24 used & new from £0.08

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Eleanor Rigby
 
 

Eleanor Rigby (Hardcover)

by Douglas Coupland (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


23 used from £0.08 1 collectible from £28.87

Special Offers and Product Promotions

  • Discover what inspires Douglas Coupland with his Author's Choice selection.



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Hey Nostradamus!

Hey Nostradamus!

by Douglas Coupland
4.5 out of 5 stars (24)  £4.99
Life After God

Life After God

by Douglas Coupland
3.9 out of 5 stars (29)  £4.90
All Families are Psychotic

All Families are Psychotic

by Douglas Coupland
3.6 out of 5 stars (37)  £4.78
Miss Wyoming

Miss Wyoming

by Douglas Coupland
3.7 out of 5 stars (15)  £5.98
Girlfriend in a Coma

Girlfriend in a Coma

by Douglas Coupland
3.8 out of 5 stars (77)  £4.97
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (1 Dec 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1582345236
  • ISBN-13: 978-1582345239
  • Product Dimensions: 21 x 14.8 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,061,959 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #52 in  Books > Fiction > Cult Authors > Coupland, Douglas

Product Description

Review

'A high spirited moving study of loneliness and all its opposites.' Observer Books of the Year. 'A powerful and moving examination of a life lived negotiating loneliness.' Independent 'Eleanor Rigby is one of Coupland's subtlest indictments yet of Yankee-yuppie culture.' Daily Telegraph 'Bristles with acerbic observations of modern life.' Sunday Telegraph 'Funny, unexpected and fragile, here [Coupland is] the chronicler of our potentials rather than our losses.' Guardian Praise for Douglas Coupland's fiction: 'Douglas Coupland has surely reserved his place at the top table of North American fiction.' Independent on Sunday 'Nothing less than sublime' Time Out 'Far too wise to offer answers, but affirms that seeking them is a necessary part of our humanity.' Independent 'Coupland's last four novels are so good and so distinctive that they seem to me to mark a genuine seismic shift in the literary landscape.' Nicholas Blincoe, New Statesman 'Coupland has passion and pace, intelligence and wit. If you find anything about the way we live now disturbing and wrong, he is your man.' Daily Telegraph 'Coupland at his best can make a single phrase say more than many another writer's whole novel.' LRB --This text refers to the Paperback edition.


Daily Telegraph

'Eleanor Rigby is one of Coupland's subtlest indictments yet of Yankee-yuppie culture.' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
coupland
extremely good stuff

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Eleanor Rigby
63% buy the item featured on this page:
Eleanor Rigby 4.2 out of 5 stars (16)
Girlfriend in a Coma
10% buy
Girlfriend in a Coma 3.8 out of 5 stars (77)
£4.97
Hey Nostradamus!
10% buy
Hey Nostradamus! 4.5 out of 5 stars (24)
£4.99
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
9% buy
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture 4.1 out of 5 stars (41)
£5.54

 

Customer Reviews

16 Reviews
5 star:
 (7)
4 star:
 (6)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Eleanor Rigby, 5 Jan 2006
This review is from: Eleanor Rigby (Paperback)
Most of this book is shatteringly good. It portrays the loneliness of a single woman so well it was painful to read - the reality, and the bitter understanding of it, is amazingly constructed.

My only problem was with the ending - the unavoidable tragedy is so climactic, and so upsetting, that it would be hard for anything to follow, and I think that what does follow is underwhelming.

Having come to Coupland through Generation X, I couldn't believe how different this book was. It's astonishing and funny and bitter, and a testament to Cooupland's skill, because his main character is so very real.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "I'm that one Scrabble tile that has no letter on it.", 15 Mar 2005
By Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
Like Eleanor Rigby, Liz Dunn, an overweight, thirty-six-year-old woman, is lonely, living in an apartment which is not a home. While she is recuperating from oral surgery, Liz receives a surprising phone call from the police, summoning her to the hospital. A twenty-year-old man named Jeremy Buck has been picked up wearing mesh stockings and black lingerie and suffering from a drug overdose, and Liz's name is on his Medic Alert bracelet. When she meets him for the first time, he greets her as "Mom."

The novel shifts back and forth between 1997, when Liz first meets Jeremy Buck, and her earlier childhood and teen years, and then fast-forwards to 2004. It gives nothing away to say that Jeremy was obviously conceived on Liz's high school trip when she was sixteen, but she has no recollection of Jeremy's father and no awareness, for many months, that she could even be pregnant. After giving birth during a bout of "indigestion," Liz gives the baby up for adoption, until he finds her twenty years later.

Through this framework, "Generation X" author Douglas Coupland examines the nature of family life and the search for meaning. We know from the outset that Jeremy has multiple sclerosis, but he does not look to religion to provide solace or answers. Instead, he has visions, usually about farm families awaiting the end of the world, visions which bear striking resemblances to some of the issues Liz faces. As Jeremy's MS progresses, his desire to find meaning grows. "Death without the possibility of changing the world was the same as a life that never was," he believes, and he intends to live it as well as he can--with Liz.

Witty and often mordantly funny, the novel develops an edge of satire at the same time that it strives to be emotionally stirring. When Liz goes to Europe to help with a police investigation, seven years later, a comedy of errors ensues, taking the novel further into the realm of absurdity and farce. Although the novel often discusses issues of death and other Gen X concerns, the author uses a consistently light touch, keeping the tone upbeat and avoiding the details of Jeremy's final decline. The novel is not complex, nor is it subtle, with the parallels between Jeremy's visions and Liz's life fully explained by the author. Sparkling dialogue and a conclusion which carries the themes to their absurd conclusions, keep the reader going, and the novel ultimately answers the big questions in the song for which it is named--"Where to we all come from?...Where do we all belong?" Mary Whipple

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not wonderful, 8 April 2005
This review is from: Eleanor Rigby (Hardcover)
I think everyone likes Girlfriend in a Coma because a lot of us were teenagers, or near enough, when we read it. It is a great book, but it becomes a bit of a manifesto in the closing pages, where Coupland decides to spell out his ideas and ends up being a bit heavy handed with the ideology. Since then he has tended to write more ambiguous, subtle, intelligent books. I think Hey Nostrodamus is his best.

He carries on in this fashion here. Although Liz Dunn and her son are both good characters, there is not much new to experience. Coupland has never needed a plot to create a beautiful novel and his wilder attempts at making an interesting story tend to come off a bit contrived in this one. The ending should be uplifting but it feels like it was thrown in, as if even Coupland doesn't believe it. You get the feeling that he is too lonely to write a happy ending convincingly.

The great strength of this book is in the voice Coupland has created for Liz Dunn. She is a charming character who becomes your friend as you read. Her son, Jeremy is equally engaging. When he isn't simply a vehical for Coupland's familiar Jenny Holzer rip offs, he's by turns funny and moving.

I enjoyed the book a lot. It's a lot better than a lot of books which will sell more copies. But in the end, I finished it and didn't feel much changed. When Coupland is truely on form his books have a bigger impact and more ideas.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Coupland at his best
The characters are very real and the style is minimalistic. No science fiction like GF in a coma. True fiction and Coupland at his best.
Published 1 month ago by Ozgur Guler

3.0 out of 5 stars "I'm drab, crabby and friendless. I fill my days fighting a constant battle to keep my dignity."
Well, Eleanor Rigby is a definite improvement on Girlfriend in a Coma. The characters are well-drawn and I did care about them: and there are plenty of witty Coupland-esque... Read more
Published 10 months ago by A. Furse

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved it!
Like most Coupland, it was slow to start but it was worth the wait! I loved the initial emotional pain you felt for the aurator and the other main characters, however I also felt... Read more
Published on 9 Oct 2007 by Louise Giblin

4.0 out of 5 stars Couplandtastic
I long awaited for the release of this book and although throughly enjoyable it was a little slow to take off, but once it did it reminded me of why it was worth the wait.
Published on 12 Jul 2005

5.0 out of 5 stars Typical Coupland
Another great novel from Coupland taking on more life-changing events interspersed with small town American culture and just a smattering of fantasy. Read more
Published on 5 Jul 2005 by scadgetv

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than Hey Nostro, nowhere near Girlfriend In A Coma
I have to agree with Lenininatutu(!) to a certain extent. Ages ago I read Girlfriend In A Coma and was blown away by it, it may have been the quickest I've read a book ever. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2005 by J. Evans

5.0 out of 5 stars Coupland's Masterpiece ?
I am a huge fan of Coupland's but must admit to having been a little disappointed in his work since Miss Wyoming ( incidentally, a criminally-neglected book itself in my opinion)... Read more
Published on 9 Nov 2004 by Mark Mansfield

3.0 out of 5 stars Coupland goes local, but is he merely recycling?
Douglas Coupland has said that his greatest fear is that God exists, but doesn't care much for humans. Read more
Published on 30 Sep 2004 by corvus corax

5.0 out of 5 stars best yet (again...)
if you liked "all families..." and "hey, nostradamus" you' re going to love this one, too. it's got warmth, truth, is never boring, breaks yourt heart, mends it again. Read more
Published on 27 Sep 2004 by V. Ludewig

4.0 out of 5 stars Consistant Coupland
I pre ordered this book about 4 months ago and had been counting the days until it arrived. I'm an avid Coupland fan and was so happy to see a follow up to "Hey Nostradamus"... Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2004 by Mr. T. M. Page

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject










i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.