And behind door number 22... a guide to some music of the more traditional kind
Catherine Munn and Jacob Martin list their Top 5 programmes to watch over the festive period.
And behind door number nine... some dazzling musical delights
The complete arts guide, for week 9
Having cut my teeth on a bountiful supply of music and film criticism, the chance of being able to demonstrate that I am, well, literate, and the opportunity to wax lyrical about a much loved book was something that just had to be done. Ergo, this week in the “Have you…” series the focus is on Hey Nostradamus! the ninth novel by acclaimed Canadian author Douglas Coupland.
Anyone who is remotely familiar with the name will probably be aware of his more comedic books JPod and Microserfs (the former being adapted into a much lauded TV series) whilst also popularizing the terms “Generation X” and “McJob” in his debut novel Generation X: Tales of an Accelerated Culture. However, most will not be aware of his more serious novels, where he uses his biting talent for satire and characterization in order to pass comment on society; an example being his critique of commercialism and beauty pageantry in Miss Wyoming. With Hey Nostradamus! the more serious side of Coupland is once again allowed to roam free as he tackles the lives of four people following the aftermath of a fictional Vancouver high school massacre.
The story itself starts in 1988 on the day of the massacre with Cheryl, a girl lying in wait in purgatorial surroundings who describes her final weeks on Earth. Following this is an account from Jason some eleven years later as he still struggles to come to terms with the death of his high-school sweetheart, one from Heather in 2002 who has recently fallen in love with Jason and finally an account in 2003 from Jason’s father Reg.
The use of four separate characters speaking in a first-person narrative as a means to continue a storyline does sound like it should be cluttered. But through these characters, each with their own writing style and outlook on the world, instead they become perfect constructs for Coupland to use as his mouthpiece.
The main topic at hand, as represented by the kneeling figure from the first edition cover, is religion and, namely, the sheer bigotry that it can inspire. This is shown firstly through the use of the fictional student organisation “Youth Alive!” whose clique openly judge and report on one another when sins are believed to have been committed. As such they act as Coupland’s means to satirise the ever-present abstinence groups that plague North American high schools with them driving the first narrator Cheryl to devise a secret marriage in Las Vegas with Jason just so that they can have sex.
After this comes Reg, who remains as Coupland’s greatest creation, a deeply religious and bigoted man who undergoes some inspired character development. It would have been so easy to leave Reg as a character for the reader to revile but throughout the latter three perspectives he undergoes a sustained development culminating in his own section set in 2003. Some of his beliefs and mannerisms are at first laughable but with age he watch Reg grow in bitterness and in conviction as he twists into an increasingly more unlikable man becoming isolated from everyone around him.
It is in his newfound loneliness, marking the last section, where we can see Coupland truly shine as an author for no longer does he keep running the same line of the small minded man but is able to generate a great amount of pathos for this now forgotten Christian. It is only when you finally finish the book and then think over his convictions that the genius of Reg truly comes to fruition and you cannot help but hope for his wellbeing.
Hey Nostrasdamus! will probably not go down in history as a classic novel like The Catcher In The Rye or The Count of Monte Cristo, and the real truth is that it does not bring anything new to the fore of great storytelling. However what it is able to do with great aplomb is the interweaving of the complex themes of sex, religion, grief and death amongst four wonderfully constructed (and flawed) characters and as such is worthy of more attention than it ended up receiving having now sadly slipped through the gaps of the public consciousness.
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