The Fault in Our Stars

My book club and I just finished reading The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. For those of you who have not joined the growing group of people who have read this book, it centers around Hazel, a 16 year old three year survivor of stage 4 thyroid cancer. For the past three years, her lungs had been alternately filling with and draining out water, causing a slow and inevitable drowning. She had been living a life of watching television, going to a support group, and going to school, in a steady circle. But her life was soon drastically altered by the appearance of the dashingly handsome, charming, witty, and one-legged Augustus Waters. He himself was now FOC (free of cancer) after his leg had been amputated. Upon meeting at support group, Hazel and Gus immediately formed a connection, and the connection brought a whole new phenomenon to Hazel's life: love.

A question my book club brought up prior to reading this book was "what obstacles do the characters face?" I think that the obvious major obstacle Hazel faces, cancer, which holds not only death but the destruction of body and mind, actually aplies to almost everyone in the book. Hazel and her friend Issac, are affected by cancer because it is currently invading and destroying their bodies, leading to the inevitable blindness of Issac and death of Hazel. They have to cope with the facts that their lives and sight are on time limit. Augustus faces cancer in a different way; he sees it as something that has destroyed his physicality, his talent at basketball. what Gus wants most, live the majority of people, is to be special, to leave a mark on the world. But ***SPOILER ALERT*** when his cancer returns, he has to face that he will never be famous, or make a world wide impact, he will just be Augustus. These all examples of the direct affects of cancer and its physical destruction.

Cancer, however, destroys indirectly as well, affecting those who watch it overtake someone—namely, Hazel's parents. While perfectly healthy themselves, they have to overcome the obstacle of cancer affecting their daughter. This is difficult, because they do have to deal with all of the effects of cancer vicariously through someone they love, not able to stop it. Here, the obstacle is not cancer, but helplessness, a side affect of the disease. All of the parents featured in the book must deal with the fact that they can't stop cancer from claiming their children. Even Peter Van Houten, the author, living in Amsterdam, of An Imperial Affliction, who's daughter died at amoung age of the disease.

In conclusion, I think that cancer, with all of the emotional side affects it entails, touches everyone in the book. It shows how interconnected everyone is, both in and out of the book. It shows how if you care about someone, you live with them, not as a bystander. I thought that this was an amazing book, and while I don't recommend this to those who dislike sad endings, I do to those who want an honest, emotional, and clever read.

Why We Broke Up

I recently finished the book Why We Broke Up, written by Daniel Handler. I must confess, I initially bought this book because (please withhold all judgements) of the beautiful, beautiful pictures. You may be put off due to the fact that the book comes only in hardcover, and weights about 25 lbs, but this is beacause the thick, glossy pages are sectioned off with full page, full color, gorgeous paintings documenting the story. The book follows Min, a unique and clever and, despite her hatred of the word, artsy junior, and her relationship with universally revered Ed, a jock if there ever was one. It's strange format is as follows; the book itself is a 300+ letter to Ed, from Min, explaining to him why they broke up. It is attached, as she originally states, to abox filled with seemingly insignificant items that are in fact all related to the epic tale. These are the items (including two bottle caps, a movie ticket, a box of matches, a folded origami note, a rubber band, a high school pennat, a toy truck, a recipe book, an egg cuber, a comb from a motel room, and a pair of ugly earrings) that are depicted in the photos.

I ended up liking this book more than I thought I would. I could relate to Min, and though the book wasn't the most intellectually stimulating, I enjoyed it none the less, and it made a fair few thought provoking points. It is written believably, a stream of words lacking grammar but bursting with emotion and (obviously) angst. I also liked how Min, despite being mind-numbing lay infatuated, didn't drop her brain off sometime in the middle of the relationship, as I have seen many do in my time as I reader. She wasn't so easily pushed over. Now, this is not to say that she remained levelheaded and practically intelligent throughout the book— the reason they broke up was clear to me far before it was to Min. But I think it is especially hard to be objective in situations involving People you know and love.

Overall, I thought this book was highly enjoyable, and I recommend it to anyone. Also if you love coffee (or as Min more accurately refers to it, Life Giving Brew) you will find a character similarly in love with it in its proper state: drowned in cream and sweetened with at least 3 packets of sugar.