Review: “An abundance of Katherines” by John Green.

Títle: “An abundance of Katherines”

Author: John Green

Book: Autoconclusive

Editorial: Penguin Books Ltd

Year: 2012

Pages: 213 (Softcover)

ISBN-13: 9780141346090

PVP: 8 € (Softcover) (Amazon)

Mark: 5/10

ABSTRACT

Katherine V thought boys were gross

Katherine X just wanted to be friends

Katherine XVIII dumped him in an e-mail

K-19 broke his heart

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.

On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun--but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.

Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.

PERSONAL VALORATION

JUSTIFICATION

I have read a few books by John Green (“The fault in our stars”, "Paper Towns" and "Looking for Alaska") and, although he is not one of my favorite authors, I like to read him because he always proposes a different argument (inside of the modality boy-girl knows girl/boy) and because I like the main characters that he draws. In this way, when I found this book super cheap for being one of the books selected for the "World book day" this year I did not think about buying it.

PLOT

Colin is a teenager that 19 girls named Katherine have dumped him. However, that is not the only peculiarity of this boy: he is a child prodigy (worried about being or not being a genius and doing something relevant with his life), obsessed with anagrams and with ten thousand dollars for having won a television contest . After his nineteenth love failure, Colin embarks on a road trip with his best friend Hassam (a Muslim boy with a slight excess weight, a year older than Colin and who is living a sabbatical before going to college). When they arrive in Gutshot, a small town in Tennessee, they meet Lindsey, a girl whose mother is the director of a textile factory that creates the threads of tampons. And suddenly Colin and Hassam are hired to interview employees and former employees of the factory and invited to live with Lindsey and her mother. In this way Colin begins to rethink everything he thinks he knows about love, relationships, life ...

CHARACTERS

The protagonist of this novel is Colin Singlenton. When Colin was a child he was special: considered a child prodigy and raised in a stimulating and demanding environment, his academic achievements were strengthened by starting to date a girl named Katherine. However, years later Colin no longer feels special: nineteen girls named Katherine have broken his heart, he has not become a genius nor has he had a Eureka moment and is going to waste his summer. However, the opportunity to go on a road trip seems to change this because it has that magical moment in the form of the theorem "The Underlying Predictability Theorem of Katherines." With this formula he will not only predict which person in the relationship will be the dumper and the dumpee but he can also win the girl.

My relationship with Colin has changed a lot throughout the book: when I started reading it, it thought he was the perfect mix of the preoccupation of being something in life (living a Eureka moment of personal fulfillment) with the weight of the expectations of your environment. However, as I began to know more about his love story my vision about him changed. Personally I think there are two fundamental flaws in the character of Colin that make me really not like me:

• He is a "nice guy": Colin was a lousy boyfriend in most of his serious relationships with Katherines as he was possessive, dependent and a constant "but you still love me?". A boy in love with the idea of ​​being loved and considered special but not in love of his girlfriends.
• It's the typical guy "I'm different from others and that's why I'm better": I don’t like it at all. Actual quote from the book: “She was incredibly hot--in that popular-girl-with-bleached-teeth-and-anorexia kind of way, which was Colin's least favorite way of being hot”

Hassam is the prototype of "funny best friend" and Colin’s support. Although he leaves slightly of this mold (heis Muslim and with a little overweight), his character is too similar to other many secondary and supportive characters. Although I think it's great to include diversity and this character contributes to the story, his humor is based fundamentally on his culture and religion. In spite of all the above, he is still the my least hated character: I love that he is direct with Colin and that he tries to open his eyes with reality.
Oh! Lindsey, Lindsey... Lindsey is the perfect example of a woman character written by a man. Lindsey is a super popular girl, super cute and super perfect and ... the best part is that... she's also super smart! (irony intended). But Lindsey feels misunderstood: she pretends to be a perfect and superficial girl with the rest of the world and does not find anyone to be herself. I imagine that it is not difficult to know where this ends (or with whom). Lindsey fulfills the perfect fantasy role for intellectual-peculiar-kids-I'm-different-to-others-love-me-please.

AMBIENT

As in many other novels of John Green we are in the United States and in the current era. Personally I love contemporary novels because it is a way of knowing the current reality in different parts of the world. Although Gutshot (the town in which most of the novel takes place) is fictitious, it has that charm of the villages of the United States: Southern accent, weapons, a slight conformism and a bit of economic decadence.

WRITING STYLE

I like how John Green writes. I think he manages to mix very well wit, reality, curious facts and vital reflections . In fact, what I value most about this novel is precisely the writing style. I enjoyed the mathematical notes, the footnotes and the sharp dialogues.

GENERAL COMMENT

“An abundance of Katherines” by John Green  is a contemporary novel that deals with the problems of teenager relationships, wanting to do something meaningful in life and the unpredictability of life. However, (being sincere and realistic) I have not been convinced by the main characters: Colin (the protagonist) and Lindsey (his obvious love interest). The writing of John Green, as always, is a perfect blend of wit, reality, curious facts and vital reflections.

-R.