Voyage Closed and Done

This past weekend left me with a dilemma.  What to do with the sudden surplus of free time?  Well the weekend brought stormy weather, so naturally I decided to finally catch up on some non-academic reading.  And so I finished a rather popular novel by John Green, entitled

Paper Towns


The Synopsis:

Quentin and Margo were great childhood friends.  Until the two stumbled upon the rotted corpse of a suicidal man in the park.  Since then, the two have drifted apart.  Quentin hangs out with the band geeks, while Margo is enthroned among the popular kids.  Quentin loves her desperately from afar, but can't muster up the spine to admit his feelings to her. 

Fortunately for Quentin, Margo sneaks back into his life one night when she climbs in through his bedroom window.  The two proceed to gallivant about town, pranking the poor souls on Margo's hit list and generally acting out their teenage angst. 

But then, gasp, plot twist!  Margo suddenly disappears.  Now Quentin and his ragtag team of misfits must hunt her down before Margo vanishes from Quentin's life forever.  Armed with an old van, a Wikipedia ripoff, and an army of black Santas, Quentin and his fellow high school flunkies chase down Margo's needlessly complicated clues to try to find her before it's too late. 

The Genre: 

Paper Towns is a young adult novel, and as such, features all the obligatory musts of the genre.  There's the troubled romance, the coming-of-age narrative, the high school drama.  But John Green does in Paper Towns what he did in Looking For Alaska - he transcends the genre.  Really, there's some heavy stuff in this book.  Existentialism, suicide, Walt Whitman.  Green doesn't just confine his writing for pubescent adolescents, there's plenty of serious talk and dirty humor to float more mature boats as well. 

The Done-Rights: 

By far, the greatest strength of Green's narratives are his characters.  They are at once instantly memorable, but still capable of depth and substance.  Radio, the obligatory black friend, for example, happens to obsessively operate an online encyclopedia database.  But on more than one occasion, he winds up being the voice of reason amidst Quinton's obsession.  And of course there's Margo herself - teen goddess adored by all, who abandons her life to start anew.  The entire novel is about the complexities of identity and how you can never really know a person. 

Green's humor is definitely spot on, ranging from sexual innuendo to situational comedy.  And while that sounds like it should be obvious, it's really important that Green sprinkled a few laughs in there.  The story would be really dark and droll without them. 

The Verdict: 

 While Paper Towns may not be as fluid and engaging as Looking for Alaska, it certainly warrants its own reading.  There's a lot going on beneath the surface of Green's novel, so much so that he included a list of essay ideas for critical thinking at the end of the book (that's not a joke, he really did).  And while the story can drag at parts, Green's characters are strong and his fluid prose does not fail him. 

I give Paper Towns an 8 out of 10 and four fat stars. 

 

Again, all images belong to their respective owners.  Potter's Puppet Pals is a funny bunch of videos you should watch on YouTube.  Jim Carrey is quite possibly the funniest man in the history of ever.  The image used is from his movie Bruce Almighty, where he is endowed with all God's powers.  That nutjob bantering with himself in the mirror is Edward Nygma, as seen on Gotham, which is a show you should watch on Netflix. 

 

(Ironically enough, the only important person who isn't tremendously memorable in Paper Towns is the protagonist, Quentin.  While everybody else has something that instantly sets them apart - Radio's website, Ben's kidney infection, Margo's restlessness - Quentin's character is basically driven and defined by his attraction to Margo Spiegelman.  There's enough character there to carry the story, but that's really all there is to Quentin.)