Eleanor Rigby

This book's title is an interesting one, as the story mentions the Beatles' song, of the same name, only once, I believe, when the main character gives out her Internet screen-name as EleanorRigby, but the story could very well be an extension or extrapolation of the life of the song's title-character. Liz Dunn is not ordinary or mundane, but is immersed in the idea that she is less than those things. She repeatedly tells the reader that she is overweight, plain, invisible in a crowd, detached, empty, and chronically, and hopelessly, lonely. That is, until her world turns upside-down, which is not always a bad thing. Much of the story occurs when Liz is thirty-six, but her life changes when Jeremy, like the comet that so inspired her to try to change, flashes through her life, and changes everything. Who is Jeremy? A quirky, bright, imaginative, charming twenty-year-old, who happens to be the son who Liz gave up for adoption, right after his birth. While Jeremy is only in Liz's life for a short time, he inspires her, invigorates her, and helps her to transcend her own self-fulfilling self-image. Several more things occur in Liz's life, after Jeremy's departure from Liz's life, that push the limits of credibility, but Douglas Coupland does not always follow the Law of Necessary Credibility (e.g., one of the main characters from his "Hey Nostradamus!" is already dead when that story begins). Some reviewers have voiced that these over-the-edge elements spoiled the story for them. Other readers might feel that way, too, while others will be like me, in that I enjoyed the tale so much that I was perfectly willing to heartily suspend my disbelief and go with the flow of absurdity all the way to its charming, wistful, and, to me, endearing end. Liz Dunn of "Eleanor Rigby" shows us that chronic loneliness is neither fatal nor incurable. Some people need to hear that. It was a nice reminder for me, even though I already knew it. Here's to all the lonely people: find a way out, as there is always a path to happiness somewhere. It might not be easy to find or to follow, but why does it have to be easy?

Its all about the moments, and Coupland is great at building these unforgettable moment-long scenes that make his characters real and funny and tragic at the same time, with a tiny bit of Us in each and every one of them. Because we might not find radioactive meteorites on the street, but stranger things have happened to all of us. I finished this book last night, rather emotionally drained, and have been thinking of it all day long. Half-depressed by the mirror it held up to me, and half-relieved by those parts of me I couldn't find in there.

Douglas Coupland has done a great job of capturing the feelings and emotions that all of us have experienced in our lifetimes, althoug the primary feeling which the author focuses on is that of loneliness. His description of the how the protagonist feels is written in such a manner that everyone, regardless of their background, will be able to relatee to. I also enjoyed how Coupland was able to write about the interplay between family members. In reading the interactions between the main character and her mother, sister, and brother, each conversation felt as though it could actually have taken place. These are not phoney characters, designed simply to advance the plot. Rather they come across as real people with feelings and emotions.In the words of Siskel and Ebert, I give this novel two thumbs up.

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.

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.