Douglas Coupland follows four characters who were directly related in one way or the other to a tragic event in the past.

Cheryll: the pregnant 17 year old who wrote in her journal what would be her last entry, and her thoughts from the afterlife as well,her own sentiments about the aftermath of the tragedy at the school cafeteria that took her own life, addressing directly all to God.

 

Jason: The secret husband of Cheryl, narrates his own experience from becoming a hero-suspect-and back to a victim of the same tragic event, writing his own memoirs from a van facing the ocean, more than 10 years after Cheryl died, his inability to cope with the sad event, his alienation with his father whom he casually refer to as Reg.

Heather: The woman who love Jason, still feeling trapped from the effect of Jason's tragic past,caught between Jason's inability to move on, Heather told her story in a much different narrative as an outsider from that terrible tragedy, about her chance meeting with Jason, falling in love with him and her desperate attempt to locate Jason when he goes missing.

Reg: Jason's strictly religious father, narrates a short glimpse of his character and offers a rare look at the seemingly distant and hard rock figure, the object of Jason's contempt, partly due to his hypocrite views about religion and those he seems as not worthy of paradise.

'Hey Nostradamus!' is a powerful and funny novel about consequences, after-effects and the human response to tragedy. The book doesn't focus on the killers. their motives nor the cops investigation, as if it only served as a backdrop to the story or theme of the novel which is coping with the aftermath of the tragedy, as told in first hand narrative of the four characters and those around them.

Reading the book is like riding a roller coaster in terms of emotion, from the onset of Cheryl's narrative about her death, life ( which she described as more boring, getting married in Las Vegas, being the subject of gossip among her fellow schoolmates and so on) Up to her own brewing questions about the purpose or reasons of what happened to her that morning in the school cafeteria.

Then to Jason, with a complete revamp settings, 11 years down the line, still coping with Cheryl's death and the eventual separation of his own family, reliving the death of his brother, writing in a profound manner addressed to his Brother's twins?, His own struggles of not really getting a life after that sad event, like a living dead, until the day he disappeared for no apparent reason at all.Jason's story is the most compelling, the longest and often the funniest.

Enter Heather, the only person not directly connected to the shooting tragedy, she tries hard to connect with Reg while at the same time making an effort to locate Jason ( enter psychics or should i say fake psychics who brings messages from make believe characters ).

And Reg the estranged father caught up with his own religious dogmas, strict and questionable moral code, that eventually distant him further from his own family. All said and done, although i was left hanging a bit about the conclusion, there are still a lot to treasure about, a lot of questions abound especially the motives behind the killing, but that will make up an entirely different novel.

Because what Coupland brought here is a story of people, on how they lived, try to cope up, with the usual strands of indifference,grief,loneliness and even guilt.

Comparing it to 'Hey Nostradamus' is like debating the difference between the sun and the moon, where in 'Hey...' Coupeland was full of nitty gritt seriousness, social commentary, deepness of character, while here in 'All Families are Psychotic' Coupeland tries his hand on a more comical satirical way of writing, which produces a mixed feeling from me.

 

Its hard when you are the writer who wrote the book that defined a generation ('Generation X' ) and other savvy novels like 'Microserfs' and 'Girlfriend in a Coma' which may come darker and deeper than most novels.

In 'All Families are Psychotic' as always you might find in a Coupeland book, the characters are funny, charming with a totally hip and fast paced narrative that flows smoothly and pleasurably.

But in doing so, it became like an Elmore Leonard novel where everything and all of a sudden coincides with each other, as to make more hilarious situations, as much as heavy burden the character gets ( HIV infection, being broke, good for nothing existence, disfigured physical features etc. ) you can hardly see any burden, its like the characters are all holed up in this make believe land when anything is possible and will happen just to provide humor.

Well i appreciate the humor, that's where my mixed feelings comes in, as i remember this is fiction, in fiction you dint calculate the possibilities of something happening, right? you go on with the story, hell million of people enjoyed Stephen King and Neil Gaiman's novels, but problem is Coupeland belongs to a genre although its still fiction, readers like me are expecting a conduit between the characters and ourselves.

I appreciate the good and fun moments of this book, but at the same time i end up questioning the reactions or the mindset of the characters, the countless coincidences ( although it made up a riotous setting ) still, i find myself not comfortable with events happening with great connections to each other, like 'life is like a blanket' ( from 'i heart huckabees' ).

Or maybe i was expecting too much after 'Hey Nostradamus'

Well Douglas Coupland is no doubt a talented writer, he is entitled to write a funny and more mainstream book, and this one is the result of that 'hopefully temporary experiment'.

If you were a fan of Douglas Coupland, chances are you already read 'Generation X' and 'Girlfriend in a Coma' to name a few, then maybe you will be left a bit disappointed with this book.

But if you're a book reader that just want to have a good experience reading a humorous tale about a portrayal of the breakdown of a modern family unit then you might find this book appealing.

Guess what? after writing down all my complaints about this book, thinking also about its 750.00 price tag at fully booked, guess somehow i never regret buying and reading it.

Its just that there is one thing lacking in it, the true Douglas Coupland style, the dark side? maybe...well as i said, any writer needs some temporary relief to their style...lets just hope Dan Brown will change his also...but please not Coupland, we love you already back then no need to go mainstream. 'Generation X' is more mainstream than you could ever get.

Charlie Nancy is living an ordinary life, working in a top agency, being engaged to a beautiful woman named Rosie ( whoa sweet name ), life in London is what he wants, peaceful and most of all away from his Father and the embarrassments that he brings into his life.

Until one day, Charlie whose nickname "Fat Charlie" was one of the many embarrassing reminder his father sanctioned upon him, received a news that his father died of an apparent heart failure in the middle of a Karaoke stage.

Dealing with the aftermath and burying his father, Charlie came to know the truth about his father's real identity. Charlie's dad is not just any other dad, he was Anansi, a god who outsmarts and uses tricks to outwit his enemies, the rebellious God who can create wealth opportunities without working a single day, a God who owns most of the stories handed down from generation to generation.

And that is just a humdinger of things to come, "Fat Charlie" also learned the existence of his brother, all he had to do as Mrs. Higgler told him is ask a spider.

Of course "Fat Charlie" never believed a thing, but when a spider shows up in his tub one night while Rosie is about to take a bath, Charlie did the unthinkable,

"If you see my brother..tell him to come by and say hello" Fat Charlie told the spider.

And then the next day his brother Spider showed up in his doorstep, and Charlie's life will become more interesting and a lot dangerous...

**********

I'm telling you right now, this is not the best book the author has written, but if you're Neil Gaiman, it still speaks highly of you, comparing it to "Neverwhere" or "American Gods" is unfair, those two books are probably at the top of every reader's barometer of a great fantasy novel.

Still "Anansi Boys" is an enthralling read that will provide fun and excitement, Gaiman has again created a world in a world setting, vivid and haunting, to the extent that it stretches your imagination to picture even a portion of what is going through Gaiman's head.

And the result is once again a staggering images of dreamlike scenes enough to make your reading experience a truly enjoyable one.

In Anansi Boys just like in Neverwhere and American Gods, it has a character that is drawn in the world where God's roam and battle each other, Charlie Nancy is that character, unknowingly a descendant of a God, unwittingly drawn into a conspicuous battle between good and evil forces of the world where his father once fought, to the present dangers that beset him in the modern world.

His relationship with Rosie, made complex by the arrival of Spider, Grahame Coates his boss at work, who is planning to pull of a major financial scam, old women in Florida who practice sort of witchcraft rituals, jet-setting from London to Florida to an island in the Caribbean, Neil Gaiman has brought us again fresh and wider plot twists that has been a trademark of his previous novels

And those are some of the upside of "Anansi Boys", it has much of a human element, with the large participation of characters like Rosie and her mom, Daisy, Grahame Coates and the Florida women, the plot is more scattered as i would say, all in a good way, that keeps readers slowly getting the pieces, creating and providing them a wonderful tale.

Although i find the ending a little bit rushed, especially the ones that involves Grahame Coates, an additional 50 pages of additional plot twists is more likely, but hey its almost 400 pages of a fun ride here and there in the world within a world which has become Neil Gaiman's expertise.

Over-all i cant complain, yeah its not "Neverwhere" and "American Gods" but still, i was left impressed again and asking for more, waiting for another Neil Gaiman novel.

Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean's picture book The Wolves in the Walls tells the story of Lucy and her family, when one day Lucy started hearing noises inside their walls. She then warns her family about something as "wolves in the walls" only to be disputed by her mother "Oh it must be the rats" her mother would tell her. Until her father and brother would not believe her either, they even said to her ''When the wolves come out of the walls", they tell her ''it will all be over''.

Which frightens Lucy more.

Until one night the Wolves did come out of their walls, Lucy and his Tuba playing father together with her mother and brother scampered out of the house into the garden where they spent the night trying to ponder about their future. Her brother suggests, for example, that they escape to outer space where there's "nothing but foozles and squossucks for billions of miles."

Lucy in turn wants to remain still in their house. Remembering that her beloved pig puppet was left behind in their home ( which is now occupied by the Wolves, Wolves sitting on their couches watching the tv, Wolves eating her mother's jam straight out of the bottle, Wolves playing her brother's video game and breaking its high scores ) Lucy silently as a shadow crept back in to the house, unnoticed by the wolves busy frolicking inside Lucy rescued her beloved pig-puppet.

Upon returning to the garden where her family searches for her, Lucy devised a plan of how to retake their own home from the wolves.

The plan was to go back to the house, hide inside the walls and peek out at the wolves on by way of a hole on the painting hanging on one of the walls. When Lucy's family cannot take the sight of the Wolves spilling popcorn on slices of toast and jam, dashing up the stairs, and wearing their clothes, they decided to come out of the walls themselves.

And that scares the Wolves out of their senses, they in turn yelled ""And when the people come out of the walls, it's all over!" The Wolves flees out of the house and was never seen again.

Life returned back to normal after a few days of cleaning the mess the wolves have left behind. That is until Lucy hears another noise coming inside the walls "that sounded exactly like an elephant trying not to sneeze."

----
"Wolves in the Walls" is a children's book but its audience can be very well stretched out to adults, the artwork by Dave Mckean is wonderfully made, the shadows, colors and character animation are a feast to the eyes.

The story is simple, is it too frightening for children? i dont think so, in fact the concept of the story will teach children some valuable lessons such us:

1. the importance of communication in a family - Early on Lucy seems not to be taken seriously by her parents, because she was young, her father thinks she's imagining things like a child used to do.

2. Working together sure beats working by yourself - Lucy's family retook their home by staying together and being courageous at a time of a crisis. They eventually scared the Wolves away by displaying such trait.

3. After a problem was solved, comes another one - After the wolves, comes the elephants hehe

From the author of "fight club" comes another tale pf an exaggerated portrayal of a dark,grotesque character searching for his own meaning of existence.
  

Amidst the modern woes of everything around him Victor Mancini narrates his life through the present grips of a lame minimum wage job as a role playing 17th century character in a theme park, to the mad and exciting world of a "sexaholics" group therapy sessions.

In between visitation to an elderly hospital to see his Alzheimer disease stricken mother and flirting with the staff nurses, until an indecent proposal from a hot female doctor named Dr.Paige Marshall about a revolutionary genetic cure for Alzheimer's.

The narratives of the present is preceded in betweens of flashback of Victor Mancini as that "stupid little boy" and his Mother's exploits at mis adventures, with the court declaring her as an unfit parent, Victor ended up in foster homes often ended up being kidnapped by his mother aboard stolen cars and a school bus, teaching him about things he wouldn't learn at school but will definitely save his life

"in most hospitals Nurse Flamingo means a fire, Dr.Green a suicide...in a grocery store paging Mr.cash is a call for an armed security guard, Mr.Bernard Wellis, please meet your party at gate 16, means somebody is holding a knife to the throat of a hostage there"...

Footing the almost $3,000/month hospital bill for his mother, Victor devised a complicated scam of pretending to choke on a piece of food in a restaurant, waiting for someone to save him, thereby creating a feeling of being a hero for some total stranger, hoping that the old chinese saying of "once you save the life of a person, you feel responsible for them the rest of their life" will set in afterwards.

After a bit of sob stories about his mother being sick, multiply all of those choking incidents, restaurants and instant heroes willing to help more, cash donation will also come week in and week out...

Seems like everything are going smoothly for Victor, even though still struggling in the 4th step of his recovery from sex addiction, with lots of recreational sex .
see:tanya
see:nico
see:scores of women.

Until a diary of his mother written in Italian surfaced, promises to reveal the truth about Victor's real parentage , an incident that will turn Victor's world inside out, surrounded by a bunch of characters, the insane patients of St.Anthony hospital, a friend who collects rocks, Victor Mancini after all said and done, may be very well be the second coming of Jesus Christ?

What would Jesus Christ not do?...

*****************
Over-all although i find some parts of the book highly unbelievable, like Victor's scam on choking on a food, but hey "Fight Club" is highly unbelievable either But Chuck Palahniuk has written it well with crisp lines and twists it ends up highly entertaining...

I guess same goes with this book, Victor's mother is the maternal version of a Tyler Durden the savior of the rest of us, The bored and dazed, Victor as un unknowingly could be second coming of christ is as hateful and understandable, given his circumstances, one can relate to his thoughts...

The part about the 'sexaholics' therapy sessions are a bit short, i would love to read more of it ( haha pervert? ), but same in "FightClub" the narratives moves quickly from one setting, time frame to another, i cannot complain with that, it leaves less room for boredom.

Over-all, its not that perfect pitch of a book, but the humor, the rawness, the gravity is there, i had a blast reading this one, this goes straight to my book shelf, for me to enjoy reading again, probably a year from now...

Volume 1 of the Sandman Series ( a collection of the original issues 1-8 ) written by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg and Malcolm Jones III, Robbie Busch and lettered by Todd Klein.

Also my introduction to the world of Dream aka Morpheus and Oneiros. One of the Endless. Dream, the representation of dreams.

*****
As this is the very first Sandman series, i find it fairly good, the introduction of Dream when he was captured by Roderick Burgess ( in an attempt to get Death ) in "Sleep of the Just" was simple yet effective.

Well it only means one thing, from volume 2 to the last, the Sandman series is bound to get better and better as Gaiman's writing style and the artistic style of those responsible for the Sandman graphic novel becomes more attached to the story and develops more interesting plots and characters as well.

I particularly like "Dream a Little Dream of Me" mainly because of the participation of John Constantine, a cool and comical protagonist of the comic series Hellblazer. Wherein he helped Dream locate one of his valuable possession, a pouch of sand which came into the hands of John's former girlfriend.

Preludes & Nocturnes is all about the introduction of Dream, his capture, imprisonment and his attempt to locate his totems of power, which were dispersed following his capture: a pouch of sand, a helm and a ruby. A journey that will take him across the world and into the infinite abyss of Hell.

In "24 Hours" an interesting encounter with John Dee, a.k.a. Doctor Destiny, ( supervillain from the Justice League of America series). John Dee came into the possession of Dream's ruby after getting it from his mother Ethel ( a former mistress of Roderick Burgess ). John Dee reminds me of Tolkien's creature Gollum, where in they find themselves fighting the evil forces that influence what they possess. As the ring is for Gollum, here its the ruby for John Dee.

Eventually John Dee succumbs to the tempting promise of power of the Ruby and used its power to initiate a rampage that drove people worldwide mad.


The final chapter "The Sound of Her Wings" introduces as to character of "Death" also a part of the Endless family, here she gave Dream a better understanding and direction for his future journeys.


****

By Gaiman's own admission that "there's a lot in this first collection that is awkward and ungainly", but the promise alone is enough guarantee that "Preludes & Nocturnes" is a must read. There were a lot more good than bad, considering this was written when Neil Gaiman was still struggling to find his niche ( well he eventually did in a big way ).

The ingredients for a great graphic novel was laid out in here, the horror alone of "24 Hours" is enough to keep you hooked and the darkness of Dream's character, the mystery, interactions with various DC characters all make up for one thrilling and great reading experience.

I can't wait to start Volume 2: The Doll's House.

It's 2004 and Liz Dunn, in her own words "overweight and lonely woman in her 40's" is writing a journal, in here she relates her childhood years, from finding a severed body of a transvestite in a railway track to sneaking on other people's home, not to steal but just "to sit and stare at the family pics" and a high school trip to Rome.

To the era of the last Haley's Bop comet in 1997, when Liz, lonely yet quite okay with the setup of living by herself, showing for work, renting videos and her condo living receives an emergency call from the hospital about a patient named Jeremy.

All of a sudden Liz's world is catapulted to a never ending examining of what ifs and a race against time to make up for a regrettable decision she made years back. A catapult that will take her into a trip across the world to find the answer to the question that has puzzled her since that school trip to Rome.

All told with a heartfelt honesty that serves as a prelude to a wonderful journey that will climax with Liz while hunched in an airplane seat just above Reykjavik, Iceland in 2004, finally getting that new perspective in life .

****
It's Douglas Coupeland, master of the profound, venturing into a soul of a character not likely of other novels, but very much about the average human being, it can be any of us, the feelings of loneliness, being invisible, unwanted, regrets, Liz Dunn takes us there, to have us realize every words as true, thinking "yeah i've felt that before".

In "Hey Nostradamus" Coupeland takes us how to deal with a tragedy and lost love, in "All Families Are Psychotic" he shows us the craziness of a family all sewn up by one major thread, which is love for one another.

In "Eleanor Rigby", there are patterns of close family ties, while at the same time showing us the brewing distance that a once close knit family encounters when everybody starts growing old, having a family of their own. In here Liz Dunn a self confessed loner is besieged with a caring brother and sister a worried Mother who still lectures her at the same time Liz wonders if she ever makes her proud.

"Eleanor Rigby" while named after the Beatles song about a lonely woman who waits for love by her window, the similarities ends there, aside from being Liz's email (eleanorrigby@arctic.ca) Liz wasn't looking for anything, life as a loner is a gift yet at the same time a curse, it just so happens that when Jeremy arrives in her life, she was left without a choice but to steer different from the path that she expects to thread for the rest of her life.

How one event brought on from an encounter buried in the past can shake things up and provides someone like Liz a real shot at happiness, is both endearing and riveting.

If there's a writer that writes for the underdog it's Douglas Coupland, if there's anyone who could make me read a novel that is narrated by a 44 year old woman, chubby, un-attractive, self confessed loner with "chick lit" written all over, i guess it's Douglas Coupland, not exactly my kind of book genre. But i like it nonetheless, good enough to stay in my shelf for a long time.

In "Cimarron Rose" James Lee Burke takes time out with his Dave Robicheaux series, while introducing a new series that features Billy Bob Holland, a former Texas Ranger, assistant US Prosecutor turned defense attorney in the small town of Deaf Smith in Texas.

Most fans of the Robicheaux series would see quite a score of similarities between the two characters, both are Men of goodwill at the same time displaying that gung ho routine of breaking chops with the bad guys. Holland is a hero in the same league as Robicheaux, both carries excess baggage of the past, Billy Bob Holland is a man haunted by the ghost of L.Q. Navarro, his partner in the Rangers whom he accidentally killed while pursuing drug dealers in Mexico.

L.Q. Navarro doesn't mind being dead as he literally haunts Billy Bob thus becoming a friend to talk to and even give advice during moments of confusion.

But this is ain't a ghost story, it's just one of the threads that James Lee Burke weaved around the novel, it's a crime mystery that pits good and evil and the ghost of the past ( as Billy Bob reads passages of his grandfather's journal about his affair with a female outlaw of the wild wild west ).

Rounding up the plot is Lucas Smothers, a young kid who was found passed out in a truck while a body of a raped and murdered girl lies 20 feet from him. Charged with the crime, Billy Bob sets out to defend Lucas sincerely believing in his innocence.

As Billy Bob digs out the truth he encountered different obstacles like a rogue DEA Agent, corrupt sheriffs, Garland T. Moon, a psychotic killer turned loose on technicalities, Darl Vanzandt, the sick son of a wealthy and the town's most powerful person. All that plus a love interest with a female sheriff / Federal agent whom Billy Bob got cozzy up with. ( Which shows the human and soft side of Billy Bob )

This is classic James Lee Burke where plot abounds you don't just get immersed in one story but other interesting events in the past of the main characters.

Surely this is a book filled with violence, either Billy Bob is dragging a boy beater by the saddle of his horse, he's breaking the jaws of a rogue DEA agent, or his house is getting ransacked, Lucas being drugged and dumped at a country club, and Garland Moon wrecking havoc.

Over-all it's a finely written tale about a man's fondness for the good and going all out to battle the evil that resides even in a small compact town like Deaf Smith, Texas...at all costs and making those responsible pay big time.