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Outstanding
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Publishers Weekly
[A] clever, inspired, brilliantly strange tale. [15 Nov 2004, p.98]
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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
Extremely funny yet quite moving (and even plausible): could be one of the first great novels of the new century. [15 Oct 2004, p.975]
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Outstanding
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Los Angeles Times Carmela Ciuraru
The most impressive novel he has written in years. [4 Jan 2005]
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Favorable
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Daily Telegraph Alastair Sooke
Eleanor Rigby is one of Coupland's subtlest indictments yet of Yankee-yuppie culture.
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Favorable
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Daily Telegraph Katie Owen
At times one feels, uncomfortably, a certain glibness to Coupland's treatment of his emotive, potentially tragic, material, but there are the compensations of skilful plotting and appealing characters.
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Favorable
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The Guardian Ali Smith
Funny, unexpected and fragile.... Hey Nostradamus! suggested a mature wholeness of conception in Coupland's new work. Eleanor Rigby, in which the lost get found and the cosmic gets real, does this too, with a goodness of heart that is actually inspiring.
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Favorable
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The Independent Susie Boyt
Coupland's arrangement of the joy and pain of his characters' lives is daring and inspiring, and its surprises linger long in the mind.
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Favorable
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The Spectator Jonathan Keates
Eleanor Rigby can doubtless be read as the latest of his meditations on the conflict between spiritual and material elements in modern existence, but the continuing air of comic obtuseness surrounding his heroine mutes any potential preachiness.
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Favorable
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San Francisco Chronicle Reagan Upshaw
Coupland's ear for the vernacular is solid, and his prose is lean and stripped, making for a fast read.
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Favorable
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Boston Globe Adam Mansbach
Succeeds almost entirely because the first-person narration of its protagonist is so charming and so real.
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Favorable
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Houston Chronicle Nora Seton
Don't let the ridiculous or implausible characters irritate you, either. Eleanor Rigby is fun. Coupland's writing is a fast river of fresh perceptions and comic dialogue.
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Favorable
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USA Today Maria Fish
The significance of chance, the brevity of life and the function of families are themes central to Eleanor Rigby. They are made especially vivid by Coupland's strange and inventive presentation.
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Favorable
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Booklist Donna Seaman
Coyly cosmic, dead-on in its emotional and social perceptions, pointedly hilarious, and richly entertaining. [15 Nov 2004, p.560]
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Mixed
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Washington Post Heather Havrilesky
As readable and entertaining as Coupland's writing has been since his widely read first novel, Generation X, was published in 1991, there's no conflict here, and nothing moves the story forward because it's not clear what any of the characters really needs.
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Mixed
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The Globe And Mail [Toronto] T. F. Rigelhof
This is a sloppy, soppy, gloppy book, not an utterly bad one. [13 Nov 2004, p.D15]
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Mixed
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Library Journal Kevin Greczek
Unfortunately, he ultimately falls back on old standbys (e.g., zany plot twists) and a surfeit of caustically hip turns of phrase that dismantle most everything of substance developed in the book's beginning. [1 Dec 2004, p.98]
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Unfavorable
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Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese
The vigorous first third of Eleanor Rigby introduces some sharp, witty characters and an intriguingly bizarre premise. But Coupland fritters it all away in a series of silly, nihilistic narrative stunts.
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Unfavorable
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The New York Times Emily Nussbaum
Dwindles chapter by chapter into a high-art twist on chick lit -- aiming for bittersweet but tasting at last suspiciously of artificial sweetener.
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