©2012
By Jack A. Urquhart (170 words)
Who would’ve thought a story about star-crossed teens battling terminal cancer could be such an engaging, not to mention uplifting read? But that is what John Green manages in his lovely novel, The Fault in Our Stars.
His protagonist, 16-year old Hazel Grace Lancaster, who suffers from thyroid cancer, and her love interest, 17 year-old Augustus Waters (an amputee to osteosarcoma) are surely two of the most precocious, appealing, and believable teens to populate fiction in ages. Their wise-beyond-years, and often very funny conversations, keep the novel from slipping into saccharine/maudlin territory—which isn’t to say that Green’s novel doesn’t strum the reader’s heart-strings. It does. In fact, I recommend keeping a box of Kleenex handy.
Green’s memorable novel deals with the very human struggle to accept the reality of death; but more to the point, it addresses how important it is to accept—and make the most of—whatever life deals out. Including love. Even when the rest of the cards in our hand aren’t pleasant. Or fair.
Every Man Jack ... 