Yes, I know this book has been reviewed a thousand times and was published in 2006 and I’m way, way behind, BUT I am not a librarian, just a lowly library science student and I just didn’t have access to or knowledge of all of these books. I didn’t even know the Printz Prize even existed until September 2006! Frankly, I don’t know how they manage to read so much and talk about each book with such authority. By “they”, of course, I mean Loughran and Ward. They’re like fugging superheros or something.
But I digress. On to my ramblings.
I really enjoyed the book and thought Green did a solid job of creating compelling characters who were likeable, flawed, and funny. Colin, a child prodigy on the verge of adulthood; Hassan, a smart Muslim slacker, Colin’s best friend and “voice of what normal people do and think”; and Lindsey Lee Wells, Gutshot, Tennessee native and the first girl friend Colin has ever had.
Colin and Hassan take off on a roadtrip to nowhere after Colin is dumped by Katherine XIX, or the 19th girl named Katherine he has ever dated. Their aimless driving takes them to Gutshot, Tennessee, where they meet Lindsey and her mother, Hollis, who offers the guys a job recording the oral history of the town. As they meet the people of Gutshot, become friends with Lindsey, and experience some “teenage stuff” like making out, cruising and eating lots of Hardee’s Thickburgers, Colin wallows in his post-dumping pain and works to develop a theorum that will predict the lifespan of any relations, the Theorum of Underlying Katherine Predictability. The theorum development is a cute device, allowing Colin to develop emotionally and socially as he works to develop his theorum.
An Abundance of Katherines feels like an authentic teenage summer. It is a simple story in many ways, but like everything when you’re 17 and on the verge of adulthood, there is a lesson in every experience. Profound change can happen as a result of the people you meet and the decisions you make. Things feel so heavy when you’re 17, wonderfully heavy. The reader gets to join Colin, Hassan, and Lindsey as they discover the exhiliration and fear of growing up and leaving the familiar.
As a huge fan of Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, I got a kick out of the footnotes sprinkled throughout the book, as well as the author’s note and appendix, which explains the math theorum created in the book. Katherines as a whole was well-written, smart and literary without leaving the reader behind with facts and highbrow trivia. I also really appreciated that Green did not play into a lot of stereotypes about small towns and the South. He created a lovely, nuanced town and an excellent backdrop for this coming-of-age story.
