Hey Nostradamus! is a fictional novel about a high school shoot-out in Vancouver, British Columbia. It closely parallels the tragic Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, America. It created a period in American contemporary history that triggered all kinds of blame--on the goth & gun culture, on pharmaceutical companies, on Marilyn Manson's rock music, on fanaticism, on video games, on social cliques in high school, THE WORKS!--made by all sorts of lost people. Hey Nostradamus! is a book that combines elements of young love, grief, dysfunctional social integration, religion, existentialism, social and spiritual transformation and recovery after a tragedy.I bought Hey Nostradamus! months before I had the chance to watch Bowling for Columbine for film class but only read the first few pages months after watching Columbine. Is it coincidence? No, not really. However, I'm glad I was able to watch Columbine first because it gave me an idea where a society with such tragedy is coming from and heading to. It also made Hey Nostradamus! a little more palatable, especially since I come from a high school where the biggest misdemeanor is defacing school property with silly little stoichiometric equations--not defacing an entire student body with silly little guns. Hey Nostradamus! is such a great (but not good) escape from a world where mere thoughts of plotting an imaginary murder are considered highly treacherous.
I have no problem with Douglas Coupland's writing. It is not complicated and despite the plot's heavy nature, the prose remains sharp, swift and really fresh. By that, I mean it is not burdened by heavy paragraphs and a tragic tone. Slightly confounding sentences, yes, but it isn't a pain to go back and read through a few paragraphs. I read the entire book in one sitting and if I, of all people, can do it, anybody can.
The difference between Bowling for Columbine and Hey Nostradamus! is that the former focused on the killers of the tragic Columbine High School massacre and the latter tells the story of the casualties in the Vancouver shoot out. Despite this difference, both stories tell us of wasted lives--a possible consequence of being caught up in our self-serving webs and self-centered nature. Hey Nostradamus! is a four part story of Cheryl, Jason, Heather and Reg. Each story was told in a different year, a different setting but are connected by one thing: the school shout out that became the catalyst to everything that happened afterwards.
I'd go ahead and say that Jason was the easiest to relate to. He held the pieces together and was the link of both the story's past and future. His piece showed vulnerability present years after a terrible tragedy and the disillusionment every human being goes through after reality thrusts us into "the real world". It was also a reflection of the way time cannot really wash away certain things and the only way to forget remembering such tragedies is to choose not to.
People have compared Coupland to the great Chuck Palahniuk. I've only read two Douglas Coupland books, the other being Eleanor Rigby (which I bought out of curiosity because it is named after my favorite song), but his writing is pretty exciting, inspiring and insightful. I think the mark of a good book and a great writer is leaving the reader with small snippets of thought that one could not figure out alone. Douglas Coupland definitely does that. He has other books I'm pretty excited to read such as Miss Wyoming and Girlfriend In A Coma (Oooh, named after a song by The Smith's). If they are anywhere close to Hey Nostradamus! and Eleanor Rigby, then they are definitely worth anticipating. 8-)
