02.12.2006 Hey Nostradamus! By Douglas Coupland Literary Fiction (c) 2003 244 pages

So my sister had just gotten out of a one night stint in jail, and I went to visit her. My mother thought that I could help her, since I had a comparable experience in a mental hospital. (She was right.) So anyway, we did our usual: Olive Garden for a decent meal and Barnes & Noble to make sarcastic remarks about the books and magazines. I didn't plan on buying anything, I was actually trying not to buy anything, but this book had such a catchy title and cover. I guess that's the word. And the first sentence in the jacket description was "Pregnant and secretly married, Cheryl Anway scribbles what becomes her last will and testament on a school binder shortly before a rampaging trio of misfit classmates gun her down in a high school cafeteria." That's catchy, too. Plus, it was on sale.

The basic structure of the book has four parts: from the perspectives of Cheryl, Jason (Cheryl's aforementioned husband), Heather (Jason's girlfriend years later), and Reg (Jason's father). And all of the characters are dealing with death (whether their own or someone else's) and religion in some way. There's religious criticism all over the place, and I loved it. I'm a sucker for that stuff, because I'm an atheist, and I like to criticize religion. I think it was pretty well done, too -- all of the perspectives were done from people with radically different ideas on religion. Since it's all mixed in with death, a lot of it is a "why would God allow such a thing" kind of questioning.

Along with the title, the cover, and the jacket description, Coupland's writing style is catchy. (I won't use that word again, haha.) It was very facile. I read his bio at the end, and it said that he went to several art schools, and designed the cover, which I was impressed with. The last book I read by a designer was Chip Kidd's The Cheese Monkeys, which I reread, and that's something I hardly ever do. Maybe liking both books has something to do with the "artist's temperament," so to say. Rebellious and creative. Which I would describe both of them as being. As for the ending, it was pretty good. At first, it seemed a weird place to end it, like he just kind of stopped in the middle, but it had the right feeling to it. Like, "Damn...shit...that was sad."

4.5/5 STARS

FAVORITE AMAZON REVIEW by CreepyT
"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.

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