Hey Nostradamus!

I wanted the book to be so much MORE. I was really intrigued by the description.

“As far as I could tell, Jason and I were the only married students to have attended Delbrook. It wasn’t a neighborhood that married young. It was neither religious nor irreligious, although back in the eleventh grade English class I did a tally of the twenty-six students therein: five abortions, three dope dealers, two total sluts, and one perpetual juvenile delinquent. I think that’s what softened me up for the conversion; I didn’t want to inhabit that kind of moral world. Truth be told, I wanted everything those kids had, but I wanted it by playing the game correctly.”

I really enjoyed the beginning of this story, I quickly felt that the author dramatically overplayed the school shootings and the violence. (And ripped from the headlines stories rarely excite me, hence my disliking of The West Wing.) Overplayed works, if the entire story is tsatire. But this book didn’t cross that line. One minute it was a story wanting desperately to be telling so much more…and the next trying to be *dark* to make a point, that was printed, but not necessarily developed through the characters stories. Perhaps if the *letters* and the shifting point-of-view ran through the pages smoother the author’s points would have come through? (Past? No present, wait dead? Future? Augh! Nephews? Sons?)

“Redemption exists, but only for others, I believe, and yet I lack faith. I tried building a private world free of hypocrisy, but all I ended with was a sour little bubble as insular and exclusive as my father’s.”

Wah, wah, wah. Somehow I got lost trying to care. I guess the concept of telling the central story (whatever that was) got tangled up in way too many people and tangents and things I could care less about in the following chapters. Which I think is a real shame, because like I said, I really thought the story had potential.

“The harder people try to be the opposite of their parents the quicker they become them. It’s a fact.”

The brother? Yeah. Who cares. He dies. Jason becoming the husband of his brother’s newly-widowed sister turn wife? A little out there, but again, since the entire story didn’t lend itself to outrageousness (or at least well written outrageousness that made me care) I could have done without this whole stupid mess. Getting married in the same chapel doesn’t add any nuances to Jason’s tortured past, it just annoyed me. And the newly-wedded widow becoming a murderer? Whatever.

“I didn’t know what to say, because I was thinking, Oh God, this is how my father left back in 1988.”

Yeah, yeah we get it. Moving on… Part three? Heather. What a waste of space. I didn’t feel like I saw another side of Jason because this chapter read just like all the others. All I learned was, um, nothing.

“In the end, I think the relationships that survive in this world are the ones where two people can finish each other’s sentences. Forget drama and torrid sex and the clash of opposites. Give me banter any day of the week.”

Yeah, highly unusual for a couple to have their own little *code* and *phrases* and *stories* blech. As the book went on, I became more and more frustrated that each character had to constantly remind the reader that they were writing a letter. On pink paper? Into a courtroom system? At Kinko’s? Who cares! I’m smart enough to understand the writing of the letter, thank you very much. Part Four? Reg. (The father) By this point in the book, I wanted it to be over. I thought perhaps something would be resolved through the father’s chapter, but no… All in all? I wanted to read the last two chapters because I wanted to know what was going to happen. What a waste of time.

I already tried to read this book when i was younger and the first part is pretty intriguing which is why i picked it up again. I would have DNFed this one but i couldnt do that again and keep wondering what happens... Anyway it took me forever to read because it was boring, weird religious conflicts and had no chapters. I only liked the first POV in the book and 2 shocking parts but was just 2 sentences and doesn't even expand or reveal it to anyone. All to say 1 star and regrets.

Poimin Douglas Couplandin romaanin Hei Nostradamus! ihan suunnittelematta kirjaston hyllystä Helmet-haasteen kohtaan 24. Kirjan nimessä on kysymysmerkki tai huutomerkki.

Coupland oli ihan uusi tuttavuus minulle, ja kirjalle ei ollut ihmeemmin odotuksia. Kirjassa on neljä kertojanääntä: Vastikään alaikäisinä salaa naimisiin menneet Cheryl ja Jason kuuluvat uskonnolliseen Nuoriso Elossa! -järjestöön (Oli pakko googlata: Youth Alive! -niminen järjestö on olemassa edelleen). Cheryl joutuu kouluampumisen uhriksi ja Jasonia aletaan jostain syystä pitää syyllisenä tapaukseen. Laajin osa kirjaa kertookin Jasonista, joka kamppailee muistojensa, menetyksensä ja ihmisten ennakkoluulojen kanssa. Äänen saavat myös Heather, jonka kanssa Jason lopulta lyöttäytyy yhteen, ja Reg, Jasonin ankaran tuomitseva uskonnollinen isä.

Aihe on traaginen, mutta musta huumori tekee kirjasta kummallisella tavalla hauskan.

I unambiguously love Douglas Coupland.
Back in the 90's he was THE cool, hip, finger on the cultural pulse writer. Now he's almost forgotten and hardly read by anyone but i love him anyway.
He is humane and compassionate without being stupid or cheesy and he tells a great yarn.
This novel deals with the aftermath of a school shooting through the eyes of four very flawed human beings. They don't handle things very well, they fumble and fail and try to be better than they actually are. Coupland uses this surviving of a very modern horror to insightfully and tactfully discuss other modern problems, the loss of family, the absence of a spiritual life, the absence of love and the general "bleh" of modern society.
At the end of this i felt a warmth and generosity towards my fellow flawed human beings inhabiting this planet and any literature that can provoke that sort of response is worth your time.

I didn't like this nearly as much as I thought I would.

I liked the parts written by Cheryl and Heather, but felt that much of the parts written by Jason and Reg were either redundant or an endless repetition of the same basic idea. This novel isn't what it pretends to be. This isn't about Cheryl, a girl who died in a high school massacre. This is about Jason, who seems to have had a personality transplant between high school and ten years later. I would've liked it more had the writer explored the influence of the massacre on Jason's life, for example by imagining what it would be like had the massacre either not happened or had Cheryl not died in it.

Stark känsla av att ha läst den här förut? Kanske för att jag hade den i min bokhylla från att jag var 12 och stirrade på bokryggen varje kväll när jag skulle sova. Jag kanske faktiskt har läst den, men hoppas inte, den passade bättre för mig nu som vuxen. Handlar om vuxna och religion och fromhet.

This is my first audio book and I must say the next time I choose an audio book I will either a) have to avoid listening to it while in traffic (this book was emotionally moving, riviting along with shocking) or b) sitting in the bath tub.

I have read only one other Coupland novel The Gum Thief and I found the novel haunting yet real it is not often that can be said about an author.

This is the story or young lovers, secretly married, secretly having a baby and then suddenly in an act of violence so incredible a young mother is gunned down in a school shooting. This is the story of the aftermath, of forgiveness and terror so complete it will leave you breathless.

Definantly do NOT listen to this book in the car.

It’s 1988. On a morning unlike any other at a suburban high school in Vancouver, 3 teens attempt to achieve the highest kill count in the history of school shootings. Flash forward 11 years into the future; the incident has more or less been forgotten by most but remains ingrained in the memories of a select few closest to the tragedy.

I was really enjoying this book; I could go so far as to say I was loving it. However, right up to about the halfway point, something so insane occurred that it took me completely out of the story and nearly ruined the entire novel for me. Coupland spends a decent amount of time building a world in which I bought in to, characters that I truly felt sorry for. He then throws this ridiculously unnecessary event that wasn’t even needed! I’ll tag a spoiler at the end so I can complain about it.

That being said, I really did like the characters in this novel. Well, aside from Reg, but you're not supposed to like him anyway. I have this thing with overly self-righteous parent figures that can drive me up the wall. I think it comes from having a few in my family, however, I'm not going to subject you to that.

In terms of writing, it had its fair share of memorable quotes and passages. I can complain all I want about that one problem, but Coupland proved he has some serious writing chops.

It has been drilled into us that to feel fear is to not fully trust God. Whoever made that one up has never been beneath a cafeteria table with a tiny thread of someone else’s blood trickling onto their leg.

Trust me, you spend a much larger part of your life being old, not young. Rules change along the way. The first things to go are those things you thought were eternal.

Those two, especially the latter, really connected with me. Hey, I'm not exactly old (27 years old, here) but I'm starting to get that outlook. I understand exactly where he's coming from.

As iffy as I felt after reading this novel, I’m really excited to try something else of Coupland's. I thoroughly enjoyed his style, I hope that he's bound to impress me. There was enough within these pages to draw me back for another round.

Okay, so I can believe that Jason needed Barb to marry him before he fathered her child(ren). What I have a hard time believing is what followed. For starters, that Barb actually agreed to it and flew to Vegas with Jason to fulfill his wishes. And second, the worst part, is that totally unnecessary murder! I actually said out loud, “What?!” when it occurred. I was so distracted by how ridiculous it was that it nearly ruined the whole thing. I’m still mad about it! It took what could have been a 4.5 to 5 star experience right down to a solid 3.