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Looking For Alaska
 | Looking For Alaska John Green Date: 2005-07-21 05:03:34 — $10.87 — Book Rating: |
It's not going to be a classic, like Salinger's Catcher in the Rye or Knowles' A Separate Peace, but it's as good as Jake Colburn's Prep (Dutton, 2003) and better than Daniel Parker's the Wessex Papers.(Avon, 2002). Miles, christened "Pudge" by his new roommate at boarding school (because he's so skinny) discovers that time without parental monitoring is time to spread his wings and experience life. While in search for the Great Perhaps, he falls in with a smokin' drinkin' & cussin' crowd who like to pull pranks and talk about sex. In short, not altogether unusual teens.
As Miles adjusts to his new life, he is particularly drawn to Alaska, a pretty but haunted girl who is by turns swaggering with bravado and curled up in vulnerability. This doesn't stop Miles from allowing a sweet classmate girl to give him his (and her) first blowjob, but it does make him feel regret when he eventually rejects her out of his love for Alaska.
Green perfectly captures the naive yet knowing voice of his perceptive protagonis without giving the story that adult filter that some authors are unable to resist. Mile's interest in the last words of dying celebrities is just one example of the author's talent for creating complex characters with quirky details that tie into the plot and move the story along. Deep, philosophical, and earthy, this novel the explores the experience of loss will be a favorite for it's shaudenfreud, hinted at by the ethereal wisp of smoke from a snuffed out candle on the cover.
