Scan barcode
A review by trin
Paper Towns by John Green
5.0
Another wonderful YA novel from John Green. Like [b:Looking for Alaska|99561|Looking for Alaska|John Green|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171446423s/99561.jpg|919292] and [b:An Abundance of Katherines|49750|An Abundance of Katherines|John Green|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1211230733s/49750.jpg|48658], Paper Towns is about a witty, slightly geeky boy searching for a lost or otherwise unattainable girl (you can, I just realized, totally see these books as junior reader versions of many of [a:Haruki Murakami|819789|J.D. Salinger|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1189260887p2/819789.jpg]’s novels). However, I love how Green ultimately subverts the paradigm in this one, making its protagonist, Quentin, realize how he’s really been in love with the idealized idea of Margo, with the face she presents to the outside world, and not the real girl—who’s someone just as deserving, and much more in need, of love. The whole point becomes the fact that Margo is not just an unattainable object, but a person.
Since the “quest for the lost/unattainable love” story is obviously one I like, and since there are few to none in which the lost/unattainable person is a man (why is this? Is it just too hard to marry that sort of chivalrous devotion with feminism?), I’m pleased anytime I come across one of these stories in which the female character is as vivid as the male, instead of just one of a long row of interchangeable Galateas.
Since the “quest for the lost/unattainable love” story is obviously one I like, and since there are few to none in which the lost/unattainable person is a man (why is this? Is it just too hard to marry that sort of chivalrous devotion with feminism?), I’m pleased anytime I come across one of these stories in which the female character is as vivid as the male, instead of just one of a long row of interchangeable Galateas.