The Fault In Our Stars
Feb. 16th, 2014 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearA friend of mine suggested I read The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. Now, I had no intention of doing so, but she persuaded me and I decided to give it a go. It took me a while to get into it, for several reasons. Firstly, I felt the author was trying far too hard to sound like a teenage girl, though this did settle down after a while. Secondly, because I was really resisting getting emotionally invested in the book, as I knew it couldn't possibly end well (teenage cancer stories never do). Thirdly, because of one particular very jarring moment near the beginning.
A boy asks the girl protagonist back to his house to watch V For Vendetta. Afterwards, the narrative says, "It was kind of a boy movie. I don't know why boys expect us to like boy movies. We don't expect them to like girl movies."
Now, I find these three statements problematic on several levels:
1) I love V For Vendetta and I definitely do not see it as a "boy movie"
2) Why should there be "boy" or "girl" movies anyway? I know girls who like action movies and boys who like romances.
3) In the book, it puts out a very strong message of "them and us" which is utterly not borne out by the rest of the story, and so feels really out of place
4) The author, John Green, makes lots of online videos with his brother that are about all sorts of things, such as science and literature and history - their followers are called "nerdfighters" and they seem like really cool guys who would encourage girls as much as boys to be interested in anything and everything - so it also feels like an extremely weird thing for him to write
5) After making this statement, the protagonist then reads a series of eight or nine books that are mostly battles (and very much more a "boy's" story than V For Vendetta) and really enjoys them, which makes no sense
Anyway, those things aside - I ended up thinking this was one of the best books I've read (possibly not ever, but certainly in recent years). Despite my vehement resistance, I eventually (actually quite quickly) fell right into it and let it affect me in all the ways it's supposed to - and it is certainly an emotive book. It's funny and sad and powerful and very real. That last quality is both the best and worst thing about it in a way - it's very honest about the physical and emotional effects of cancer on those who suffer from it and those around them and it avoids several large cliches in terms of plot that you might expect, which is good but also very unpleasant and quite heartbreaking in places.
My favourite realistic moment is when the protagonist is giving a speech to an alcoholic acquaintance about how he is wasting his life and his gift, and how he ought to pull himself together and sort his life out. She drops him out of her car and drives away, looking at him in the rear view mirror. He puts his bottle of whiskey down on the curb next to him and it looks like he's going to leave it behind - and then he takes another swig. Just genius.
I related to the book in terms of my own relationship (the boy desperately wants to achieve something in life, and the girl is more interested in leaving as small a footprint as possible), it reminded me of my grandfather (there's a bit about choosing how to tell sad stories and that making them funny is the best way), it had in depth analysis of books and films and how they affect us, it had Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and, best of all, it had Augustus Waters.
Augustus Waters may have become one of my all-time favourite fictional characters in anything ever. He's just wonderful, and it's an absolute tragedy that he will only ever exist in three quarters of one book. I love the way he talks and interacts with his friends (particularly Isaac), I love his beauty and his honesty, and how he copes with the desperate reality of the situations he finds himself in. He's far from perfect, but then who isn't - and flaws just make him even more awesome.
Yes, the book is sad, but it's not depressing, which is a difficult line to tread. It's not easy reading in some places, but I would definitely say it was worth it. Why anyone would want to see the events of the book in a film is completely beyond me - way too traumatic, if you ask me. But, I expect, if the friend who recommended the book tells me that I absolutely must see the film, I will probably give in. She's kinda persuasive like that.
A boy asks the girl protagonist back to his house to watch V For Vendetta. Afterwards, the narrative says, "It was kind of a boy movie. I don't know why boys expect us to like boy movies. We don't expect them to like girl movies."
Now, I find these three statements problematic on several levels:
1) I love V For Vendetta and I definitely do not see it as a "boy movie"
2) Why should there be "boy" or "girl" movies anyway? I know girls who like action movies and boys who like romances.
3) In the book, it puts out a very strong message of "them and us" which is utterly not borne out by the rest of the story, and so feels really out of place
4) The author, John Green, makes lots of online videos with his brother that are about all sorts of things, such as science and literature and history - their followers are called "nerdfighters" and they seem like really cool guys who would encourage girls as much as boys to be interested in anything and everything - so it also feels like an extremely weird thing for him to write
5) After making this statement, the protagonist then reads a series of eight or nine books that are mostly battles (and very much more a "boy's" story than V For Vendetta) and really enjoys them, which makes no sense
Anyway, those things aside - I ended up thinking this was one of the best books I've read (possibly not ever, but certainly in recent years). Despite my vehement resistance, I eventually (actually quite quickly) fell right into it and let it affect me in all the ways it's supposed to - and it is certainly an emotive book. It's funny and sad and powerful and very real. That last quality is both the best and worst thing about it in a way - it's very honest about the physical and emotional effects of cancer on those who suffer from it and those around them and it avoids several large cliches in terms of plot that you might expect, which is good but also very unpleasant and quite heartbreaking in places.
My favourite realistic moment is when the protagonist is giving a speech to an alcoholic acquaintance about how he is wasting his life and his gift, and how he ought to pull himself together and sort his life out. She drops him out of her car and drives away, looking at him in the rear view mirror. He puts his bottle of whiskey down on the curb next to him and it looks like he's going to leave it behind - and then he takes another swig. Just genius.
I related to the book in terms of my own relationship (the boy desperately wants to achieve something in life, and the girl is more interested in leaving as small a footprint as possible), it reminded me of my grandfather (there's a bit about choosing how to tell sad stories and that making them funny is the best way), it had in depth analysis of books and films and how they affect us, it had Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, and, best of all, it had Augustus Waters.
Augustus Waters may have become one of my all-time favourite fictional characters in anything ever. He's just wonderful, and it's an absolute tragedy that he will only ever exist in three quarters of one book. I love the way he talks and interacts with his friends (particularly Isaac), I love his beauty and his honesty, and how he copes with the desperate reality of the situations he finds himself in. He's far from perfect, but then who isn't - and flaws just make him even more awesome.
Yes, the book is sad, but it's not depressing, which is a difficult line to tread. It's not easy reading in some places, but I would definitely say it was worth it. Why anyone would want to see the events of the book in a film is completely beyond me - way too traumatic, if you ask me. But, I expect, if the friend who recommended the book tells me that I absolutely must see the film, I will probably give in. She's kinda persuasive like that.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-18 09:36 pm (UTC)On the other hand, I've seen wildly varying opinions on 'The Fault in Our Stars', ranging from love to utter loathing. I guess the only way to know for sure in this case is to read it. What you say about it here does certainly make it seem kind of appealing :)