AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES: John Green: Dutton Books: 2006: Fiction: 215 Sure, Colin Singleton is a Prodigy, but he's no genius and he certainly isn't good at keeping girlfriends. After getting dumped by the 19th Katherine in a row, newly Graduated Colin and his best friend Hassan take off on a road trip that will hopefully snap him out of his depression. Along the way Colin tries to come up with a mathematical equation for love, and overcome the feeling that at 18 he has intellectually peaked. What he finds is the charming southern town of Gutshot, Tennessee, a new pack of friends (the first pack of friends for Colin really), and the realization that he must look outside of himself for once.John Green has an uncanny ability to capture the barely post adolescent voice. As the age would suggest, expect a bit of language in this book and a small amount of sex (though not nearly as much as his last book). I really like Green's voice, but this novel didn't pack quite the same punch as his 2006 Printz Award winning Looking for Alaska. The boys' questions/problems didn't seem as central to the teenage experience as other YA books I've read. The math aspect of the book (though a tiny bit gimmicky towards the end), the humor, and again the spot on voice of these teens made this book a fun read. I'd recommend Looking for Alaska (With discretion - it's edgy to say the least) if you want to read this new YA author.
BES
2 comments:
John Green is a unique voice in young adult literature due to his ability to absolutely capture the male voice and point of view. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your tastes and point of view. I didn't especially like this novel but did appreciate the cleverness of the central character. He puts his breakups into a mathematical theorem in order to make sense of love.
John Green’s characterization is one of my favorite things about his writing. The characters feel very real, and they interact with each other the way I remember interacting with my friends at that age. I also really enjoyed the various footnotes that were included so that Colin had a chance to finish his thoughts (especially when Hassan told him “not interesting”) and the reader wasn’t left hanging. This book is one I could easily recommend to some, but the content may be off-putting to others.
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