Hey Nostradamus! : A Novel (Coupland, Douglas) [BARGAIN PRICE] (Hardcover)

~ Douglas Coupland (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• ISBN-10: 1582343586
• ASIN: B000GG4I38
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #544,909 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of his best, April 1, 2009

By	Miles August "Miles August" (Roosevelt, LI) - See all my reviews

This is my second favorite Coupland book, my fave is LIFE AFTER GOD, but HEY NOSTRADAMUS comes close, and like all of Coupland's books entertains while at the same time making you think. Very similar to SILLY LITTLE RICH GIRL, by Jimmy Gleacher, if you like that kind of writing.

0 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars One of the worst books I've ever read, February 9, 2007

By	Stephanie Lenz "edenza" (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

I read this for a book club. The reviews here and the jacket blurb intrigued me. The jacket blurb was the best writing I found between these covers.

The characters are two-dimensional and interchangable. Their prose and dialogue is the same no matter who's speaking. No one was developed well enough for me to care what happened to them and each narrator was more sanctimonius and vapid than the last.

The dialogue is incredibly bad. No one talks like this, especially not the teenagers in part one (narrated by Cheryl).

Each character preached at me and, given their choices in their cardboard lives, I didn't appreciate it. I expected it from Reg but from Jason? And from Cheryl? I read her section eagerly, looking forward to watching her die, terrible as that sounds.

What would have helped this story was focus on... anything, really. There are scenes and plotlines that begin and go nowhere. The key to this book could have been the fathers/sons: Reg, Jason, Kent, the twins and Cheryl's unborn child. In his section, Reg says that Jason can never know his pain, having never been a father. That's all the attention the subject is given and all we can do is bristle and read the few remaining pages. Meanwhile readers know this isn't the case. But we don't get a great enough sense of this being the key to Jason's life, we don't care and subsequently what could have been an interesting aspect of the story from a literary standpoint is wasted.

On the good side, it's a quick read b/c there's little to think about and nothing to challenge the reader.

There's a reason this book is out of print.

3 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I DID NOT LIKE IT, March 8, 2006

By	fictionfanatic - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hey Nostradamus! : A Novel (Paperback)

THis book kinda sucked. It went on and on and on and on and didn't really have much of a point except to say that mass killing of teenagers ruins a lot of lives which isn't exactly a big epiphany though. I found Cheryl to be a big phony, Jason was depressed yet extremely self-centred, and Heather was just a very insecure person who needed intensive therapy to help her see that she deserved to be treated well and shouldn't stay with people who can't possibly meet her needs.

THis was just a book about a bunch of messed up people who continue to mess up their lives and then mess up the lives of everyone around them.

It had tragic overtones, obviously, just mostly I thought it was just pathetic.

I did NOT like it! Coupland could write better than this!!!