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Entry tags:	an abundance of katherines, book reviews

Review: An Abundance of Katherines, John Green
An Abundance of Katherines
John Green--Website
Publication Date: September 21, 2006
Amazon link || B&N link

Spoilers are present in this review.



The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
The Road--J.R.R. Tolkien

Summary
Colin Singleton is, in his mind, a washed-up child prodigy. He's newly graduated from high school and nursing a broken heart of epic proportions.

When it comes to girls, he's always had a weakness for girls named Katherine, yet they're not weak for him. After being dumped, for the nineteenth time, by a girl named Katherine, Colin's content to stay in his room and wonder why it all went wrong. But his best friend Hassan, an overweight Lebanese with a love for Judge Judy, drags him off to a road trip that eventually ends in Gutshot, Tennessee. There, the grave of an assassinated Austro-Hungarian archduke, a factory that makes tampon strings, and a girl named Lindsey Lee will help Colin figure out some things about love and friendship, not to mention himself.

Commentary
The second novel from John Green certainly doesn't present a rewritten version of his first book, the Printz Award-winning Looking for Alaska. While you could certainly see the similarities between Alaska's Pudge and Katherine's Colin, An Abundance of Katherines is, on the whole, a funnier, more experimental book than Alaska.

First, you have the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, Colin's attempt to mathematically predict the future of any relationship. You'd probably think graphs and math equations would be a drag in the book, but the mathematics are presented so cleanly and simply that it actually becomes interesting. For those hard-core math fans, there's an appendix written by Daniel Biss, who explains the math and says that Colin's theorem basically works.

Second, Green has taken a page from Jonathan Stroud, and has used footnotes to explain references, make comments, or reassure the reader that there will be no more math. Used sparingly and kept brief, these footnotes really help to enrich this book. Without them, many small moments would have been lost, because after all, how many teenagers understand higher-level calculus or speak Arabic? But without these moments, the richness of the world created by Green would be lost.

Finally, you have the character of Hassan. In the hands of a lesser author, this character could have become a joke. But Green presents Hassan as wise, funny, and the perfect foil to Colin. What I found so commendable is that Hassan's ethnic background and his religion aren't the things you remember about the character. Instead, you remember how funny he is, and how he's able to do all the things a friend does--point out your weaknesses but stands by you regardless.

Overall lighter in tone than Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines will find an audience with many older teen readers. This would also be a good book to suggest to adult readers, to give them an idea of how YA literature can juggle big important issues at the same time as "does she like me back?". Discover whether math can predict whether you'll get dumped, and find out where the road can take you, in An Abundance of Katherines.