I realize that I may be the last literate person to have read this novel since it was published two years ago this month. Generally speaking, I try to avoid anything filed under “What Teens Are Reading” at Barnes and Noble (yes, I was in there exchanging things), despite my occasional forays into YA. But The Fault in Our Stars has been so widely acclaimed that I felt safe joining the library wait list.
Sidebar: Was the term “YA” around when we were younger? I’m 29, for the record, and I don’t remember seeing “YA” as a teenager, although it’s possible that I missed it because I was pretentious enough then to turn up my nose at a wide swath of literature (What’s that you say? I’m still pretentious? I don’t want to bite my thumb at you, but . . . ) and hated being categorized as a “teen.” I did read a bunch of Judy Blume novels in grade school (Yes, grade school. My second grade teacher couldn’t figure out what to do with me during class reading time, so she handed me Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. I was really confused, and a search through the bathroom cabinets didn’t help much.) I remember leafing through them in the library — to this day, I can’t really keep a straight face around anyone named Ralph — but I don’t remember how I found them.
My point, which got lost somewhere in there, is that I don’t see Forever . . . (don’t worry, didn’t read that one in second grade) shelved near the Boyles and Byatts these days, and maybe that’s a trend that’s been around for awhile. Then again, sometimes I can’t find Neil Gaiman books anywhere except the SF/F fantasy section, so maybe we should all band together and protest the isolation of genre fiction. Or do separate genre markers make it easier to find something along the lines of what you like?
But I digress.
Spoilers Ensue. You have been warned. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to read again.
I loved The Fault in Our Stars, even if it meant that I started my New Year by sobbing all over my favorite sweatshirt and causing my two-year-old to worry about Elmo’s health. It’s a testament to the writing that I knew just what was coming by page 18 (“Osteosarcoma sometimes takes a limb to check you out. Then, if it likes you, it takes the rest.”), but I still wanted to keep reading. Hazel and Augustus are hilarious, winning characters, perfectly imperfect, precocious but never precious. The book treats people with illnesses as people, which is rarer than it ought to be, and I thought the medical issues were handled well.
Here’s where the book first won me over: “There is only one thing in this world shittier than biting it from cancer when you’re sixteen, and that’s having a kid who bites it from cancer” (8). It’s the rare adolescent-centered book that fully acknowledges the burdens of parents, and this is one of them. I happen to be personally conversant with untimely death, and now, as a parent, I can tell you that, yes, being the parent would be worse.
I wonder, and I’d be pleased to know if you have the answer: Is this book as popular as boys as it is with girls? I know that it was mostly girls who read Twilight (tried some of that in an effort to get to know my students’ tastes: disaster.), but I can see how The Fault in Our Stars would appeal to boys, too.
As I read, part of my mind was engaged thinking about texts that I’d teach with The Fault in Our Stars, since it’s a commonly-read book among high school students and people entering college. It’s a dream of a book for English nerds, with tons of discussions about metaphors and books; Laura at Reading in Bed has a great post on the allusions in the book (and I agree with her critique about the sex scene too).
End of Spoilers.
Here’s a short list of books that I think would complement The Fault in Our Stars, not just from a teaching standpoint, but from a general reader’s standpoint too.
W;t, by Margaret Edson. A play about an English professor dying from ovarian cancer. Brilliant, beautiful, full of John Donne. I’ve taught it three or four times, and college students (freshmen to seniors) have loved it. There’s quite a bit here about how the medical establishment dehumanizes patients, and I think the de-emphasis on hospitals in The Fault in Our Stars would provide a good counterpoint and spur discussion about lenses in literature.
Gain, by Richard Powers. The best novel about cancer I’ve ever read (sorry, John Green). It’s dense, engaged with history and what it’s like to be human and sick. It both is and is not historical fiction, environmental fiction.
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro. If you missed this book, go read it immediately. It’s stunning. I won’t give away the plot because it’s so exquisitely rendered. Like The Fault in Our Stars, it features young adults facing circumstances entirely out of their control, and navigating though first loves at the same time.
What would you add to the list? What did you think of The Fault in Our Stars?
Rosemary and Reading Glasses 
You are not alone, two of my book clubs are reading this this winter and I’ve not yet read it. I’m not reading your full post about it, not until I’ve read it. 😄 I’m fascinated by the attention it’s received! And the author’s a “local boy.” Hope you enjoyed it. I’ll let you know my reaction.
Thanks, Lynn! Happy New Year! Hope you like the book.
Just FYI…I absolutely loved this book! My review–http://books-n-music.blogspot.com/2014/11/borders-book-club-read-for-july-2014.html. However, I really loved the sex scene, definitely preferring my imagination to details provided by an author. Agree about the parent quote! Just a great great read!!
Not quite the last! I still have it in my to be read pile!
Hope I didn’t give away too much 🙂
No, I didn’t read the spoilers!
Great review! I’m so glad you liked this. I’ve read Never Let Me Go, but not the others you listed. If you taught a class on those books, I’d LOVE to be there! That sounds like so much fun!
I think you’d adore Wit, and because it’s a play it’s a very fast read. I hope you get a chance to read it!
One of my favorite reads of 2013, YA label be damned. (And you’re right, I don’t remember “YA” from before, say, 2005, either, but it may be because I was reading John Grisham at age 9.)
If only we’d known each other then — quite a bit of useful information could have been exchanged.
Ha ha, fun post. I was literally going to ask you if you read Forever in the 2nd grade until I saw your answer.
I read The Fault in Our Stars exactly a year ago. My memory is awful these days, so I can’t offer much in the way of a discussion. I did enjoy it and I cried…that is all I remember.
I just read Ishiguro for the first time (A Pale View of Hills) and I was floored. I need to talk to someone about it. I’m so glad that you are highly recommending Never Let Me Go, which I have on my shelf. I’m anxious to look into your other two recommendations as well, especially as we have had brushes with cancer in our family. Are they emotionally difficult to read?
Yes, they’re both difficult to read, but not sentimental, if that makes sense. Not love stories, either, in the traditional sense.
Never Let Me Go is so good — it’s one of those books that doesn’t let you go (ha) — haunting and so interesting.
Yeah, Foreer in the second grade would have scarred me for life, I think.
It all sounds good. I will definitely put those books on my to-read list. Thanks!
There was definitely not a “YA” label when I was a teen (I’m 37). Books were Children’s or Not Children’s, pretty much.
That’s what I seem to remember too!
Thanks for the shout out! It was such a coincidence that I read Infinite Jest just before TFioS. There is zero chance I would have noticed otherwise.
I had no idea what the hell YA was until I started book blogging.
I’m interested in your recommendations. I never read plays but maybe I need to branch out a bit! Never Let Me Go is so awesome I’m scared to see the movie in case it ruins it for me… but I think I may have to go see TFioS in theatre.
You’re welcome! It’s a great post.
I feel the same way about Never Let Me Go. The filmed version of Wit, with Emma Thompson, is excellent, though. And l think I told someone else — Wit is very short — modern plays read fast — and so engrossing that it just flies by.
I haven’t read Fault but am seeing it everywhere and another blogger I know recommended it heartily. I hope to read it some day. And wasn’t Emma Thompson in the film adaptation of Wit? Not that that is relevant at all, just love her. Thanks for another thoughtful post — you make me want to read them all. Heaven HAS to have books — life is seriously way too short!
It reads so, so fast — I think you’d make short work of it. And yes, the glorious Emma Thompson stars in Wit. Lately I’ve been on the lookout for her sister Sophie (she’s in the 1996 Emma, and the version of Persuasion I mentioned in my last post). Such a gifted actress.
I’ve not heard of or seen (I don’t think) sister Sophie…must seek her out.
If you’ve got a free afternoon, check out Saving Mr. Banks — Thompson’s brilliant in it.
She’s a character actress — Miss Bates in Emma, Mary Musgrove in Persuasion.
A free afternoon — sigh! I think I’d never make it — I’d fall asleep too fast. 🙂
I must be the only person that didn’t love this book. I just think that the idea of a teenager with cancer is very reductive now. I read TFiOS hoping to find something awesome but it was more of the same and I don’t know why, but every time I read a cancer book I feel the whole character experience a little fake. The only one so far that has felt honest to me is Before I Die by Jenny Downham.
Interesting. To me, the characters, especially Hazel, felt very real. I don’t read very much YA, though, so perhaps it’s part of a wider trend? You might like Death Be Not Proud, which is a 1949 memoir by a father chronicling his son’s struggle with illness (a brain tumor).
Thanks for the recommendation! Definitely checking out 🙂