Sunday Read: The Fault In Our Stars

As far as heartbreaking – and bitingly funny – love stories about cancer-kids go, The Fault In Our Stars is the one to read. Yes, it’s a book about kids […]


As far as heartbreaking – and bitingly funny – love stories about cancer-kids go, The Fault In Our Stars is the one to read. Yes, it’s a book about kids with cancer and, yes, it made Judy Blume cry, but John Green’s newest book isn’t just some self-indulgent festival of weeping. Hidden within the conversational prose are poignant observations about futility, family, artistic intent, and the horror of disappearing from the earth without ever doing something heroic. It’s a funny book that makes you think and a sad book which embraces the importance of laughing in the face of oblivion when there’s nothing else to be done.

Hazel has terminal cancer. She goes to a support group to make her mother feel better and carries her oxygen tank up the stairs because, as she points out in her wonderfully dry narration, “taking the elevator is sort of a Last Days kind of activity.” Then she meets Augustus Waters, who has only one leg and finds Hazel attractive. They bond over a shared love for a book written by a mysterious recluse in Amsterdam. About halfway through the book, Hazel and Augustus go on a quest of sorts to meet this author, in the hopes that he can answer some of their pressing questions about his novel and about life in general. The interaction between Hazel, Augustus, and their favorite author – who turns out to be reclusive because he’s just not very nice – takes the plot of The Fault In Our Stars beyond the sphere of melodramatic Young Adult literature and adds something fresh, harsh, and observant. Through Hazel and Augustus, John Green does examine the tragedy and sometimes desperate humor of being young and in love and at death’s door, but in Amsterdam they learn to deal with disappointing heroes and the vital role of the reader in taking meaning out of fiction. These are the scenes and the lessons which make The Fault In Our Stars so memorable. Green makes meaningful points about literature and art without sounding like an English teacher; although some readers might be put off The Fault In Our Stars by the philosophical tangents the narrative style is polished enough to keep the story balanced.

John Green had accumulated quite a following before The Fault In Our Stars rose to the top of several bestseller lists. He is loved by nerdy girls who try (sometimes too hard) to emulate his weirdly-named heroines, nerdy boys who identify with his awkward but amusing narrators, and nerdy adults who find themselves discussing Green’s philosophies in more depth than might be expected from funny books for teenagers. His previous novels have followed a formula which was safe but unsurprising: awkward boy lives a boring life with a hilarious best friend, wild card girl turns boy’s life upside-down in a series of wacky adventures, boy makes some profound observations. The Fault In Our Stars changes that pattern and in doing so has become important to the wider world of modern fiction. I hate stories about kids who fall in love, and I’m not particularly fond of weeping late into the night over the plight of terminal cancer-children. And yet I, like many authors, reviewers, and readers, loved The Fault In Our Stars. If you want a few hours of extreme emotional whiplash between sorrow, hilarity, and deep thought you will probably love it too.

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Amazon: £6.64

 

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