So odd. And awesome.

On an emotional level this novel was exactly what I was craving; a main character I could relate to, quirky characters and situations and lots of lovely little details.
I could relate to the loneliness aspect of the book as I'm going through a particularly painful adjustment period in my life, feeling like I am starting over again in my thirties which I am finding harder to face and cope with as I get older.
I noticed some of the reviewers had an issue with the more outlandish turn-of-events but I liked that portion of the novel. I love that at one point I found myself saying,"What?!" aloud, surprised and amused. I enjoy being caught off guard (at least in my imagination.)
I also liked the idea of making the most of the time and situations you are given but not necessarily in a cheesy cliché way. Coupland has a way of taking a very thought about scenario and making it seem fresh and authentic.

Update: Just read for the 3rd time, it's comfort food for my mind.

4.5-5 stars.

This is my second book from Coupland, and again, I loved it so much.
"Shampoo Planet" was slightly better to me, spoke to me more, but "Eleanor Rigby" is beautiful as well.
I feel like Bukowski and Coupland are 2 authors who go so well together, if I read one, I need to read the other soon after.
This book is about loneliness and, let's just say, it's depressing. But unlike Bukowski, this one's got a happy ending, so it makes a nice change, for once. Hhh

Fantastique !
résumé: Eléanor a tout du cliché de la raté : peu attractive, dépressive, mauvaise estime d'elle-même, vie peu animée, ....Jusqu'au jour où son fils, qu'elle avait donné à l'adoption, fait surface. Son fils, beau, intelligent, souffre d'une maladie autoimune mais doté d'un optimisme hors du commun, chamboule la vie de sa mère. La relation mère-fils nait comme si elle avait toujours existé.

I completely enjoyed this book. It's been sitting in my to-read stack for years and I only started it because I'm trying to do a little purging.

The protagonist, Liz, is perhaps as lonely as a person can be. Which in retrospect is a little unbelievable because she was a delight to be around. At least for the length time it took to read the novel.

Started somewhat slow but got a little better. Still not really my type of book.

Solid book! It didn’t blow be away, but I’m glad I read it and I love how real Liz felt

Time is whimsical and cruel.

So many quotes to choose from! This book was odd but so personal. I loved the deep dive into loneliness, though of course it brought up a lot of feelings. It had beautiful poetic moments, and the timeline only confused me once or twice. I kept forgetting it is written as a journal, as it was so engrossing, and now has reminded me I have neglected my own.

This review is all over the place, but I really did enjoy getting to know Liz.

Hard to put down as the plots unexpectedly twists and turns. Well written

Kind of a strange story, but had some interesting parts though. I loved Douglas Coupland’s book “Hey Nostradamus” which I read many years ago. Unfortunately I have tried to read a few more of Coupland’s books over the years and have not enjoyed them.

Somewhere at the beginning of Eleanor Rigby Liz Dunn tells us about books about loneliness from authors who aren't lonely and in which the characters usually end up happy and with someone to be with and how this is somewhat hypocratic. **spoiler alert** At the same time we end up with Liz's life magically turning out quite well, despite the fact that her son died and she had been exposed to radioactive rays. No, she still ends up with a man who is distinctively handsome and even gets pregnant at the age of 43.


I found this read rather unsatisfying. In my eyes a lot of things fall into place too easily and seem unrealistic and random. To me it seems like all those notes Liz keeps on finding and the things Jeremy sees in his dreams and visions are plot bunnies and thoughts that came to Coupland's mind but weren't expandable enough to turn it into a complete story and were dumped into this story so people would still read them. It also seems farfetched that suddenly Liz is able to sing backwards and have visions and things just fall into place. After 20 years she's just able to all but immediately develope mother feelings for the son she's never met before. Not to mention her 'meteor' that didn't only drop down right in front of her, but also turns out to be radioactive (I find it very strange no one held her up for that thing when she departed from Canada) and whatnot.

Coupland did have a good idea but didn't succeed to really develope it in the right way.

Un libro stranissimo. Un libro in cui non sai mai bene se puoi fidarti o se l'autore ti sta prendendo in giro. Esagerato e caricaturale per certi versi, ma splendidamente sarcastico e altrettanto splendidamente coinvolgente. Ti lascia qualcosa questo libro, ti fa riflettere a sorpresa. Bello quando trovi dei romanzi così.