06 February 2012

Laughter Through Tears is my Favorite Emotion, or Book Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I met John Green a couple of weeks ago when he was participating on a panel for Winter Institute and was one of the big draws at the author receptions.  Up until then, I had only read Will Grayson, Will Grayson, a book that he cowrote with David Levithan, and while I knew he was a beloved author, I really had no clear idea why until that time in New Orleans.  On his panel he kept talking about his horrifically tragic books, but he himself was so damn funny (and WG, WG tipped decidedly toward the funny end of the scale, not the tragic one) that it was difficult for me to feature.

I left work on Thursday with a signed copy of The Fault in Our Stars tucked under my arm, winging a comment back to my colleague Marika as I left that I was looking forward to the emotional ride. Little did I know! I was barely into Chapter One before the bed was shaking with laughter and my husband sniffed at me from over the top of his own, decidedly-less-funny book,  The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy. My cats didn't seem to mind, though my sweet Murray did start licking my face when the laughter abruptly shifted to tears. I'm telling you, this book chewed up my heart and spit it back out again, but I had an absolutely Grand Time for the duration.

You know the movie Steel Magnolias?  I love that movie, not least for its eminent quotability, and one of the first lines I committed to memory was one of Dolly Parton's: "Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion." Well, this book is the pure-dee embodiment of that sentiment.  There were times my shoulders were a-shakin' and I'd be very hard-pressed to determine if it were more from the tears or more from the laughter, for I could suppress neither for very long.

Probably most of you who are reading this review know exactly what this book is about, but for my mom and my husband, and those of you who don't, perhaps, have your fingers on the pulse of YA publishing, here's a short summary: two teenagers meet and fall in love.  So far, so good.  But it's where they meet that shapes this book's content--at a support group for teens with cancer. The reader absolutely knows from the beginning that the book cannot end well, but that doesn't keep the reader from hanging herself with the hope rope. (Or maybe that's just me.) Augustus and Hazel wouldn't be your typical teens even without their missing or weakened body parts.  They're smart, curious, snarky, and introspective. Their cancer has taken them beyond politeness to that realm where fools are not suffered gladly and where the concept of pussyfooting around topics other (read: normal) people find uncomfortable is unfathomable.

The dialogue is exactly what dialogue should be in real life, if only we got to rehearse and make it perfect yet authentic. The pathos in the book is a fitting tribute to the title's source: nothing less venerably tragic than Shakespeare's Julius Caesar ("The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,/ But in ourselves").

There's book talk, video games, a friend who goes blind, some mild vandalism, a trip to Amsterdam, Two Very Important Venn diagrams, and an asshole of an author, and throughout it all the book boils down to narrative perfection. My two main critiques of the book have nothing to do with the content and everything to do with design: 1) the cover design is not very good, and in fact it's hard to read the text underneath the white cloud, and (2) The lovely-to-look-at typeface which is also, in fact, easy to read, is never identified.

This book was published by Penguin/Dutton in January 2012 and I purchased my own copy of it. If it had been published by Random House, it would have contained a note on the type and would have identified the book designer, etc. Shame on you, Dutton!

14 comments:

  1. This was discussed on the women's retreat! Meaning another woman said her daughter had been reading it at like midnight, and she and her husband heard sobs coming from her bedroom, so she went over and the girl was clutching the book, saying between fits of tears, "This is...the greatest book...of all time."

    So between that, your review, and then Raych's and Adam's, I'm kind of ridiculously excited about it.

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  2. Am requesting this book from McMillan Library (labarra) even as we speak.

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  3. THIS BOOK SOUNDS SO GOOD! I seriously need to read it, if only to have an opinion on it when people write awesome reviews of it :). I also now need to see Steel Magnolias because 1) Dolly! and 2) laughter through tears actually is my favourite emotion. Sigh.

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  4. Thanks for this one! I've seen lots of people gushing over this book but haven't seen much on what the book is actually about.

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  5. AH! Can't wait to read it! Damn library queue. SO glad you had that reaction!

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  6. This book sounds fabulous/sad/amazing/heartbreaking. I totally need it, now!

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  7. I was a hopice nurse for over a decade and my staff and I often laughed through the tears. This book will go on my wanted list. Thanks so much for the review

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  8. What a review! Putting it on my wishlist and checking my library. :)

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  9. Oh I love the little notes on type at the backs of books, glad I'm not the only one. I think Canongate is the only publisher I know that does it a lot though.

    Everyone is talking about John Green, I really must read some.

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  10. I can't wait to read this! As you know, I greatly admired An Abundance of Katherines and WG/WG too. Green's at the top of his game right now, rivaling any fiction writer (YA or not) out there for realistic yet snappy dialogue, humor that hits the mark every time, and impressive command of both pacing and pathos. Time to treat myself to his latest, I suspect.
    Thanks for this review: You've bolstered me into biblio-indulgence. Off to Village Books on Friday afternoon to scoop up a copy. Unless, of course, The Odyssey's offering up signed copies via snail mail...

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  11. Ellie, I don't know Canongate. Is that a UK publisher? Random House US books always have a note on the type and credit the book designer, too, which I really appreciate (more now that I'm married to a book designer and typographer!).

    Laurie, I can check our stock to see if we have any signed copies left. I might have purchased the last one. But they're not scarce on the ground since Green vowed to sign every single one of the first printing, which was pretty big.

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  12. Okay, Laurie, I just checked...our signed books are no more, but I bet it would be easy to obtain one.

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  13. Since just reading your review brought a tightness to my throat I have got to read this book right now! If I haven't said it before, let me say it now - YOU are a terrific writer. Do you write fiction? You should, ya know.
    Also, I uber excited because FOX2000 and John Green have made a deal. The book is on its way to the big screen. YAY!

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  14. Finally received a copy from the local library.....read it twice....I laughed, I cried, I was deeply moved....what more can you ask from a book?

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Please, sir, may I have some more? (Comments, that is!)