Wednesday, May 14, 2008

An Abundance of Katherines by: John Green

Colin + Katherine = break-up

If there is one mathematical formula self-professed “washed-up child prodigy” Colin Singleton knows it’s that one. Ever since Colin was a kid, he’s been dating and getting dumped by girls named Katherine. When K-19 breaks up with him, Colin packs his bags, grabs his friend, Hassan and hits the road to Gutshot, Tennessee. Home of the body of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

There he meets a Katherine, a Lindsay, another Colin, a Hollis and a host of other well-drawn small town oddities. Lindsay Lee Wells’ mother, Hollis, a fan of an old TV show Colin was on and a bizarrely nice woman, invites the boys to stay at the Pink Mansion, the giant house she bought with money from the town’s only steady source of income: the tampon-string factory.

Frequently used anagrams (words out of another word), graphs, footnotes and snappy insults in a variety of languages only add spice to a great tale of redemption, love, learning how to tell a good story (must have romance and adventure!) and finding love.

To make this a little con-crity I wish Green would have included some… Oh, I don’t know! I loved this.

Total: Four and a quarter stars out of five

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