Hey Nostradamus!
Paperback edition cover
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| Author | Douglas Coupland |
|---|---|
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury USA |
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Publication date
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July 2, 2004 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 244 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 55055459 |
| 813/.54 22 | |
| LC Class | PS3553.O855 H49 2004 |
| Preceded by | All Families Are Psychotic |
| Followed by | Eleanor Rigby |
Hey Nostradamus! is a novel by Douglas Coupland centred on a fictional 1988 school shooting in suburban Vancouver, British Columbia and its aftermath. This is Coupland's most critically acclaimed novel. It was first published by Random House of Canada in 2003. The novel comprises four first-person narratives, each from the perspective of a character directly or indirectly affected by the shooting. The novel intertwines substantial themes, including adolescent love, sex, religion, prayer and grief.
The novel follows the stories of victims of a fictional school shooting in North Vancouver in 1988. Coupland has expressed his concern that the killers of the Columbine High School massacre received more focus than the victims; this is his story about the victims of tragedy. The novel is told in four parts, each with a different narrator and focus.
This part of the book is told post-mortem by Cheryl, a girl killed in the fictional school shooting at Delbrook Senior Secondary. Cheryl, from a purgatorial ante-state, recounts the events that led up to the shooting, involving her secret trip to Las Vegas to marry her boyfriend Jason. She also describes with a first person perspective what was happening in the cafeteria while the school shooting was taking place.
Cheryl describes her relationship to God, her relationship to her group of religious minded friends and their "Youth Alive!" group, and her relationship to her husband, Jason. She speaks about her life with a frank, open nature, not afraid of anything, as she is beyond the grave.
We also listen in to the prayers of people still in the incident and of those thinking about the incident. It is explained that only prayers and curses can carry through to the afterlife. The text indents the prayers in the section, presenting them without interaction with Cheryl's character, as stand-alone external perceptions of the incident.
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