'Below a certain point, if you keep too quiet, people no longer see you as thoughtful or deep, they simply forget you.'

'Since I don't remember where I was before I was born, why should I be worried about where I go after I die?'

I love reading Coupland, beautiful little nuggets of words that make me stop dead and say YES! This was an interesting story with a few wait, wut? moments in the storyline. Some plot twists that smacked me over the head. Really enjoyed it. ( )

This story, about a woman who is reunited with a son she had put up for adoption, mixes Coupland's humorous and insightful observations on society with the serious themes of loneliness and illness. Coupland has a way of making each of his characters ordinary and relatable, but also undeniably unique and memorable. ( )

It is my second novel by Coupland, the first one being All Families Are Psychotic. And I gotta say, even though the events in "All Families" may seem far more stretched, they still felt much more real.

In this one I really liked Liz, the protagonist, I really liked the premise of the book, with a woman being alone and lonely and having witty and sincere inner monologues about it.
I don't know what kind of plot I expected but somewhere around finding the long lost son I realized I wouldn't get what I want.
Unfortunately I am not too patient with crazy people and their visions and strange ideas. Jesus, all those pages with telling and retelling farmers' stories - I had to skip them just to stop myself from throwing the book away. At one point when Liz said something like "it's great that he's sane now but what a pity he'll never have his visions again", I wanted to slap her hard on the face.

Aside all that, it still was a page-turner, and it still had some great, deep and funny moments (sometimes made me laugh out loud), and I don't think my time was wasted on this, no.
But anyway, I expected much more of it, so only 3 stars here. ( )

I was tempted to give up on this book because I found the relentless negative voice of the narrator, at the start, draining. However, I persisted.
Liz Dunn, a woman in her late 30's is lonely. She relies on her daily routines and rituals to keep herself functioning. When she receives a phone call from a hospital, saying her names appears on the medical bracelet of a young man named Jeremy, her life moves on to a different tangent.
Jeremy is her son, adopted at birth, whom she has never met. Their rapport is immediate, but Jeremy has an underlying health condition and needs her support.
The relationship with her son, although short-lived is beautifully wrought but leaves Liz feeling more isolated and alone than before.
As anticipated the title of the book refers to the Beatles song of that name and Liz Dunn is the writers visualization of that person.
The pace and the tenor of the book did improve but the emphasis on Jeremy's visions I found strange and was unsure of their relevance to the story.
There was also a somewhat farcical incident in the latter stages of the book that I found unconvincing. ( )

My Mom recommended this book to me. More of a chick story than I usually read, but I loved it none the less. There are lots of surprises in this reflection on loneliness, as well as, much humor in the quirky characters. ( )