RATING GUIDE:
5 – A keeper!
4 – Very good
3 – Passable
2 – I’d rather read
a telephone book
1 – An absolute bomb.
Read at your own risk!
The first John Green book I ever
read was “The Fault in our Stars” (you can still check out my review of this
book at http://thefilipinareader.blogspot.com/2013/05/john-greens-fault-in-our-stars-classic.html). After that magical literary encounter, I
promised I would read every book John Green has ever written, or will write,
from now on. I don’t think I’ve ever
come across any writer who writes such interesting, funny, profound,
life-changing stories …
If authors had groupies, then I
must say I am a true blue John Green groupie.
“Looking For Alaska” is the first
John Green book I read after “The Fault in our Stars,” and I was curious to
find out what my reaction to it would be.
While it is not as mind-blowing and heart-rending as “The Fault in our
Stars,” it does come pretty close.
“Looking For Alaska” is told from the viewpoint of Miles,
a teenager with a pretty interesting “hobby”.
Miles loves reading biographies, and actually remembers the last words
many famous people reportedly said before they croaked. It’s a hobby that
hardly seems to make any sense, until Miles leaves home for boarding
school. It is while studying at this
boarding school that Miles experiences friendship and love for the first time
and learns all about life and death, and the value of family and friends from
the people around him.
When you read a book, you can’t
help but have your experience colored by your own experiences … so I can’t help
but read Looking For Alaska from the point of view of a grown-up who
lives in the Philippines, also known as “A Developing Nation,” or “The Third
World” (if you want to be a little politically incorrect).
It’s hard not to feel sad for the
young characters in this novel, especially Alaska. Sad and annoyed. You
would think that these young folk, who (supposedly) have brains, have youth and
beauty on their side, have families and/or the means to study would feel a
little grateful and do a little more with the resources and opportunities they
have, the life that they have. Instead,
you find some of the characters pranking, smoking and fucking their way into
feeling more alive and feeling anything that resembles belonging. As if their life means nothing. To me, nothing is as sadder (and as
infuriating) as a person who can’t see the good in his/her life.
Of course, the definition of a
“good life” is always relative. Just
because one has a family and goes to school doesn’t automatically mean one is
“happy”. I suppose my “Third World”
perspective will always be different from that of someone who has never been in
want (materially or otherwise) of anything.
I can’t help but compare the
teens in John Green’s book to this little boy I saw in a GMA documentary called “Isang Baso Ng Binhi” (I guess the translation would be “A
Glass Of Seeds”). The documentary
featured a little boy steeped in poverty.
A boy who, at the tender age of ten, is already so wise beyond his
years. Much wiser, in fact, than many
of the grown-ups in this world. The
documentary showed this boy planting trees, which he said … was for his college
education. And there was also a
very touching moment in the documentary where the boy wept as journalist Kara
David asked him what he wanted. The boy
wanted to help his father finally have the chance to rest, he wanted to take
over his parents’ responsibilities and help them. For someone as young and as hard up as this
boy, he had very important reasons to study hard and to live. He had people to actually live for. I read “Looking For Alaska” and I thought it
was so ironic that these teens who seemed to have it all, actually had nothing.
“Looking For Alaska” provides its
readers with a look into what goes on in the minds of hearts of today’s
teens. If you’re looking for sanitized,
Disney-perfect teen characters in this book, well, you won’t find any of them
here. These teens swear, smoke, pull
pranks on school officials, bully their peers, sleep with each other, etc. and
are filled with so much angst you almost expect all of them to go nuts or kill
themselves in the end … so I would advise parents to provide guidance if/when
their sons or daughters decide to read this book. This book also deals with the very complex, touchy issue of teen
suicide, so parents need to be around if/when their kids decide to discuss this
book with them.
But just because the characters
aren’t very wholesome doesn’t mean parents should keep their children from
reading this book. This book is
actually a very good springboard for discussion amongst teens and their
parents. And if a reader can look past
the teen angst and shenanigans, he or she would actually find himself pondering
all these hebigat questions about complex issues like life and death,
alienation, sex, suicide … all the issues that give parents palpitations, high
blood pressure and migraines.
“Looking For Alaska” is funny,
heart-warming, serious, complex, frivolous, deep, moving, profound …
life-changing.
Highly recommended.
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