Hey Nostradamus! - Softcover

Coupland, Douglas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007182589 ISBN 13: 9780007182589

Publisher: HarperPerennial, 2004

Synopsis

In 1988, a catastrophic episode of teen violence shatters a suburban community. HEY NOSTRADAMUS follows the aftermath in various voices across two decades: the teenage victims whose ordinary preoccupations with sex and spirituality will never evolve past that moment; the parents whose exposure to their children's underground world threatens their deepest convictions; and those who come to know the survivors only later in life, unable to fully realize what really transpired. HEY NOSTRADAMUS wrestles with religion and nihilism, sorrow and acceptance. It will take you to a place you didn't know existed.

About this title

Review:

Considering some of his past subjects--slackers, dot-commers, Hollywood producers--a Columbine-like high school massacre seems like unusual territory for the usually glib Douglas Coupland. Anyone who has read Generation X or Miss Wyoming knows that dryly hip humor, not tragedy, is the Vancouver author's strong suit. But give Coupland credit for twisting his material in strange, unexpected shapes. Coupland begins his seventh novel by transposing the Columbine incident to North Vancouver circa 1988. Narrated by one of the murdered victims, the first part of Hey Nostradamus! is affecting and emotional enough to almost make you forget you're reading a book by the same writer who so accurately characterized a generation in his first book, yet was unable to delineate a convincing character. As Cheryl Anway tells her story, the facts of the Delbrook Senior Secondary student's life--particularly her secret marriage to classmate Jason--provide a very human dimension to the bloody denouement that will change hundreds of lives forever. Rather than moving on to explore the conditions that led to the killings, though, Coupland shifts focus to nearly a dozen years after the event: first to Jason, still shattered by the death of his teenage bride, then to Jason's new girlfriend Heather, and finally to Reg, Jason's narrow-minded, religious father.

Hey Nostradamus! is a very odd book. It's among Coupland's most serious efforts, yet his intent is not entirely clear. Certainly there is no attempt at psychological insight into the killers' motives, and the most developed relationships--those between Jason and Cheryl, and Jason and Reg--seem to have little to do with each other. Nevertheless, it is a Douglas Coupland book, which means imaginatively strange plot developments--as when a psychic, claiming messages from the beyond, tries to extort money from Heather--that compel the reader to see the story to its end. And clever turns of phrase, as usual, are never in short supply, but in Cheryl's section the fate we (and she) know awaits her gives them an added weight: "Math class was x's and y's and I felt trapped inside a repeating dream, staring at these two evil little letters who tormented me with their constant need to balance and be equal with each other," says the deceased narrator. "They should just get married and form a new letter together and put an end to all the nonsense. And then they should have kids." --Shawn Conner, Amazon.ca

From the Publisher:

Praise for All Families Are Psychotic:
"A maestro's ear for dialogue and a deep understanding of humanity...Coupland, once the wise guy of Generation X, has become a wise man."-People
"[Coupland]'s best novel to date." -LA Weekly
"A powerful, redemptive story...written by a 40-year-old who has moved beyond any youthful alienation to an appreciation of the complicated nature of what binds people together."-Miami Herald
"It's an extraordinarily well-written novel with characters you know you shouldn't be liking but do. So real."-Whoopi Goldberg
"[An] unforgettable modern tale of an American family." -Rocky Mountain News

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperPerennial
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0007182589
• ISBN 13: 9780007182589
• Binding: Paperback