"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." Groucho Marx



Tuesday, May 6, 2014

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green


This is the first John Green novel I've had the pleasure of reading but it won't be my last. It is easy to see why his teen audience and critics are enraptured. Green most assuredly deserves every one of the numerous awards his work has earned.

The Fault in Our Stars takes readers on a gut-wrenching journey of what I believe is a very realistic view of life for adolescent victims of cancer. The beautiful parts of the human spirit, the ugly parts of defeat and despair, the painful parts of realized dreams, missed opportunities, and untapped potential-all of these "side effects of dying," are laid bare and exposed on the page. This book was not just an entertaining story, though it certainly is that, but a lesson in compassion and gratitude. Yet another reminder that even after a terrible day or week or month, it could be worse. After all, I get to get up and try it again, a do-over that I've had the privilege of enjoying innumerable times already. This book was full of tough lessons, laying ruin to my makeup every time I picked it up, but I'll read it again. And again after that. Green's writing style is such that I can expect to garner something additional each time I enjoy his work and I don't think Augustus, Hazel, and Isaac have finished teaching me all they have to impart either. We enjoy books that entertain us. We enjoy books that provide an escape. Then if we are lucky, that rare novel will find us-that one that shifts and changes us. I am humbled and grateful to John Green and his cast of overwhelmingly, beautifully human characters for challenging my perceptions and reminding me to live in the present with gratitude for every Earth-walking moment.

"You are going to live a good and long life filled with great and terrible moments that you cannot even imagine yet!" ~ Augustus Waters

You will find an official plot line description at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11870085-the-fault-in-our-stars.


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