An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Colin is a prodigy -  a child genius - or he was, until he graduated from high school. Now he's just another brainiac about to enter college in the fall. His obsessive studying and seemingly unquenchable thirst for knowledge doesn't seem to have done much more than win him some cash on a game show (for child prodigies). He's not the next 14-year-old with a doctorate. He hasn't found proof of the existence of aliens. He is desperately afraid of not mattering, of having all this potential and wasting it.

His one claim to fame? He's dated 19 consecutive girls named Katherine (not Kathy, Kat, Katie ... or *shudder* Catherine), and managed to be dumped by every single one. That is pretty impressive for a guy who doesn't really have much of a social life outside of his romantic entanglements with Katherines. His only friend is named Hassan. He's Muslim, overweight, doesn't date (it's forbidden), doesn't drink (it's forbidden), and speaks fluent Arabic. He and Colin get along famously. It's Hassan who convinces Colin they must go on a road trip to help him get over K19 (the 19th Katherine, who has just broken his heart).

They end up in Gutshot, Tennessee. Almost instantly they are offered jobs as oral historians by a woman who lives in a hot pink mansion, and happens to own the factory that employes nearly everyone in town. Her daughter Lindsay has been recruited to be their guide and assistance (somewhat against her will), but the three hit it off pretty well. One day, after sweating in the hot Tennessee summer heat, Colin has a "Eureeka" moment. He has come up with a formula to chart the course of a relationship. It takes into account the Dumpee/Dumper relationship, and soon consumes much of his non-historian time. No matter what he does, however, it doesn't seem to work. He is destined to be a flash in the pan ... until Lindsay offers some advice.

As the summer unfolds, the three teens start to learn more about themselves through interacting with each other. Lindsay teaches Colin how to tell a story. Hassan learns to treat some things as more than just a joke. Lindsay learns to let people see the "real" her. Along the way, there are hilarious moments: a trip to Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand's tomb, pictures of Lindsay going through her "half punk-half emo-half goth-half nerd chick" phase, and the feral hog incident, just to name a few.

Green is a masterful prose writer. This story got a bit sappy at times, but I think most teenagers can relate to that (ahem, and some adults). He explores the idea of trying to get outside of yourself, and see how you fit into the world around you. All three of these characters must give up some of that typical teenage self-centeredness to grow. It's a good way to hear that the world doesn't revolve around you and your problems, even if it feels that way sometimes.

"He was finally - finally - crying. He remembered their arms entangled, their stupid little inside jokes, the way he felt when he would come over to her house after school and see her reading through the window. He missed it all. He thought of being with her in college, having the freedom to sleep over whenever they wanted, both of them at Northwestern together. He missed that, too, and it hadn't even happened. He missed his imagined future.
You can love someone so much, he thought. But you can never love people as much as you can miss them, (Green pg. 105, 2008).

*Library Link*

If you liked this, check out:

Paper Towns by John Green
Spanking Shakespeare by Jake Wizner
The Boyfriend List: 15 Guys, 11 Shrink Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs and Me, Ruby Oliver by E. Lockhart

Green, John. (2008). An Abundance of Katherines. New York, NY: Dutton Books.