Hey Nostradamus!: Amazon.ca: Douglas Coupland: Books

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

(What's this?)

Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)

coupland(5)

douglas coupland(4)

generation x(2)

hrs(1)

canadian(1)

canadian literature(1)

vancouver(1)

douglas(1)

Customer Reviews

13 Reviews

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.3 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Uniquely Douglas Coupland,, July 7 2004

By

Victoria Taylor Murray "Book Maven" (Kentucky, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hey Nostradamus! (Paperback)

This book was anything but boring. I always enjoy the unique writing-style of Douglas Coupland. He has never disappointed me. His characters are always well-developed and the plots never disappoint me. I'm happy to recommend, "Hey Nostadamus" to anyone that enjoys an entertaining book.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Never mind the clanking narrative, Aug 4 2004

By

Penmachine "penmachine_com" (Vancouver, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hey Nostradamus! (Hardcover)

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.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Touching, Sep 17 2007

By

sainte-carmen (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hey Nostradamus! (Paperback)

While I enjoy Coupland's work and respect his vision, I often find his writing fails to touch me on an emotional level. This book is the exception. I found the story incredibly compelling; and, in spite of the timing, it did not seem exploitative or opportunistic.

Recommended.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 13 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Want to see more reviews on this item?

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 63 reviews 4.0 out of 5 stars

Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars good
This is a story about high school massacre in Vancouver in 1988 and how that massacre affected various characters in the novel, at least on the surface. Read more

Published 16 months ago by elfdart

5.0 out of 5 stars Hey Great Book!
Upon reading the first few pages of this book, I had no idea what to expect... and the more I read, the more I had no idea what would follow... Read more

Published on Nov 2 2006 by Natalie R. Dinn