Hey Nostradamus!

Fiction allows a reader to experience dreadful events. Yet there is a vast gulf between driving by and witnessing the gory aftermath of an accident and being handed an understanding of how truly tragic the accident becomes in the lives of those involved. Coupland succeeds in his tale of a Columbine-style massacre by comparing and contrasting the effects of the events on characters drawn well enough that the reader cares what happens. Unlike many authors, he is not wielding emotional and physical violence without thought--yet be prepared for the violence nonetheless. Columbine was all about emotional turmoil on a staggering number of levels. Coupland does a stunning job of laying out the ethical and moral landmines inherent in any thoughtful analysis of tragedy. Naturally, any analysis of tragedy ultimately becomes an analysis of religious faith (or the lack thereof) and the limits and power of forgiveness and redemption. Sadly, nothing can be quite so devastating as the misuse of religion to cover one's own deficiencies, to excuse faults or to supposedly gain power over others who may lack the self-control to follow their own path or in some other fashion be susceptible to the misuse of religious belief. Not only is the misuse of belief treated; Coupland offers several thematic threads (though seemingly odd in the case of the psychic) that show the power of faith and belief. Furthermore, there are several characters who do terrible things and then seek forgiveness. This exploration of the limits of redemption and forgiveness will stay with the reader for a very long time. Very, very deep stuff but not for the immature or unprepared. Coupland invites us to examine our own motives and provides a reminder of how utterly inadequate we are to judge the actions of others. Finally, though we are incapable of adequate judgment--Coupland reminds that we have the duty and obligation to protect ourselves and others from the hurtful effects of the misuse of freedom by others. In other words, a well-aimed rock can prevent much suffering.

Douglas Coupland is certainly a Canadian gem. In this book Coupland, through the minds of four main characters, takes the reader on an amazing path through spirituality, human understanding, great loss, and big turning points--all while maintaining his gift of beautifully pointing out obviousness in this world that many of us miss. What I enjoyed most about this book was not only Coupland's wicked sense of humour, but his ability to tell four different views of the same event(s) through four men and women. It is not every day that one comes across a writer who can effectively capture the mind of a male and a female like Coupland has done so effortlessly in "Hey Nostradamus!". I whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone looking to explore sides of love, loss and understanding on the spiritual and human fronts. It's a fantastic page-turner, too. And I loathe using that term, so I sincerely mean it.

Coupland continues to impress me with his work, and I think this is quite possibly his best novel to date (I consider Girlfriend in a Coma the other contender). It evokes some of the same emotions as All Families Are Psychotic, but without the implausible absurdities that occur in that story. It all falls together in the end in some somewhat unexpected, but quite realistic ways--not so much in story as in character development. This book is told in first person from the perspectives of four major characters, from 1988 to 2003, beginning with Cheryl, who is killed in a Columbine-style high school cafeteria massacre, then moving on to her boyfriend Jason, eleven years later. Jason's character is the most richly developed, and his section of the book accounts for over 100 pages of the book's 244, though the characters of previous chapters continue to echo through the later ones. I very highly recommend this book.

Coupland has once again produced a strong story, with an element of the surreal creeping in. Whereas "All Families are Psychotic" had a number of surreal strands that rendered the required the reader to suspend their normal perspective, the worrying aspect of "Hey Nostradamus!" is that the principle surreal element is a school shooting that is, in fact, all too plausible. One aspect of the shooting is recounted from a victim's perspective (and from the perspective of immediately after the event), whereas the other story strands are taken from the vantage of several years after the event. The chain reactions from this are elegantly woven together - the husband of the victim who can not come to terms with the event, his relationship to his father and how that develops as a consequence of the tragedy, how his family interacts with his father. As with most of Coupland's later works, this story evolves through the different perspectives, rather than follows a rigid plot and time line. As either an introduction to those who have not read Coupland before, of for established fans, this is a volume that is well worth reading.

Coupland's latest novel is by far the best of his later books. I have been a devout reader of Douglas Coupland's work and have been disappointed with basically everything since Microserfs. Hey Nostradamus! has changed all of that. Hey! is a critical look into modern fanatacism and the consequences of being a teenager in a world filled with guns, God, and video games.The novel is divided into four parts each narrated by a different character. The connections between the characters are at first, not obvious. Coupland threads these misfits into a disjointed narrative that works. The first part is narrated by Cheryl, who has been killed in a Columbine-style massacre in a Vancouver high school in 1988. Cheryl's account reminds me of Susie Salmon's in The Lovely Bones--She is telling the story from a "space" not heaven, not hell, not earth. As macabre as the plot is, the style works. Her husband's (Jason's) account is not as seamless, but his disillusionment shows well through the narrative. I would have liked to have read more about Reg, Jason's religious fanatic father, but his portion of the book was cut short, I felt. There is no obvious resolution here, but in today's world, there seldom is. This, I believe, is Coupland's intent, or part of it, anyway.For those looking for critical insight into post-Columbine, post-9/11 North America, Douglas Coupland's latest novel does not disappoint.