Eleanor Rigby : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: All the lonely people
Review: The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" is a melancholy song about lonely people, isolated in the world. The same could be said of Douglas Coupland's writing -- particularly this book, "Eleanor Rigby," a look at mortality and loneliness. It's not his finest or most insightful, but it has wit and heart.

Middle-aged Liz Dunn is crabby, lonely and fat. After dental surgery, she seals herself in her apartment with a stack of sad movies, until she receives a shocking phone call. A young man ODed and ended up in the hospital -- and he claims to her son, the result of a drunken tryst when she was only a teenager in Rome. For the first time, Liz finds herself actually having to be a mom.

As if that weren't enough of a shock, Jeremy is also dying of multiple schlerosis. But he is also chipper and upbeat, unwilling to let his impending death get him down. The mother and son start to get to know each other, with the bittersweet knowledge that whatever bond they form is temporary. But Jeremy's mere presence is enough to change Liz forever.

Yeah, it sounds like a Lifetime tear-jerker. Fortunately, Douglas Coupland is able to yank the seemingly ordinary plot up by its acid-wit shoestrings. He isn't exactly known for his chipper outlook on life, but there's a certain poignant optimism to this novel. Its most memorable line is "Death without the possibility of changing the world was the same as a life that never was," challenging the bleak life that Liz is living, and defining the too-short life her son had.

At times, Coupland seems a bit too flip about Jeremy's M.S. Maybe that humor keeps the book from becoming morbid. The tone is also intimate than his prior books, since it focuses mainly on two people. His smooth, stripped-down writing style is intact, along with dry witticisms. But Coupland's acerbic style hides a surprisingly sweet center.

Liz is quite possibly the funniest lonely person in modern literature -- she takes her private misery and constantly makes fun of it, but not enough to make us take her lightly. And Jeremy is a character who easily could have been insufferable, if Coupland hadn't made him so earnest.

Coupland's ninth novel is an ode to all the lonely people -- especially those who don't necessarily have to be lonely. "All the lonely people, where do they all come from?/All the lonely people, where do they all belong?"

Rating:
Summary: my favorite author, a terrific title
Review: "Eleanor Rigby" is a sad, wonderful novel. Liz is a thirty-six year old woman, living alone, lonely, sad, wondering what life is about. Shortly after viewing Hale-Bopp, she gets a telephone call: a man is wearing a medic-alert bracelet with her contact information on it. I won't go into too many details for you, but this man teaches Liz how to love--in a different way than one might expect.
Beautifully written, "Eleanor Rigby" is one of Coupland's strongest novels, but still has the unique views and quotes that have made Coupland successful. Visions written down on brief pieces of paper, and described from the young man who comes into her life, are reminiscient of "Generation X."
From 1997 to 2004, this novel is brilliant. Sad at times, bitter and sarcastic other times, and longing and lonely, this novel is full of emotions--and a wonderful read. I am already rereading it--Coupland's books are always worthy of rereading, even if you just finished the book three hours ago, or four years ago.

Rating:
Summary: Missing Something....
Review: I enjoy most of Coupland's writing for it's subtle (sometimes not subtle) analysis of contemporary society and culture. I felt this book was devoid of any real substance - other than a few critical parts on "loneliness", most of the book I found to be rather uninteresting and mediocre at best. At times I felt like Coupland was trying too hard with some of the plot twists and character motivations.

Rating:
Summary: (this is about the Canadian edition)
Review: I got my copy in the mail about a week ago and have read it through twice so far. My verdict: It's good. It's quite good. I found it to be more accessible than Hey, Nostradamus!, and the pop-culture fascination that marked earlier Coupland books so strongly is much more muted here. It's clearly a Coupland work -- the same themes of the possibility of redemption, both for oneself and for the world; of loneliness in adulthood; and of the layering of time (the story frequently switches between the present, seven years in the past, and twenty years in the past) are very clearly present. In short, it's a Coupland novel. And when all of the elements of the plot coalesce, events pile up faster and faster, and it's clear that the book is coming to an end, it almost hurts.

Well, well worth a read.

Rating:
Summary: Its a sad day when we're giving 5 star reviews for this one.
Review: I read the 3 other 5 star reviews of this book. I must say, first, that I was surprised that the other reviewers apparently had read other Coupland novels, and secondly, how appalled i was to read the earnest praise given to this, his latest, and most dissapointing effort. Coupland ranks as one of my all time favorite authors, (like, top 3) and I'm only thankful that I did not read this book first, as it would have certainly been the last novel of his I would ever care to read. Rigby was so uncharacteristically bland and overdone. It reads like a cynical, angst ridden junior in high school, with a wry and sardonic tone that pervades the mood of the book from page 1, and gets old and boring real fast. And usually, Coupland is a master of that mood, and does it in a smart, insightful way that is necessary to the elements of the story. But this? My eyes were rolling to the point that I was getting a headache. I'm realizing it is hard to put a finger on exactly why this book is less worthwhile than any of his others, but here's the thing: Rigby is quite similar to many other Coupland books -- has the same Coupland feel, touches on common Couplan themes (age, aging, mortality, one's relationship with the profound, time, civilaztion, redemption, salvation, etc.,) but nothing holds this book together. You can tell its Coupland who wrote it, but it seems he wrote it during one uninspired and hungover weekend. I would not bother with this book -- read "Life After God" (its much shorter and infinately more stimulating) or get "Miss Wyoming" or even "Girlfriend in A Coma". But this was a long awaited dissapointment, for me at least.

Rating:
Summary: disappointment
Review: I've read ALL of Coupland's books (even the non-fiction). I love his dry humour and prophetic insight into contemporary society. However this book was a real disappointment - unengaging, boring. The best thing in the book was the idea on page 2 about what "really" happens to all those people in the federal witness protection programme.
Many of the typical Coupland elements were there: the prophetic messages, the private sacraments, recreating one's identity after a life-changing experience. But it never really flies. The prophetic message says absolutely nothing and we don't really care about the characters' new identities or destinies.
Doug, you need to get some new ideas before you fool us all into buying your next rerun-of-a-book.

Rating:
Summary: Typical Coupland and very very good
Review: Just finished an advance reading copy of Eleanor Rigby. It's very good. It has that feeling of hope in a bland world that seems to have been the theme for the last.. well all of his books. That things needs to change and that it may not be such a terrible thing. They all seem to take place in Vancouver, a place I'm afraid to visit, because what if it's not this sunny sky'ed Ikea Vision of the way scandinavia would have been if we had a better language and weather..
I realise that this might be my own very personal interpretation of Couplands writing, but never mind, the book is good.

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievably disappointing
Review: Let me first of all state that I have read six other novels by Douglas Coupland, which I globally loved: from the hilarious and unexpectedly touching All Families Are Psychotic to the metaphysical and evocative Girlfriend in a Coma, from the low-key and endearing Hey Nostradamus to the sarcastic and wise-cracking (albeit a little too much so) Generation X. More generally, I am junkie for the written word, from every continent and every time period. So I love and know books -- they're actually my job...
But this? THIS?! I could not believe how poorly written, shallow and utterly uninteresting this novel was. I never would have expected such a letdown from Coupland. Plot: what plot? Lonely-fat-woman-discovers-meaning-of-life-thanks-to-long-lost-son-incidentally-suffering-from-terminal-stages-of-incurable-illness? Sounds like a bad afternoon TV movie with washed out stars from an 80s soap opera? Well, not does it sound like one, it reads just as bad.
Writing: I won't even comment on that. Sorry, Mr Coupland, but it's lazy, lazy writing. And if there is one thing I dislike more than a heavily clichéd plot and emotional blackmail, it's lazy writing.
Finally, the "message" of the book is... it's not even bland, it's... insignificant, non-existent, invisible... Something good about it though: you'll get through it in a day.
Seriously, Douglas Coupland has written a string of excellent novels. Don't read this one unless you've read everything else by him and you're in desperate need of a Coupland fix. And even then, get a copy of anything by Haruki Murakami. Too many books out there to waste time with the bad ones.