I had to finish John Green's 'The Fault in Our Stars' today because I had to have my clearance signed by our librarian.
I don't know why I picked this book to read because I don't really go for juvenile books as I have this unfounded condescension for things that matter to the youth.
Although I plodded at first, trying to enjoy the book (it is about dying and kids with cancer - so the premise is depressing already), I finally found my pace as I reached the middle part - especially the part when they embark on this remarkable journey to meet a person they held with such high regard.
This is actually the part that I would want to see in the movie version of the book. I would want to know if THE Van Houten in the book sizes up well with the Van Houten in the movie! (I just googled it and learned that Willem Dafoe plays the role - great choice!)
Interestingly, for the kids who grew up in the 70s, Van Houten is a well-known chocolate brand which we ate a lot as kids but has disappeared from the grocery shelves. That part is mentioned in the book, lending it some reality.
That part of the story, I thoroughly enjoyed, as well as their flirtation dialogues which sounded real as the words used should be the words young people use today when they get to know each other.
However, as the book was ending, I just rushed reading it because reading about people dying of cancer is not something I would consider as enjoyable - and that was around a hefty 20 pages before THE END.
I don't even think it's the cancer that is hard to read - it is the idea that a young person would die before he or she even lives a full life - something which many of us just take for granted.
"No parent should ever bury their own child", but this thought lingers with you as you read the book - so I guess, just like the protagonists in Ian McEwan's book 'Atonement' - we can give Augustus Waters and the heroine of the book - Hazel Grace - some God-like capacity to live out their love for as long as their physical bodies can hold off their disease.
