February '04: Douglas Coupland - Hey Nostradmus

I agree that it would be unfair to label this as just a school shooting novel. I really was not interested in the shooting itself, but rather the interactions between Jason and his family along with Cheryl's. What happens to Jason's family as a result of the shooting was extremely interesting and emotional. I thought Reg was the best character in the book. I wasn't sure if I hated him or just felt sorry for him-I did think that his final section of the book could have been longer; it just felt like it was cut short.

There is so much going on in this book I can't wait to see some opinions and explanations. Everything is still sinking in because I just finished it a few hours ago.

i "unfairly" labeled it as a school shooting novel because the other stories are based on the reprecussions and actions taken after the shooting that wouldn't have happened without the shooting taking place. i liken it to the ripples of effect that, as you pointed out jeff, were catalyzed by the shooting.
i agree, the last section could have been longer, if anything the last two sections interested me the most because they helped change your perception of the characters in the novel.

It was a great way to tell a tale that is spread over 15 years or so, with four different people each telling the story of a huge event happening in their lives.
I thought that Cheryl's Sections was absolutely amazing and so beautiful, It brought a tear to my eye near the end.

trypd, wasn't pointing to anyone in particular. in fact, Entertainment Weekly recently had a section on novels related to school shootings, and mentioned HN.

Jeff

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by jeffwalsh [/i]
[B]trypd, wasn't pointing to anyone in particular. in fact, Entertainment Weekly recently had a section on novels related to school shootings, and mentioned HN.

Jeff [/B][/QUOTE]
understood. wasn't trying to play the victim or anything, just speaking my opinion.
i do have to agree, the way the novel was split up definately kept me interested, and helped justify the changes from character to character. in fact it almost give me the same sense of enjoyment that the Nick Adam's stories (hemingway) do when read in sequence, that i'm a part of the character's life as a whole, and not just one certain point of view on it.

This was the first month I participated in the book club and really enjoyed the reading. I really liked the beginning where cheryl would be telling you about her history and then flash into the shooting. It kept the tempo up in the beginning of the book so you would get caught up in it and figure out by the end it wasn't another high school shooting book.

Also (I thought about this after my first submission) at the end with reg's explanation of his doubting of his beliefs, did you think that it was odd that his explanation of his relationship with his son it had a resemblance to him talking about jesus. It made me wonder if he was really doubting his beliefs or if he was going a step further and comparing his son to jesus?

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by mnchch [/i]
[B]Also (I thought about this after my first submission) at the end with reg's explanation of his doubting of his beliefs, did you think that it was odd that his explanation of his relationship with his son it had a resemblance to him talking about jesus. It made me wonder if he was really doubting his beliefs or if he was going a step further and comparing his son to jesus? [/B][/QUOTE]
i had thought the same. i also thought of my own father-son relationship with my father. he was harder on me than my sibs it seemed, but after talking to him about it, i've realized he was harder on me because he expected more out of me because i was his favorite.

It was really neat. I liked how Coupland used the multiple narrators to his advantages, something that I haven't seen done that well since William Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying".

I think Barb killed Jason, because if her new husband knew that he had fathered her children it would ruin their family. Remember she killed that guy in Vegas to prevent anyone from knowing, it's only logical that she would also kill Jason.

[QUOTE]I think Barb killed Jason, because if her new husband knew that he had fathered her children it would ruin their family. Remember she killed that guy in Vegas to prevent anyone from knowing, it's only logical that she would also kill Jason.

[/QUOTE]

I never thought of that, but then why would he send that list about all of the characters Heather and he created to the fake psychic. My first thought was that his disappearence was related to that Russian guy Yorgo or something.

Any other opinions or theories on this?

I agree with Purge that Jason's disappearence was related to Yorgo.
The Barb angle is a nice twist that I didn't consider.
...
My favorite section was Heather because she was an outsider. All of the other characters were connected by one event. Plus, Heather had this thought process that (de)progreesed from sane to irrational. Also, she had nuggets of truth, which were great to read.

Hey, I should get this book, via ground-mail, any day now!

While I do agree that Yorgo probably did have something to do with jasons disappearance, you think yorgo would have been grateful to jason for saving his life.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Popcultjunkie [/i]
[B]I agree with Purge that Jason's disappearence was related to Yorgo.
The Barb angle is a nice twist that I didn't consider.
...
My favorite section was Heather because she was an outsider. All of the other characters were connected by one event. Plus, Heather had this thought process that (de)progreesed from sane to irrational. Also, she had nuggets of truth, which were great to read. [/B][/QUOTE]
heather is connected to the one event. the story isn't about how the event changed or affect the lives of the people who knew Cheryl, but rather how the event changed or affected the lives of those who knew Jason. Jason's experiance with the shooting was the key theme of the book.
i just figured that Jason had another black-out, and this time got himself into something too deep.
i thought jason had seen yorgo later on in the book, and yorgo smiled at him or something?

I figured the disappearance had something to do with Yorgo, even though Jason saved his life, he still didn't like him. I need to re-read the book again, it's been a few weeks since I've finished it.

I loved parts of all the sections, but my favorite was Heathers, just because she was an "outsider" but in a different sense. She wasn't connected to Jason *during* the shooting. (at least from what I remember, I'm not so sure now that I think about it that she didn't go to the school...but whatever).

I liked how, in Cheryl's section, she would be describing things and all of a sudden describe what it's like to die or something hinting at her upcoming death. It was haunting.

I wish I hadn't taken the book back to the library, it's easier to describe if I point out the exact sentence/paragraph. Oh well.

Amen to PsychoKeety for saying what I meant so much better. I know all the characters were connected by Jason. It's just Heather had no direct connection to that one event. The same could be said for Reg, but remember he is more connected to that event than Heather. Also, I connected more with Heather because I could relate more to her. It seemed to me that she was the most sane person at first, but then she started to lie to herself to feel some level of comfort. Sometimes, I do that. Instead of feeling pain, I would rather lie to myself.

I thought it was a pretty decent book, not the best thing I've ever read. though maybe my expectations were too high as i'd never read a douglas coupland before, and i'd often heard him and chuck compared, but since doug's been around longer, kind of expected it to perhaps be superior. i much prefer chuck's writing and imaginative plots, but i did enjoy this book, although i probably wouldn't read it a second time. i enjoyed the sectioned off style. it actually reminded me, in tone, a little bit of 21 grams, the movie, how they spliced the character's tales and the paths that crossed, it was also about death and grieving, that's where the similarities end. i agree that jason's death was plainly yorgo, he wasn't a nice guy, he wouldn't forgive, he was a thug who'd probably killed many people, even though jason had saved his life. i thought reg was a really interesting character, maybe my favourite, because we got to see almost a full 360 degree angle of his personality and the vast differences over the years, through different key character's eyes, his faith wearing away, regressing into doubt, disbelief. i thought the twist with the shonky clairvoyant was great, i liked the little references linking each story, the pink invoice paper, the 'god is nowhere - god is now here' etc, laced throughout. nicely written with really different distinct characters.

I thought Jeff was a fucking dirtbag for trying this in the first place.

Unless you're going to read some excellent shit, the Book Club discussions are going to be, like January's, just another fucking thread, 90% of which will be devoted to the ignorant conjectures from my uninformed ass and all of your reactions to them.

It's still immensely more constructive than just showing up and bitching all the time...

Jeff

Dear Jeff,

Quit signing your name at the end of posts.
It's in your fucking username.

Fuck you,
___________

testicle, boredom doesn't always have to equal pathetic interjections on the state of a newly formed book club. not many people have been even attempting to participate, and that's far from being jeff's fault. the people who are participating are giving their opinions on the books, and who are you to say that one person's opinion is wrong or ignorant? it's a damned opinion.
say something intelligent, or really, just stay away.
jeff, just got next month's book in, so far, very interesting, can't wait...

I'm still reading, so slow, me that is. And yes I'll pick up the march book simply because its something i otherwise would've never looked at.
Is this forum gonna turn into another sniping playground? That'd be a shame.

Just in case anyone missed it, The first part of Dennis' three-part interview with Douglas Coupland is now online at [url]http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/events/exclusives/coupland/coupland.htm[/url]

When I first started reading it I was a little turned off. Cheryl's story and voice were too similar to Anne Sebold's 'the Lovely Bones' which I read recently. I didn't feel quite up to reading yet another wholesome teenager's dispassionate account of her life and death from the great beyond. I was won over by the small details in that segment. Jason's arm stuck to the hood of Cheryl's car by congealed blood, Reg's reaction to Jason's "heroism" , the prayers and the minute details of the cafateria slaughter.

Jason absolutely broke my heart. He was such a finally drawn character and I feel like I know a bunch of those damaged, lost guys with a good heart and an impossibly fucked up past. Coupland just penned him perfectly without over sentimentalizing him.

Heather bugged me. The "froggle", "Gerard" et al thing was over cute but Allison fucking ROCKED that segment. What a clever evil twist that character was. Just had me reeling. I love how that was revealed.

Reg was simply crazy till the end. I loved that he was at Kinkos at 1:00 am with that crazy plan to find Jason. But overall that section was [i]way[/i] too short. It felt like Coupland just wanted to finish the damn book already. Just too abdrupt an ending.

Barb! What a character... probably my favorite. I find it hard to believe she just killed that guy and that was the end of it though. Neither her or Jason seemed to ever give it another thought. Would Jason really just glibly throw that into the letter to his "nephews"???

Overall, I really, really liked the book and plan on reading 'Miss Wyoming' next.

This thread has seemed to die off as of late. So here is my lame attempt at keeping it going. While I enjoyed the book, it wasn't the best but not bad, what do you think were the best lines, quotes, or scenes from the book?

I'm still reading it at like a paragraph a day, i really don't care about the guy and whats with the Russian gangster shit out of nowhere.

That reminds me. The russian guy and the psychic parts got on my nerves.

It sounded like Coupland had these cool ideas for characters and small side stories, but neither one really fit into the story very smoothly. To me it seems that rather than working on it, he just stuck them in. Both were just too forced for me.

When the random characters popping up, mainly the russian guy, it made me lose interest in the main characters. Their parts were too random and pointless.

I just finished it and to me the book was a mess, a chore to read and I doubt that I'll pick up another of his books. Very disjointed and none of the characters were fleshed out enough to get me at all interested in what happened to them. To be honest i didn't even read the last chapter.

I really did not think the book was that bad-morey, give Coupland another chance and pick up Microserfs it is definately one of his best works.

I finished this book, and I was hooked. This book was amazing, and powerful. It's struck me as incredibly sad, yet it had such a strong voice about religion and family.

The way that it revolved around faith, or sometimes lack thereof, and over abundance of, brought up many questions for me about different views.

After I finished this, I went out and got 2 more Coupeland books, "Generation X," and "All Families are Psychotic." I wasn't too impressed with "Gen X" but "All Families" was brilliant. It's more "Palahniukesque" than "Hey Nostradamus," but I don't feel that it holds the weight of HN.

Personally, I loved this book (HN, that is).
I'm a big fan of Coupland's work. I've read Microserfs, All Families Are Psychotic, Generation X, and now Hey Nostradamas, and I loved them all.
The guy's definitely one of my favorite authors.
I agree that the last chapter was a little short, but I understand the reasoning behind the brevity (it was a letter written in one sitting, while the other parts all take place over several days).
The bits with the Russians or the Psychic did all seem a little erroneous, but they all serve a very important purpose that more than justified their existence to me.

All in all, it was a great book, and one of my favorites.

Took me so long to get through it i owe $7.50 to the library.

Coupland's new book ([URL=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679313370/andreasmatern]Eleanor Rigby[/URL]) will be released on November 23, 2004.

I only just started this book (literally - 5 minutes ago), so I haven't actually read the posts in this thread - this may have already been mentioned...

Did anyone else notice on the first page, this:

"It was a glorious fall morning. The sun burned a girly pink over the mountain ranges to the WEST, and the city had yet to generate its daily smog blanket."

I mean, I may be from the southern-hemisphere and everything, but I'm pretty sure that, in the morning, wherever you are in the world, the sun is normally in the east...

Anyway, seems pretty good so far, I'll get back to it (and maybe the mysterious sun will be explained).

Finished it just now, and I'm still no wiser regarding the sun rising in the west, but I thought it was a great book.

My favourite passage came at the end of Jason's section:

"And Joyce is smiling at me. Dogs indeed smile, and Joyce has every reason to smile. It's a beautiful world and she's part of it - and yet....
...and yet we humans are not a part of it."

Everything of Coupland's that I've read I've enjoyed, most of all Life After God. This was up there though.

Oh, and I assumed Jorgo (or one of his buddies), was responsible for Jason's disappearance.

Just saw a link to this on the D.C. interview, which I just reread, having actually read his books now.
The main problem I had wth the book was that it was a little bit similar in themes to part of "Girlfriend in a Coma", which I read immediately after. When I finished, I was damn-near amazed with it. However, the similarities with GIAC spoilt it a little for me- but this is okay, as the character in that book have got past that stage now (I'm in Jared's section, btw) and haven't seen any similarities thus far in Microserfs. I was worried he wasa one-trick pony- heh, just made an intricate link turning that into the weakest pun ever.

I'd never really seen the epic character-split thing done before, at least, not well.
I also liked the passing references one character made, and then this was focused on by another character. Nice touches.

I am impressed with this guy, though, so much so that I went out and bought three Coupland novels- Life After God, Microserfs and All Families Are Psychotic (a risk I rarely take- I always buy one book by a single author, working my way through those until I'm done, then re-read them until I get a new author suggeste dto me, or something catches my eye or whatever. I haven't read many books. I read alot, just not many of them...)

I think Jason's section is my favourite, though the black-out bits got a little weird and far-fetched. I assumed Jorgo was involved, but, hey, how knows...By Reg's section, I was convinvced he was still alive- I'm that impressionable.
Hope someone actually READS this. One of my more substantial posts.

I was really looking forward to the Reg's chapter, but when he "converted" back to being normal, it wasn't as interesting. So, I was dissapointed in that, but I still liked the book and flew through it in two days. Very fast read.

I liked the book very much.

The first part was nice. Like, it wasn't the usual LISTEN-TO-ME writing that authors tend to do. It was just very easygoing and relaxing with little a little girl's voice in it. And yet it was kinda spicy with the shooting descriptions and all.

The second part was okay although despite the last episode where the reader understands the reason of this letter, there isn't much happening except X-gen rant and a retell of the shooting.

Third part was cool. I liked the detail that Heather is 7 years older than Jason. But I didn't like the animal cartoon characters. They were a bit too dominant. And also some episodes were pretty lame, like Coupland didn't exactly know what would come next. Like, where Heather is following Allison's daughter in her car and the whole trip is explained and the reader expects a shooting or something grand like this and in fact the two just sit down and smoke a cigarette and chat.

The last part was good because the reader already knew so much about Reg that another long who-am-I rant would only slow the stroy down. And it had a nice twist at the end showing that despite his normalization, Reg is still a bit loco.

I liked the structure of the book.
The first part lets you in, very softly, very naive. Then you get to see Mr Shitlife at the end of which there some intrigue. This second part also greatly developes all participating characters. The next part shows the view and world of an outsider and the last part concludes the whole with a happy ending, sorta.

I didn't like the fact that there was no clear resolution as to what exactly happened to Jason and what Jason actually did to get him into trouble. I think that was laziness on Coupland's part. I mean, sure, blame the fat Russian guy. Like in every other book/movie.

Overall, very nice book. Pleasant and fast read.

Before it I read Miss Wyoming and liked it. Now I'm reading Generation X and I already love it. I recommend it to everyone who liked Fight Club.