Rating: 
Summary: "GOD IS NOWHERE/GOD IS NOW HERE"
Review: "Hey Nostradamus! Did you predict that once we found the Promised Land we'd all start offing each other? And did you predict that once we found the Promised Land, it would be the final Promised Land, and there'd never be another one again?" (Coupland, 91)
Coupland's Hey Nostradamus! is a tale of loss and the infinite spirals of emotion that stem from inimitable and incomprehensible acts that serve as more than mere speed bumps on the road of life, and go on to tarnish vast quantities of people via a ripple effect. Furthermore, Coupland briefly and vaguely touches on religious themes and how religion plays a role in some people's lives. The novel is told in four parts.
The first part is told, in a Lovely-Bones-esque kind of way, by Cheryl Anway, the victim of a heinous school shooting. Cheryl glances in retrospect at the events leading up to her death, and informs of her covert marriage to Jason, her high school sweetheart, and her recently discovered pregnancy. Neither of which anyone but the two of them knew about.
Next we hear from Jason, the boyfriend who has yet to really put the past behind him and move on with his life. Jason, as would be expected, moves through life in an apathetic manner, and doesn't ever really allow himself to live, love, or forgive. Jason gives his account of the shootings, as well as what happened shortly thereafter, encompassing his own feelings and his family's disintegration.
Third we hear from Jason's eventual girlfriend, Heather, who comes along after the previous insert from Jason. She talks of her relationship with Jason, and of her own recent loss.
Finally, Reg, Jason's sanctimonious father whom everyone loves to hate yet can't help but feel sorry for, writes a heart-wrenching letter to Jason. In this letter he divulges his insecurity with his faith, and attempts to make amends for parental misgivings.
After reading this novel, you will find yourself chewing up various emotions and spitting them back out only to find a bitter-sweet reminiscence left in your mouth. Though that may sound at first like a bad thing, it only attests to Coupland's ability to really drive his points home and, in so doing, force his readers to experience a novel rather than simply read it. Hey Nostradamus! is a dissection of raw, brutal, human emotion, told in the intriguingly vivid and witty manner characteristic of Coupland's other works. I have loved everything I have read by him thus far, and will definitely continue to support his work. Very highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Good characterization drives novel
Review: "Hey Nostradamus!" has an atypical structure, each of its four chapters being narrated in first person by a different character. The first part of the story is told from the point of view of a victim of a high school massacre that is obviously patterned after the Columbine incident. Her recounting of that violent day sets the pace for the rest of the book, as the subsequent characters are, in turn, effected by its events. Each of them is lead, at some point, to question his or her religious convictions - some are strengthened and others are lost.By the time the novel reaches its fourth segment, it has morphed into a completely different tale than what is expected from the beginning. The transitions can be jarring, but then, so can life itself. I found myself sympathizing with each character as he or she took hold of the story, despite the fact that they were each capable of some pretty horrible or foolish acts. The moral flaws of the individual characters don't seem to matter though. It's the rest of the world that's a mess, and they're just trying to get through it.
Rating:
Summary: Good characterization drives novel
Review: "Hey Nostradamus!" has an atypical structure, each of its four chapters being narrated in first person by a different character. The first part of the story is told from the point of view of a victim of a high school massacre that is obviously patterned after the Columbine incident. Her recounting of that violent day sets the pace for the rest of the book, as the subsequent characters are, in turn, effected by its events. Each of them is lead, at some point, to question his or her religious convictions - some are strengthened and others are lost. By the time the novel reaches its fourth segment, it has morphed into a completely different tale than what is expected from the beginning. The transitions can be jarring, but then, so can life itself. I found myself sympathizing with each character as he or she took hold of the story, despite the fact that they were each capable of some pretty horrible or foolish acts. The moral flaws of the individual characters don't seem to matter though. It's the rest of the world that's a mess, and they're just trying to get through it.
Rating: 
Summary: If you love Coupland, you will enjoy this book
Review: But for those less passionate about his unique style, I would probably borrow, not buy this book. I agree with the Amazon.ca review which say that the first 1/3rd of the book is mesmerizing. In fact, it's momentum kept me reading through to the end. By the time I put it down, I found myself feeling sad, touched, and yet again impressed by Coupland's ability to capture characters who, despite their crazy circumstances, feel real.
Rating:
Summary: possibly Coupland's best
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: possibly Coupland's best
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Out of the Coma, Into the Night
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Coupland at his best
Review: Hey Nostradamus! is the latest novel by Canadian author Douglas Coupland. Coupland is perhaps best known for coining the phrase "Generation X" - taken from the title of his first novel. I have been a huge fan of Coupland's since that first novel - even though much of his work is spotty (for example, I thought "Girlfriend in a Coma" started very strong, then meandered away to mediocrity).
This novel, however, is brilliant from top to bottom. Similar to the atrocious Booker winner ("Vernon God Little"), this novel is a take on school shootings. But where VGL does it's best to explain the "why" of school violence (and fails miserably), Coupland wisely uses the school violence as a starting point. He's much more concerned with "what happens afterward?" This creates a much more complex novel that explores not only teen angst, but also familial emotional abuse, spirituality, religion, feelings of urban isolation, and a host of other themes.
By using four narrators, Coupland is able to take a core theme, spirituality, and absorb it and examine it from vastly different angles. Moreso than in his other work, Coupland captures the unique voice and experience of each character.
Overall, this was a fascinating read, and one that will stay with me for a long time - especially the "Heather" section. An amazing novel.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed in Nostradamus.
Review: I bought this book as an impulse. The cover intrigued me and the discription of the book on the back intrigued me even more. Unfortunately I feel that to book didn't have follow through.
I found all four voices in this book to be too similar. There was no tangable differences between Cheryl and Jason especially. I also found Reg and and Heather's sections to be extremely forced.
This book is timely and I think it had GREAT potential. However I feel it falls flat. The characters are trite and extremely naive to the world.
I am giving it three stars.
Rating:
Summary: Never mind the clanking narrative
Review: I read plenty of books, but few of them are novels, probably because, as I age, I can "hear the devices clanking away" (in the words of Richard Rodriguez, author of "Brown," who knows what he's talking about). Nevertheless, I remain drawn to the novels of Douglas Coupland, who like me is from Vancouver. That despite his being an extreme example of "write what you know"--his characters are pretty much all young, white, and middle class; they live in the Western United States or just across the border in Canada; when they travel, they go to Vegas or Oregon or Seattle, never to Alberta or New York (forget about Japan or Madagascar); they all talk and think in some variation of semi-ironic, simile-heavy, pop-referencing Coupland-speak; their themes are sudden loss, pointless death, loneliness, running away, and vague dread, even from the afterlife; their tales often start strong and then slowly vaporize rather than coming to a strong conclusion. Clanking devices indeed. Somehow, though, I don't care. His novels are better than his non-fiction, which (while entertaining) feels dashed-off, undisciplined, and improperly researched. In fiction, he takes advantage of those same tendencies to write with a strange propulsion, even when his characters are doing nothing but sitting and thinking. The stories are short but dense. His eye for detail evokes the true feelings of a place. Even his weakest books, such as "Shampoo Planet," "Girlfriend in a Coma," and "Miss Wyoming," have something to say, although neither the reader nor the writer might know exactly what that is. "Hey Nostradamus!," from 2003, is an extreme example. It takes place almost entirely in North and West Vancouver, and revolves around kids in high school, and what becomes of them and their families. There are many deaths, some deserved, some uncertain, some shockingly random. It's about people who want to change themselves, but can't. Only one of the four major characters does change, and only far too late, when he's irrelevant to everyone to whom it would matter. And yet, there at the end of the book, I nearly cried. I think it's Coupland's best written work since "Microserfs" a decade ago. Go read it.
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