An Abundance of Katherines -- John Green

Okay, so for me, developing a crush on a character in a book = not so much of a rarity.  Developing a crush on TWO characters in a book = totally unusual.*  I fell for both Colin (who, yes, I wanted to strangle sometimes, but affectionately) and Hassan (who is totally the Lebanese-American version of a friend from high school).  As much as I enjoyed the humor and the footnotes and the anagrams and the other characters and the romance and the journey and the story itself, it was really the friendship between Colin and Hassan that did it for me.

I know I won't be the only one to fall in love.  This is the story of their first conversation (they were in ninth grade at the time):

About two weeks into class, Colin raised his hand and Ms. Sorenstein said, "Yes, Colin?"  Colin was holding his hand underneath his glasses against his left eye, in obvious discomfort.

"May I be excused for a moment?"  he asked.

"Is it important?"

"I think I have an eyelash in my pupillary sphincter," replied Colin, and the class erupted into laughter.  Ms. Sorenstein sent him on his way, and then Colin went into the bathroom and, staring in the mirror, plucked the eyelash from his eye, where the pupillary sphincter is located.

After class, Hassan found Colin eating a peanut butter and no jelly sandwich on the wide stone staircase at the school's back entrance.

"Look," Hassan said.  "This is my ninth day at a school in my entire life, and yet somehow I have already grasped what you can and cannot say.  And you cannot say anything about your own sphincter."

"It's part of your eye," Colin said defensively.  "I was being clever."

"Listen, dude.  You gotta know your audience.  That bit would kill at an ophthalmologist convention, but in calculus class, everybody's just wondering how the hell you got an eyelash there."

And so they were friends.

The title refers to the fact that Colin, who has just graduated from high school, has only ever dated girls named Katherine.  He has always been Dumped.  He is a Dumpee.  His Dumping by Katherine XIX on the day of his high school graduation is almost more than he can handle.

Thank God (or luck and DNA -- Colin's an atheist) for Hassan, who saves Colin from lying face down on his bedroom floor by suggesting the perfect solution:  A road trip. 

The grave of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, a mathematical equation to predict the future of romantic relationships, a secret cave and a wild pig hunt in Gutshot, Tennessee all figure in.

Fantastic.  As much as I loved and appreciated Looking for Alaska, I enjoyed An Abundance of Katherines more.  It's a book I'll go back to.  And one that I'll recommend often.**   

*Okay, not totally:  I wanted to be friends with all of the boys in Saving Francesca.  While also a rarity, that's not quite the same.  I admit to falling for both Mathin and Corlath in The Blue Sword.  In the Dorothy Sayers books, my love is reserved for Bunter.  Sorry, Peter.  Oh.  One more.  The Amelia Peabody books:  Okay, two crushes there -- Emerson and Ramses.  That's it, though.  I think.

**It'll be much easier to recommend.  How much do you love the cover art?  It rules.  Also, for those of you that have to worry about stuff like this:  There's hardly any sex, not much drinking, etc.  There's far, far less swearing in Abundance than in Alaska -- unless you count the word 'fugging'.  If you do, there might actually be more.   

Comments

[jess]

You're all tormenting me with your advance copies of this book. I've been waiting for it ever since I read Looking for Alaska (which I recommended to my then 17-year-old brother with smashing success).

I'd take Bunter and/or Lord Peter, and I'd prefer Ramses to Emerson senior. For some reason I always felt a little sorry for the guy in The Hero and the Crown...I'll have to reread it to remember exactly why. But it endeared him to me, even though I can't remember his name.

[Leila]

Oh, I'm glad to hear it went over well with the 17-year-old -- I just had a 10th grade guy come in with a summer reading list that included LfA. I suggested it, but he went with Billy Budd because it was so much shorter.

Luthe or Tor? My guess is that you're thinking of Tor. He's the one she settles for. At least, that's how I remember it -- I've only read HatC a couple of times, and not recently. It's TBS that I've read 47 gazillion times.

[cc]

You could feel sorry for (n)either Luthe (n)or Tor, she doesn't _settle_ for Tor, she just stays with him till he dies and then goes to live with Luthe, because of the no-longer-quite-mortal thing.

[Leila]

I still remember feeling that there was a lot more going on between Aerin and Luthe. Tor didn't do it for me, so maybe I was projecting somewhat. I'll have to read it again.

[cc]

Oh, they totally had sex and stuff, but she loved them both and Luthe could wait, while Tor couldn't.

[jess]

I guess I felt sorry for Tor since he wasn't the only one. The Injustice Of It.

[Sarah]

What I want to know is, who is designing all these great-looking YA book covers? This one's a stunner. And can these people start designing book covers for mainstream fiction? Seems like all the best-looking covers (Chip Kidd's work notwithstanding) I've seen lately are anywhere but adult fiction.

[Christian Fuenfhausen]

I just wanted to say a great big THANKS! to all y'all who said such nice things about the Katherines cover. I'm the guy who designed it -- the editor sent me a link to this blog as a sort of an e-congrats -- and it's always an honor to hear that folks appreciate one's work. But it's John's writing that is the winner here and what made working on this cover so worthwhile. I love his work and feel quite honored to have worked on Katherines. As for working in adult fiction? Sorry, I'm having much too much fun working in YA. Again, thanks for all the kind words, they mean a lot to us designers.

[Leila]

I'm so glad that all of our gushing got back to you -- Katherines is EASILY one of my favorite covers this year.

[cc]

Totally; and the red girl? in the miniskirt? I would DIE for her legs.