I pre-ordered my copy of Eleanor Rigby today. It should be arriving mid-January.
Douglas Coupland's name is huge on the jacket of the UK hardcover edition. The US cover is pictured on the right. With the exception of this most recent book, almost always, I like the UK cover to the US. With his novel Miss Wyoming, I own both editions-- simply because the UK cover looks so cool. It sounds snobbish-- but I end up wanting so many things that the United States doesn't offer (like this film for instance). Heck, many of Coupland's books aren't even sold in the US! Thankfully, there is Amazon UK and Canada. I'm still trying to find a copy of his book "God hates Japan"-- but ironically, it was only available in Japan and written in Japanese.
Obviously, I'm looking forward to Eleanor Rigby. After Girlfriend In A Coma, I think his writing has improved with each new book.
A riveting, witty, and profound story of loneliness and connection from internationally bestselling author Douglas Coupland.The 1997 night that Hale-Bopp streaks across the skies over Vancouver, Liz Dunn has nothing in her life but impending oral surgery and an armful of schmaltzy video rentals to get her through her solitary convalescence in her sterile condo. She's overweight, crabby, and plain, but behind her eyes lurk whole universes that she's never had the opportunity to express. Just as Liz makes a quiet decision to seek peace in her life rather than certainty, along comes another comet, in the form of a young man admitted to the local hospital with her name and number inscribed on his Medic Alert bracelet: In case of emergency, contact Liz Dunn.
A charming lost soul and a strange visionary, Jeremy upends Liz's quiet existence, triggering a chain of events that take her to the other side of the world and back, endangering her life just as a real chance at happiness finally seems within reach. By turns funny and heartbreaking, Eleanor Rigby is a fast-paced read and a haunting exploration of the ways in which loneliness affects us all.
According to his website, the closest his book tour gets to Texas is Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday, January 26th. (Don't think I'm not tempted...)
