Man, that was some voyage. Coupland is the master. The horror of school massacre, the aftermath and how everyone was affected by it on different levels. Add religious nutjobs, psychics, Russian mobsters and one murder. On one side there's pure innocence and on the other the rancid filth of human existence. Even though the whole book has that solemn and dark tone, the flashes of hope are so bright it changes the aftertaste. Brilliant.

The first Douglas Coupland book I ever read was Worst. Person. Ever. which my friends and I joked was the worst book ever. I don't think I would've picked up another Coupland book if my friend hadn't chosen this book to be read by our bookclub as one of her favourite books.

This one was much better than the aforementioned book and I'm glad I picked it up. The prose is lovely, nearly poetic at points. I had some issues with the framing devices used throughout, but they were overall minor. I've got a lot of good quotes in here highlighted. Strong themes.

Overall I just really enjoyed this book.

Before reading this book, I was very excited to read about a school shooting from four different perspectives. I imagined four different students, four different attributes, four different writing styles, etc. "Cheryl" was decent, although some of the backstory was rather off-putting and overwhelming. "Jason" balanced this out, and, being my favorite section, effectively told a second perspective of the massacre while documenting Jason's current struggles with the loss of his brother and a violent (but humorous) encounter with Yorgo the Russian cab driver. "Heather" is what disappointed me; she had little character depth and really seemed like a girl version of Jason. The section was more characterized by Jason's disappearance and Allison's shenanigans but never went in depth about the shooting. It referenced Jason's experiences a few times but, as previously stated, could have gone in more depth Jason as a person and how the effects of the massacre still linger. "Reg" was by far the worst section. He was built up as an interesting character throughout the first three sections and I was very eager to read his perspective, but it was simply a ten-page summary of how he felt about the other characters and his backstory. He desired a much longer section and by that point it seemed as the author was being lazy. The book was a disappointment and is less about the school shooting than it is personal matters which I prefer not to read.

I listened to the audio of this book. It's so well done, with each person having their own voice and ideas. Each person adds more detail and perspective.
Throughout there's a running theme of Faith, pain, isolation and yet always, always hope, belief, beauty and belonging. The beauty of life and the world are always there, between the pain, guilt and longing.
The contrasts (beauty/ugliness, pain/healing, isolation/togetherness and more) run side by side throughout this book. It's so well done, the voices are real & warm.
I've never read a book by Douglas Coupland until now. I'll definitely be looking into his others. Terrific read.

This book actually contains very little in terms of plot—or anyway, what pieces of plot it has are only loosely connected. It’s divided into four sections, each narrated by a different character: a teenage girl who’s the victim of a school shooting, her boyfriend ten years after her death, his new girlfriend a few years after that, and his estranged father a few years after that. In a way, I guess you could say that it’s about how this one horrible event—which has already occurred when the narrative starts—continues to touch all these people years later, but really, that doesn’t seem to be it, either. Like most Coupland novels (especially the later ones) it’s really about family (those you find and those you’re stuck with) and loneliness (the universal condition, it seems). As usual, I’m impressed with Coupland’s ability to craft interesting characters and convincing narrators, and to find empathetic qualities in everyone—even Reg, the obsessively religious and cruel father, is not made to be wholly inhuman, and in fact seems real and tragic and almost beautiful by the end. So the plot, which is really the weakest part of this book, doesn’t really matter so much. As four portraits of four lives, it’s fantastic.

This was a good book, but if you read it, be prepared for the complete hopelessness of it. The kid who’s hurt the most (of those left alive) from the school shooting is the one blamed by many for the events, and his whole life is tainted by this tragedy from his senior year. It’s very sad.

I enjoy Douglas Coupland's style of writing and have picked up a few of his books. Hey Nostradamus was an interesting read however I was left with a feeling of incompletion. The stories were good but I did not feel that they were very streamline, and I did not really understand what the hell was going on with the Russian man or how Jason came to be involved in that whole scenario.
All in all I found this book fairly forgettable - I only read it 1-2 weeks ago & I don't really recall anything notable. I think I have had my fill of Douglas Coupland's writing, and will suggest to anyone interested in reading his books that, of what I have read, Player One and All Families are Psychotic are really as much as you need delve into Couplands writings before they all start to blur together.

Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland

My opinion about this book is very disappointed because I tought it was a much more interesting book than that it is so I’m not very positive about it.

I wanted to read this book because it seemed like a mysterious, interesting book. I tought that the book's genre was romance and science fiction but it was actually murder/mystery/love and religion. The murder and mystery part was ok but I disliked the religion part because they talked all the time about God and it was very boring to read.

The weaknesses of this book is that it has one story but it's told in 4 perspectives. On the one hand was that very interesting because you have 4 aspects of the story but on the other hand was it also very boring because it's the whole time the same story. When you read the first perspective you know what happened because the narrator has the head role. So know already know the story. The manner of writing was also very difficult. The strengths are that the book is quite good readable because the perspectives are separated in four chapters. And the characters were also around my age.

It was for me not worth to read this book because it was very vague and I didn't like it because of the way the story was told and I didn't understand many words. I expected more of the book.

weird.

First five star of 2020; this novel in 4 parts reaffirmed my love for Coupland’s near perfect writing.

Of course, it’s hard to read this without having the Columbine gimps at the forefront of your mind. Much of the narrative seems to directly address the way certain Evangelical Christian groups purloined the memory of certain victims for their own ends.

Coupland manages to convey a sense of the fall out from the initial tragedy of a school shooting event, through ever widening circles and seemingly disparate details. In the end though nothing is simple, no one is one thing and every event can have myriad meanings and interpretations.

Just plain lovely. Profound without being cheesy and hilarious while upholding a level of sensitivity.

I went to a reading with Irvine Welsh and Doug Copeland where Doug read from Porno (a challenge given the thick Sco'ish brogue it's written in) and Welsh read from Hey Nostradamus. That was great. Also, Doug has some pretty great ideas. Unfortunately, not many of them are in this book and it doesn't help that he's just not a very good writer.

Well this was a depressing read. In 1988, a school shooting rocks a Canadian community - a tale we hear through the voice of one of the victims, a young girl now stuck in purgatory. Then we jump years ahead to follow the lives of people who are still feeling the repercussions of this horrid event. A very different telling of such a story. Don't know if I want to read more Copeland, simply because it was such a downer.