides greater insight into Reg, I still despised him.

It's very much a Douglas Coupland book, very insightful and well-written. Definitely worth reading and thinking about.

Rating:
Summary: Hey Nostradamus!
Review: The Columbine Massacre is an event which shocked and impacted the lives of many people in a small community in Colorado. However, what if those events had taken place earlier, say 1988 and in a community in Vancouver? How would these events affect the people of that community and more specifically those directly involved? How would their lives, with their own complexities and problems, be changed? Douglas Coupland asks these same questions in his book Hey Nostradamus! By offering the story in series of four narratives which all recount the personal journeys of the four narrators (Cheryl, Jason, Heather, Reg), each reacting in some way to the events of that fateful day, and illustrates just how deeply and how long such an violent event can impact upon someone's life.
The story principle follows Jason Klaasen his trial, tribulations, and his movements from husband, to would be father, to widower, to loser and to simply gone. The characters surrounding the Klaasen family, as well as the small community, all experience similar emotional ups and downs as they struggle to cope with their loss and return to a sense of normalcy while trying to fill the void created by that terrible day. Religious themes then ring heavily in the book starting with the Klaasen family Patriarch, a strict and often ideologically confused, Reg Klaasen. The Mafioso religious youth group both Jason and Cheryl once belong to as well as reoccurring phrases like Cheryl's scribbling in the cafeteria, as she and her class mates are held at gun point, "God is Nowhere / God is Now Here." and the deep need of all character to have some spiritual (supernatural) supervision rings deeply with religious conviction and confusion, many if not all, the character share. With the characters all struggling at some time to deal with their religious convictions and their need to either pass blame or escape guilt they all look to find redemption in the eyes of one another in the unique and odd relationships they develop after the massacre.
Coupland manages to skillfully keep the readers attention while dragging them through confusing narration of a desperate teenager, a guilty and a lonely middle aged adult and a crisis stricken elderly man. By hearing the story from four different points of view, and from four closely related narrators the story evolves as the understanding of then historical events evolves with each passing page. Coupland manages to alter bias as he sees fit to help lead the reader through awkward moments and understand the drives behind which skew the narrators' understanding of the events which unfold before them. As years pass new narrators appear, who were not even at school present when the massacre took place (such as Heather), and offer new insight that helps understand the Klaasen family as all narration seems to focus on them in some way.
Coupland also through this series of four narratives manages to place a unique emphasis on each section by having the character speak as if in a journal, and always seeming to be blunt and honest. So a certain degree of sincerity, even from the strict Reg, can be achieved because it is felt as if they are attempting to do this not just for themselves, but always for others or for a deeper understanding of why things happened this way. The interesting and compelling characters keeps the reader interested and urges them to read further and further into the book because the plot of the story just seems unclear through most of the story and mystery drives the reader on.
Finally, Coupland constantly attacks the reader with new information and challenges the reader to attempt to understand why characters do what they do. Through it presentation the reader achieves a removed sense of judgment, which is more of question of ones own morality than and attempt to understand the morality of the characters, as the unfortunate events unfold and each character experiences loss. The reader tries constantly to understand and when ones comes to the end of the book many questions are left unanswered and plots unresolved, but for some reason with how the story progressed it is no surprise really. For in the end none of the character in spite of how hard they try seem to be able to control their fate and Cheryl's scribbling rings true again, "God is Nowhere / God is Now Here." and so it seems right that these things are left as they are.
In the end the book is an excellent piece of fiction, a compelling and controversial topic with interesting and likable characters. All of which suck you into a world Douglas Coupland is known all to well at being able to do. Propelled by excellent skill with the ability to write prose in a fluid and understandable way, Coupland's Hey Nostradamus! is an excellent and compelling example of modern fiction and a book that very worthy of reading.

Rating:
Summary: Vaguely Reminiscent of Earlier Works
Review: The cover of Coupland's new novel contains a "universal" symbol of religion - an icon of a person kneeling in prayer, found in an airport interfaith chapel in the United States. One would consider that Coupland found this throw-away symbol to be both ironic and meaningful, as he has also incorporated it a set of three-dimensional sculptures for a future gallery exhibit.

He uses the symbolic nature of religion to define inclusion or exclusion in society for his four main characters in Hey Nostradamus! - which allows for some interesting situations for plot devices, but fails to delve deeply into the beliefs embodied in the characters.

In addition, Coupland fans will find many familiar characters in his latest novel, which makes one wonder how much of the novel is constructed much like the arrangement of life-size statues that Coupland exhibits in galleries - with his stock characters arranged in plots with slightly different features and composition.

Cheryl, a high-school student who narrates her brief life, death, and partial afterlife after a school massacre, is vaguely similar to Jared, a ghost character in Coupland's Girlfriend in a Coma, who dies at his prime as a high-school football star. However, Cheryl's character or memory never really has an impact on the rest of the narrative after her death - even on her widowed husband Jason, and it is frustratingly unclear how Cheryl's faith was challenged or changed as she is ethereally narrating the event.

Jason, a rough-and-tumble guy with a loner streak and serious father issues, reminds the reader of Wade from All Families are Psychotic, who also share alcohol issues and experience in shady dealings that end up putting them in serious jeopardy. One would think the strange turns his life has taken would justify more than what is equivalent to a "tell-all" letter to his nephews as a vehicle for his narration. His mysterious disappearance leaves the reader with more questions than answers.

The reader is then introduced to Heather, Jason's girlfriend. Readers of Life After God will recognize the pet personalities that Heather and Jason construct as almost exactly the same as the make-believe creatures generated by a desperate father in the short story, "Little Creatures" - for example, the dog character "Doggles" was modified to a frog character named "Froggles". The rest of her story is used more to distract the reader about Jason's disappearance and start to introduce the changes that are happening to Jason's father, Reg.

Reg has the only strong character development in the novel and some compelling internal dialogue regarding religion and the internalization of his religious thoughts and doubts in his relationship with his son. The last chapter is a Hail-Mary pass to a meaningful statement that the reader will have decide for themselves whether or not is complete.

Unless you've already read "Little Creatures" and Girlfriend in a Coma, I'd recommend picking up these two first before delving into Coupland's latest work. The interaction of the surreal and deeper character development in these works will leave the reader much more satisfied.

Rating:
Summary: Awkward reflections on faith and humanity
Review: This book starts out exactly as a Coupland novel should; with a massacre in a high-school cafeteria. Unfortunately, Coupland kills off the most likeable character in the first chapter, and the rest of the book kind of struggles from that point to find a stable footing, never quite accomplishing it.

"Hey, Nostradamus" is readable enough, with echoes of "Girlfriend in a Coma," as Cheryl's family and friends try to find meaning in the message of her demise. However, I came to the end wishing she'd just woken up to answer some of the questions and heal some of the broken lives.

Coupland chooses to end with the least sympathetic of the four protagonists, and I thought this was a mistake. Really, if I'd put it down after Cheryl's segment, I might have been content. After Jason's, maybe still. Beyond that, the thread that pulled this book along was never quite re-connected, and my patience, at least, was gone.

If you're new to Coupland, stick with Girlfriend in a Coma, for the same teeny-bopper angst and time-travel elements, drawn together in a much more optimistic, philosophical, and cohesive way. If you're a fan looking for your next fix, well, go ahead and buy it, but this probably won't be your new favourite.

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly good!
Review: This book was centered around four main characters: Cheryl, Jason, Heather and Reg. The book is divided into four parts, one for each character.

In the first part, Cheryl describes the Columbine-like shooting in her school during her senior year in 1988. Her and her boyfriend Jason had just gotten secretly married six weeks ago and she just found out last night that she was pregnant. She goes back and forth between the events that led to her death and the events that led to her marriage of Jason. She is in a sort of purgatory with darkness and silence and she can only hear certain prayers, but just the words, not the voices behind them.

I was hooked from the very first part since I just finished reading The Lovely Bones and having the character talk about her life while she was dead seemed very similar to me.

The next part fast forwards in time to 1999 and is written from the viewpoint of Jason. He is writing a letter to his nephews and manages to express only his hatred for his father, Reg and the fact that he has never gotten over Cheryl's death. He expresses that he blacks out when he's been drinking and especially so when other drugs are involved. There's a few pages where he's blacked out and some strange things happen to him. I never really fully understood what was going on during those few pages, so I might need to read them again.

Heather writes the third part in 2002, three months after Jason's disappearance. She is Jason's girlfriend and the closest thing to a stable relationship he's had since Cheryl. She is approached by a psychic who tells her things only her and Jason would ever know. She trusts the psychic as she has no other choice if she wants to find out what happened to Jason and if he's still alive.

While I was reading Jason's part, I was looking forward most to Reg's part, the final part which takes place in 2003. Reg is one of those holier-than-thou types and has some pretty atrocious beliefs. He told Jason's sister-in-law that one of her twin boys might not have a soul because technically, one was a clone of the other one and he didn't believe clones could have souls. He treated Jason and his mother poorly. In the end though, there is no satisfying resolution with Reg.

I thought the book was well written and interesting, but I was left feeling that there wasn't much point to it. What was it all for? Perhaps I'm supposed to be left with this feeling. The book's central theme is that God may no longer be there for His people. He may no longer care to help them or hear them. In that effect, I think it would be more aptly titled "Hey Nietzsche!" rather than "Hey Nostradamus!"

I really didn't think I was going to like this book at all when I first heard about it (so why I decided to read it, I do not know) but I was pleasantly surprised and might end up checking out some of Douglas Coupland's other books.

Rating:
Summary: Coupland's most haunting work to date
Review: This book was mixed bag from my point of view, although on balance I would definitely recommend it. Since other reviewers have already summarized the plot, I'll list the positive and negative aspects of the book, as I saw them:

Positive points:

-The opening incident of the book is obviously based on the Columbine shootings of 1999. However, the author was able to convincingly create a similar incident in the Vancouver, Canada of 1988. Before I read the book, I thought that it might be difficult for the author to separate the fictional events from the actual tragedy on which they were patterned. However, in the first chapter, Coupland constructs an engaging imaginary world that quickly stands on its own.

-In less skilled hands, the departed teenage narrator would have been unconvincing or maudlin. However, Coupland is able to make the dead protagonist speak with a voice that is comfortable and haunting at the same time.

-Coupland's prose is very readable. He doesn't overwrite. He knows when to embellish and when not to.

Negative points:

-I was waiting for a final redemptive scene that never quite arrived. At the end of the book, I was somewhat ambivalent about its message. This is a powerful novel, but it left me feeling a little depressed and uncomfortable. (Perhaps this was the author's intention.)

-The main character (Jason) is not very likeable. I won't give the plot away; but at one point in the book (years after the school shootings) he has knowledge of an extremely reprehensible (and criminal) act, but he doesn't seem to have any sense of moral outrage. Once again, I was asking myself what the point was. Was I supposed to feel sympathetic for Jason, or was I supposed to see him as a quasi-villain?

In summary, "Hey Nostradamus" is a compelling read, but it leaves the reader with a handful of nagging, unanswered questions.

Finally, for a more uplifting read by Coupland, I would recommend "Microserfs" (ISBN:0060987049) It is the polar opposite of "Hey Nostradamus."

By Edward Trimnell, author of "Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One," (ISBN:1591133343)

Rating:
Summary: The Story of Jason Christ, or how the Bible should have read
Review: This is an iteration of the New Testament, and it works much better than the original. The book's main character, Jason, performs a miraculous act during a school shooting, motivated by his love for his secret wife Cheryl. He's despised by a community that thinks he may be responsible for the tragedy, in which he saves many of his peers but loses Cheryl. Jason is also betrayed by a group of fanatical church-going friends, many of whom survive the tragedy, ironically called Youth Alive!

Jason's ultra-religious father Reg represents Lucifer, who in the Bible was cast out of paradise because he thought he rivaled God. Youth Alive!, Reg, and Jason's brother Kent, a Youth Alive! leader, believe that they are the righteous ones, and react in different ways to Jason's miraculous deed...Jason is either ignored, envied, or crucified by them when it appears that God had chosen Jason as his favorite. As other characters take the story's reigns, the typically silent Jason is shown to be more Christ-like than those who pay lip service to God for their own ends, and he ultimately delivers paradise to Reg, who thought he'd been pointing the way for Jason all along.

This is a brave effort by D.C., who has no doubt already heard from detractors who'd claim to have a party line to God themselves. I am glad he told this story, perhaps a few misanthropic religious zombies in the audience will read, learn, and rejoin the living.

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes Unsettling but Worth Reading
Review: This is not a novel that ties up every loose end and makes it clear what the writer's message or point is. Life can be unsettling and it can be hard to understand. That's especially true when high school kids start shooting each other. When the unthinkable happens, most normal people start to question their long-held beliefs and wonder why such a tragedy can ever take place.

That's the backdrop of this book that covers a high school shooting that is set in the supposedly peaceful world of western Canada. The aftermath of the shooting is told from the perspective of four different people. It includes the perspective of one of the victims. her boyfriend and his father. Along the way, the writer provides some interesting perspectives on religious belief, revenge and the animosity that humans can place on one another.

There really is no end to the book and it shows how the suffering from a violent crime can continue its impact long after the actual crime. Sometimes those impacts are caused by people who react to the crime and try to "fix" things.

In summary, if you want to read a book that will make you think and will challenge you, then pick this up. It's not overly ponderous and you can read it quickly but I guarantee that you will be thinking about it long after you are done reading it.

Rating:
Summary: Add to your "must read" list.
Review: Unlike the other reviewers so far, "Hey Nostradamus!" is the first book of Coupland's I've read, so I came into it not knowing what a phenomenal stylist he is. Like most of America, I'm laid off right now, so I've been reading a novel approximately every two days, and thus have plowed through maybe 40 books back to back, including some by my favorite authors. "Hey Nostradamus!" is the best thing I've read since "The Lovely Bones," a year ago. The other reviewers have made mention of this being Gospel-like, and one of the characters being Jesus-like. I disagree. This is more like "The Sound and the Fury" without the annoying stream of consciousness, or the sad sick joke about Caddy. Each of the four parts is narrated by a different character, which besides being a compelling narrative choice for the material, illustrates how good Coupland is at invoking the unique voice of every character. I've not seen that sort of control and talent outside of Stephen King (and Coupland would be selling as well as King in a fair world). This is not a happy book, so juggle it on your list accordingly. However, it's a "don't miss" for sure. I'm definitely going to read everything else Coupland has written. (Just finished "Shampoo Planet" and it was great, too.) Oh, and I really liked the ribbon bookmark; publishers take heed.