Douglas Coupland's Eleanor Rigby Reviewed
I’ve been a Douglas Coupland fan ever since I read Generation X during Christmas Break 2 years ago, and Coupland novels have graced my school breaks ever since. It’s often a challenge for me to read during a school break, since I read so much in the semester, but Coupland makes it easy for me. This Christmas break I read his most recent novel, Eleanor Rigby. When this book was first published, I knew I was in for something good, because it’s one of my favorite writers and a Beatles reference all at once. I didn’t have a chance to read it until now, but I am glad I did.
Like 2003’s Hey Nostradamus! (see my 2004 recommendation) this book isn’t exactly an upper. It’s about loneliness. The narrator, Liz Dunn, makes no mistake about telling the reader she is overweight, plain, and uninteresting. She doesn’t have any friends, she lives alone, she doesn’t like her job or her coworkers. One would think, with this setup, that this would be the most boring and depressing book ever, but not so. Like in Coupland’s other works, the characters and events are believably odd. The writing is semi-existential but also sparkles with a sort of real-world hope. The hope in Coupland is different from your standard Chicken Soup hope, however. It seems rooted in an acceptance of the way things are. Life is full of loneliness, death, illness. And it doesn’t minimize those things, but rather glimmers out from within them.
Another thing interesting about Eleanor Rigby is that it makes me think, after reading it, about loneliness and reading. I spent 2 days sitting in public places (airport, mechanic, etc) totally enveloped in a fictional life. Did this make me less lonely or more lonely, I wonder? I feel like I know a fictional character intimately, but she is, after all, fictional.
Meta-questions aside, however, Eleanor Rigby is a tightly written, beautiful, unusual story that I couldn’t put down. I find Coupland’s writing arresting and provocative all the time, and his latest novel is no exception.
Like 2003’s Hey Nostradamus! (see my 2004 recommendation) this book isn’t exactly an upper. It’s about loneliness. The narrator, Liz Dunn, makes no mistake about telling the reader she is overweight, plain, and uninteresting. She doesn’t have any friends, she lives alone, she doesn’t like her job or her coworkers. One would think, with this setup, that this would be the most boring and depressing book ever, but not so. Like in Coupland’s other works, the characters and events are believably odd. The writing is semi-existential but also sparkles with a sort of real-world hope. The hope in Coupland is different from your standard Chicken Soup hope, however. It seems rooted in an acceptance of the way things are. Life is full of loneliness, death, illness. And it doesn’t minimize those things, but rather glimmers out from within them.
Another thing interesting about Eleanor Rigby is that it makes me think, after reading it, about loneliness and reading. I spent 2 days sitting in public places (airport, mechanic, etc) totally enveloped in a fictional life. Did this make me less lonely or more lonely, I wonder? I feel like I know a fictional character intimately, but she is, after all, fictional.
Meta-questions aside, however, Eleanor Rigby is a tightly written, beautiful, unusual story that I couldn’t put down. I find Coupland’s writing arresting and provocative all the time, and his latest novel is no exception.
posted by bethany at 9:09 AM
1 comments
