As a fourth semester college student, I made a vow to myself that I’d slow down a bit in 2014 and just enjoy life and relaxing more often. I’m only taking 12 hours this semester, so I have quite a bit of free time that I’m not used to. Freshman Sarah would have used this time to nap and Netflix-binge, but (older and wiser) Sophomore Sarah has vowed to read…for FUN! It’s kind of a foreign concept to me because I rarely have time to sit down with a text not for class. I’ve had quite a list of books to read building but I’d never quite gotten around to doing so. 2014 is that time! My first novel of the year (only took a me a month to complete…) was The Fault In Our Stars by John Green…
I have to start by saying this is not a book for the weak-hearted. My friends tell me occasionally that I’m heartless and have difficulty expressing my emotions, but this text had me crying from the start. It’s most certainly a love story — that of Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters. Although they are quite young, Hazel and Augustus are wise far beyond their years. Growing up with terminal cancer has caused two young individuals to reevaluate what it means to live, and what’s worth dying for. If you’re like me, in the sense that you can’t read a book without a pen and highlighter in hand to annotate the text, you might not want to even bother with TFIOS — I would’ve had the entire book smeared in neon. Every page is filled with strong quotes that could stand alone as profound without the context of Hazel and Augustus. This is the first book I’ve read by John Green, but it certainly won’t be the last. When I went to purchase this book initially, upon intense coaxing from friends, I found myself wandering through Barnes and Noble confused as to why a bestseller was difficult to find. Turns out that TFIOS is categorized as a “teen romance novel”. I was kind of disappointed to think I was stooping to “smut” lit, as my father would call it, but I went ahead and purchased anyways. After the first twenty pages, I was convinced this book was miscategorized. Although they are fictitious characters with fictitious illnesses, Hazel and Gus speak with such eloquence that I assume would only be acquired after facing a death sentence. This afternoon, I had 120 pages of the book’s 318 remaining. I finished in under an hour (almost an impossible feat for me) and cried on every page. This. Story. Is. Beautiful. Not to say it’s not tragic, because it most certainly is, but beautiful nonetheless. Seeing characters with such insight on the purpose of living at such as young age left me speechless. I don’t want to give a spoiler here, even though the book’s conclusion will seem inevitable once you begin reading, but I do want to leave you with some of my favorite lines… Also, don’t forget to check out the film version of the novel set to come out June 2014. I’m not quite sure how I feel about the casting of the film, but the story is so beautiful that I don’t want to go in with any preconceived judgments. See the trailer below.
Augustus on Hazel Grace: “I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence.” (Page 16)
Hazel, on her favorite (fictional) book that I wish existed in real life: “Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. And then there are books like An Imperial Affliction, which you can’t tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.” (Page 33)
Hazel & Issac: “Sometimes people don’t understand the promises they’re making when they make them,” I said. Issac shot me a look. “Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That’s what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway. Don’t you believe in true love?” (Pages 60-61)
Augustus: “That’s the thing about pain…it demands to be felt.” (Page 63)
Hazel, defending the author of An Imperial Affliction: “That’s the part of what I like about the book in some ways. It portrays death truthfully. You die in the middle of your life, in the middle of a sentence.” (Page 67)
Augustus on Hazel Grace: “You are so busy being you that you have no idea how truly unprecedented you are.” (Page 123)
Hazel on Augustus: “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” (Page 125)
Augustus on Amsterdam: “Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin.” (Page 157)
Augustus on the Dutch Tulip Man, a insignificant character in An Imperial Affliction: “He’s an obvious and unambiguous metaphorical representation of God, and asking what becomes of him is the intellectual equivalent of asking what becomes of the disembodied eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg in Gatsby.” (Page 191)
Hazel on faith: “Maybe some people need to believe in a proper and omnipotent God to pray, but I don’t.” (Page 201)
Hazel’s father on what he believes about the world: “Am who am I, living in the middle of history, to tell the universe that it — or my observation of it — is temporary?” (Page 223)
Hazel on Augustus: “It seemed like forever ago, like we’d had this brief but still infinite forever. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.” (Page 233)
Hazel on humiliation: “It’s hard as hell to hold on to your dignity when the risen sun is too bright in your losing eyes.” (Page 238)
Peter Van Houten, author of An Imperial Affliction: “Writing does not resurrect. It buries.” (Page 266)
Hazel at Augustus’ visitation: “Funerals, I had decided, are for the living.” (Page 273)
Augustus to Peter Van Houten: “My thoughts are stars that I can’t fathom into constellations.” (Page 311)
