My book reading has not been going too well these last two months. So I thought that to break the jinx, I will read a YA book. And so I got John Green’s ‘The Fault in Our Stars’. ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ was recommended to me by one of my favourite friends Heidi. Then it was part of NPR’s best YA novels list. And then it ended up in many year-end favourites lists in 2012. So, I had to read it. I finished reading it yesterday. Here is what I think.
The story of ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ can be told very briefly. It is about Hazel who has cancer but still has a few years because of a medical miracle, and Augustus who appears to have been cured of cancer in his bones. They meet at a Cancer support group, the sparks fly and what happens after that forms the rest of the story. Other characters like Hazel’s parents, Augustus’ friend Isaac, a reclusive writer called Peter van Houten, who has written a novel about a girl who has cancer, and his assistant Lidewij also play important parts in the story.
I loved everything about ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, starting from its Shakespearean title, to the way the cover has been created – the title in white chalk on a blackboard and the author’s name in charcoal on a whiteboard :
To the second paragraph in the first page which grabbed my heart and refused to let it go :
Whenever you read a cancer booklet or website or whatever, they always list depression among the side effects of cancer. But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying.
To the story which was beautiful, humorous, intense, happy and heartbreaking in equal measure, to the beautiful sentences which keep appearing frequently and melt one’s heart, like this :
As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep : slowly, and then all at once.
And this :
Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin.
And this :
“Some war. What am I at war with? My cancer. And what is my cancer? My cancer is me. The tumors are made of me. They’re made of me as surely as my brain and my heart are made of me. It is a civil war, with a predetermined winner…Cancer isn’t a bad guy really. Cancer just wants to be alive.”
And this :
I would probably never again see the ocean from thirty thousand feet above, so far up that you can’t make out the waves or any boats, so that the ocean is a great and endless monolith. I could imagine it. I could remember it. But I couldn’t see it again, and it occurred to me that the voracious ambition of humans is never sated by dreams coming true, because there is always the thought that everything might be done better and again. That is probably true even if you live to be ninety – although I’m jealous of the people who get to find out for sure.
And this :
It was kind of a beautiful day, finally real summer in Indianapolis, warm and humid – the kind of weather that reminds you after a long winter that while the world wasn’t built for humans, we were built for the world.
To the beautiful dialogues like this one :
Hazel : “To be fair to Monica, what you did to her wasn’t very nice either.”
Isaac : “What’d I do to her?”
Hazel : “You know, going blind and everything.”
Isaac : “But that’s not my fault.”
Hazel : “I’m not saying it was your fault. I’m saying it wasn’t nice.”
And this one :
Stewardess : “Sir, you can’t smoke on this plane. Or any plane.”
Augustus : “I don’t smoke.”
Stewardess : “But –“
Hazel : “It’s a metaphor. He puts the killing thing in his mouth but doesn’t give it the power to kill him.”
Stewardess : “Well, that metaphor is prohibited in today’s flight.”
To the delightful references to mathematics and infinity that the book makes, to the fact that the book doesn’t simplify the theme it takes on but illuminates it in all its complexity while still making it read like a YA novel – I loved ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ for all these and more. It is a perfect book. I know that I must be the last person on earth to read it, but I heartily recommend it. Be prepared to laugh and cry and think, all at the same time.
Wonderful review, Vishy. It is so amazing. I had this book in my hands last night, together with The Age of Miracles and wasn’t sure which one to read. If I had read your review then I would have picked this one. Now I started The Age of Miracles.
Thanks Caroline! Hope you enjoy reading ‘The Age of Miracles’. It looks like a fascinating book. Hope you get to read ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ sometime. It is a really beautiful book though a bit heartbreaking.
I wish I had started it last night…Now I have to finish The Age of Miracles first.
It’s not easy to write a book about cancer or any other fatal illness well.
Hope you enjoy ‘The Age of Miracles’, Caroline. Hope you can read ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ next 🙂 Happy reading!
I am so glad that you read and enjoyed this wonderful book. I think John Green has written some fantastic books and this is definitely one of my favorites. He just gets better and better. I was very fortunate that I got to meet him a few years ago – it was one of those horribly embarrassing moments in that I was so awestruck that I couldn’t stop talking. He was interesting, kind, and humorous. He has great respect for M.T. Anderson’s The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation (books one and two).
One thing that was a strength in the book was that he really handled some very tough and heartbreaking issues in a really genuine, unsentimental and un-sappy way. His characters had the brilliance of youth, of being able to see clearly without being swamped in sentimentality.
I can’t wait to see what he will come out with next.
Thanks for recommending ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, Heidi. I really loved it. It is so wonderful that you were able to meet John Green a few years back. It must have been so exciting! I liked very much what you said about the strength of hte book. I want to read all of John Green’s books now 🙂
I haven’t heard of this one, but it sounds like one I should find!
Hope you get to read this book and like it, TBM. It is a really beautiful book.
I hope to read this one sometime soon. I’ve been drawn to his other books, but this one’s been given so much press that I’m thinking I should opt for it first, before the others. I like the angle it seems to take and how it is more than “just” a YA book. Thank you for all those quotations, they are truly wonderful!
Thanks Charlie! Hope you enjoy reading this book. Will look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.
I read this book last year — though I’ve neglected to review it — and I think much like you. I thought it was a wonderful story in which it was easy to connect with the characters and feel the yearning for life in the face (and fear) of dying.
Glad to know that you liked the book, Steve. It is a really beautiful book, isn’t it? I want to read all of John Green’s books now 🙂
Gosh you love it too! I try to avoid YA but this may be worth checking out!
I read the occasional YA book and I have liked what I have read till now, Jo. I normally like YA books which explore themes like love, death, music, science and religion and things like that. Hope you get to read ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ and like it. Will look forward to hearing your thoughts on it, if you get to read it.
This is a lovely review Vishy. I hope this book has helped break your reading jinx a little. I bought this book a couple of months ago determined to read it soon, and I haven’t yet. You’ve made me want to pick it up and read it straight away. I think there are some very good YA books from time to time and this sounds like one of them.
Thanks Lindsay! I think it has definitely helped break my reading jinx. Nice to know that you got the book recently. Hope you like it. I will look forward to hearing your thoughts on it. I love YA books which step out of the vampire / werewolf / fantasy comfort zones and ask questions on life, love, death, religion and science and also discuss the pleasures of art, literature and music.
Vishy – I am the last person on earth yet to read this. I was going to see if I can buy it – I need a book that will help me get out a rut as well. I am trying this now.
I hope you get to read it and like it, Soul. It is a very beautiful book. Something tells me that you will like it. I will look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.
Your ‘something’ was right. I loved the book! Just finished reading it. Beautiful.
Glad to know that you liked it, Soul. I am off to read your review of the book now.
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