Eleanor Rigby

published	2006 by Bloomsbury USA
first published	2004
binding	Paperback
isbn	1582346437 (isbn13: 9781582346434)
pages	272
description	Liz Dunn isn't morbid, she's just a lonely woman with a very pragmatic outlook on life. Overweight, underemployed, and living in a nondescript condo w...more [close] Liz Dunn isn't morbid, she's just a lonely woman with a very pragmatic outlook on life. Overweight, underemployed, and living in a nondescript condo with nothing but chocolate pudding in the fridge, she has pretty much given up on anything interesting ever happening to her. Everything changes when she gets an unexpected phone call from a Vancouver hospital and a stranger takes on a very intimate place in her life. From here the plot of Douglas Coupland's Eleanor Rigby skyrockets into a very bizarre world, rife with reverse sing-alongs and apocalyptic visions of frantic farmers. The style and plot paths are very identifiably Coupland--slightly mystical, off-kilter, and very, very smart. Ultimately a novel about the burden of loneliness, Eleanor Rigby takes its characters through strange and sometimes nearly unimaginable predicaments. Fans of Douglas Coupland's later novels, particularly Hey Nostradamus! and Miss Wyoming, are bound to like Eleanor Rigby. Like many of his novels, the journey is strange and unexpected but you come out at the other end with a snapshot of a sardonic and bizarre but ever-so-slightly hopeful place. --Victoria Griffith [close]
date added	12-14-06 edit book

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Heather rated it:

08/30/07

Read in March, 2005

Liz Dunn is lonely. She’s overweight and bitter, with a nondescript office job and absolutely no one in her life except her mother and siblings. Her future stretches ahead, each day no different than the last, each year no different than the one before.
The story begins in the summer of 1997. Hale-Bopp comet streaks across the Canadian skies, and Liz comes to a realization. From that moment forward, Liz decides to go with the flow. No more trying to control everything. All she wants from lif...more Liz Dunn is lonely. She’s overweight and bitter, with a nondescript office job and absolutely no one in her life except her mother and siblings. Her future stretches ahead, each day no different than the last, each year no different than the one before.
The story begins in the summer of 1997. Hale-Bopp comet streaks across the Canadian skies, and Liz comes to a realization. From that moment forward, Liz decides to go with the flow. No more trying to control everything. All she wants from life is peace. She heads for home with a lighter heart and absolutely no idea that her world is about to turn upside down.
Everything changes with one phone call. A young man has turned up in the local hospital wearing an id bracelet with her name and phone number inscribed on it. She is his “in case of emergency, contact.”
Jeremy Buck is an unusual young man. He’s beautiful, charming and funny. He has visions of the end of the world. He is the son Liz gave up for adoption over twenty years before – the product of a class trip to Rome. Jeremy has multiple sclerosis. He is dying.
Liz opens her heart and her home to her ailing son, determined to make the most of the time they have left. She learns that even the most simple things in life – dinner, watching a favorite television show, shopping – are more enjoyable when shared with someone else.
Jeremy’s visions intrigue Liz. They are horrifying, beautiful and poetic. Liz saves them all – little scraps of paper she finds scattered around the apartment – tiny windows into Jeremy’s world. When Jeremy becomes to sick to write them down, she records what he says. It’s something solid to hold on to, to prove that he passed through her life.
When Jeremy dies, Liz is devastated. Having tasted life with another person, she is unwilling to return to her bleak existence, but unsure how to move forward. Her life takes another unexpected turn when Jeremy’s father resurfaces. Propped up by courage gleaned from her experience with Jeremy, Liz travels to Vienna to face her past and finally finds hope for the future.
I have been a fan of Douglas Coupland’s books since he published Generation X in 1991. His work is by turns haunting, funny, heartbreaking and irreverent. He has been labeled by critics “the spokesperson of Generation X,” but has resisted the title, claiming he speaks only for himself, not for an entire generation. His loyal readers disagree.
Pop culture is the backbone of Coupland’s books. His references to things, places and events work together to create an incredibly strong sense of time and place. Girlfriend in a Coma is Vancouver in the 80’s and 90’s. Hey Nostradamus brings to life the horror of a school shooting similar to Columbine and takes a long hard look at the lives of the people left behind. Liz’s reminiscences in Eleanor Rigby evoke a perfectly typical 1970’s childhood. Those of us who fall into the “Gen X” group (born between 1965 and 1980) always find familiar landmarks in the pages of his books.
Coupland’s greatest gift as a writer is that he “gets” people. He has an uncanny ability to crawl inside his character’s skin, dragging his readers along for the ride. His characters aren’t always likeable or glamorous, but they are always, always completely human. Dialogue rolls off the page in crisp sound bytes packed with wry humor and witty banter.
Eleanor Rigby (yes, he did get the name from the Beatles’ song) is perhaps Coupland’s best book to date. He has matured as a writer. The acerbic wit of the early 1990’s has softened a bit – he is considering life from the other side of forty now, and seems to have a deeper understanding of the boomers he so ruthlessly impugned in Generation X. Coupland’s observations of modern culture are crystal-clear as ever, but his voice is wiser.

(Review published in the Burlington Times-News, Sunday, March 27, 2005)...less

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