Okay so here is the thing about John Green: I both love and am frustrated with him. Love: He writes teen banter that is actually funny. Seriously, I chuckle, and sometimes laugh aloud. He makes me wish I had had friends in high school, because apparently there were good times to be had! Also, though this is where we get into the frustration, I like how his characters are the almost-misfits who are comfortable with themselves--they're happy being band geeks, or loners, or nerds. Huh, I'm struggling with myself here, because the frustration happens here because part of me sits here and thinks "Yeah I was a nerd and an orch dork (yes, I know, we all make mistakes), and I never had half the good times these fellas are having, so what gives?" but then I remember, yeah, since when has ANYTHING written about high school been realistic? There's just no way to capture it, and anyway since when is realism the best thing since sliced bread? So, okay, I won't lay all my bitterness about life at John Green's door. The remaining actual frustration I have is his tendency towards swearing and teen sex etc, which I'm sure IS very realistic, but that doesn't mean I want to read all about it. And it's really just a shame because he's a smart guy, and his characters are smart, and so much of his books work on a really fun, inventive, cerebral plane, and then he puts in teen boys being teen boys and it all crashes down. But anyway. Enough.
Paper Towns was pretty good, but perhaps my least favorite of his books so far? It's about this boy Q who is wild about his next door neighbor Margo, but she is literally too cool for school and they haven't spoken for years until one night out of the blue she makes him come with her on this pranking rampage, and then the next day she disappears (see, I was not using 'literally' just as an intensifier back there!). So then Q spends the rest of the book trying follow these clues she left behind and trying to figure out what the deal is with this girl he loved from afar for so long.
It's really funny and intense and it does make you think about how well you know people, and how far you can ever trust your perceptions of others. Q and his merry band of band geeks are likable and hilarious, and Johnny really does excel at creative these captivating femme fatales like Margo--every boy wants her, every girl wants to be her. Having also just read Green's first book, Looking for Alaska, Margo seems like just the next avatar of the character he created in Alaska--in fact, a lot of things about these books are similar, to the point that I almost wonder how Green got away with writing this second one. BUT, that is for another post.
I couldn't have said it better. I read the Katherines book in between and it was enough different and then I came to Paper Towns and was like "um, I already read this book. It just had a different title."
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, I hate the swearing and sex because it makes it far more difficult for me to recommend them.
Ah. Here I am all talking about Paper Towns in my last comment and I just needed to walk backward one more post. I have to read his others.
ReplyDelete