Book Raves Pt. 6: Looking for Alaska by John Green

After reading The Fault in Our Stars, I decided that I had to read more of John Green's work. And what better way is there to get acquainted with a great author when you have a friend who's a big fan?

So, Looking for Alaska was suggested to me not just because it was his first book to be published, but also because it was my friend's favourite. I had to purchase it on the last day of being a first year, together with Eleanor & Park (this was accompanied by a well-deserved box of donut balls).

Looking for Alaska features young Miles Halter, aka Pudge, who decides to move to a boarding school for high school. He meets Chip, aka The Colonel, Alaska, Takumi and Lara. Miles inevitably breaks free from his shell and ends up living a life full of pranks and youth. Of course, when a book's main focus is on youth, there'll be moments in the story where the topic of life is addressed, which provokes you to delve deeper into your innermost thoughts. You can't help but wonder, just like the protagonist.

John Green did a great job in terms of shaping each character - all seem to have a past that forms who they are, and it's so beautiful to me how the flaws in each is accentuated to the point where you're reminded that every individual is not perfect. Everyone carries their own baggage that they sometimes have to deal with separately.

SPOILER ALERT. In every story, there's always a tipping point - the climax. And when I reached that moment, I was heartbroken. The fact that a person with so many dreams and so full of ideas of youthful adventures dies makes me tear up. I'm reminded once again of Green's implicit message in TFIOS: our lives may end abruptly without us knowing, and sometimes it's during the best moments of our lives. This only makes me strive harder to fulfill my own goals.

I especially adore how John Green decided to structure the book. Instead of chapters, he uses '___ Days Before' (before the tipping point) and '___ Days After' (after the tipping point). When you first begin to read, it makes you ponder on why this is used instead of the normal 'Chapter 1' (it's clever and very John Green-y), resulting to you wondering what exactly is going to happen, and then resulting to you realising that a chain of interwoven events will occur until BAM, the tipping point happens.

Even though this book broke my heart, it did make me laugh because there were definitely some humorous moments. For example, the swan biting Miles' butt. Green wrote it so dramatically that I laughed way too hard:

"The swan.

Swimming towards us like a swan possessed."

And Takumi with his fox hat:

"'What the hell is that?'

'It's my fox hat.'

'Your fox hat?'

'Yeah, Pudge. My fox hat.'

'Why are you wearing your fox hat?'

'Because no one can catch the motherfucking fox.'"

Like I said before, the topic of life is addressed, and there's always constant reference to the idea of a labyrinth, which I'm guessing is the suffering that comes with life, or just life itself.

(I literally felt like I was reliving my Philosophy A-Level days...).

"You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it."

But Miles reaches a conclusion about this towards the end: suffering is inevitable. It was present in the past, and will be present in the future. You can't live your life worrying about that while you're still alive in the present.

"The Buddha said that suffering was caused by desire, we'd learned, and that the cessation of desire meant the cessation of suffering. When you stopped wishing things wouldn't fall apart, you'd stop suffering when they did."

So, enter your own flow state and detach yourself from all your worries and problems; try to desire positivity as a way to comfort your mind, rather than indulge in the nature of materialism as a way of escape. If this was the case for everyone, I feel like there'll be less suffering externally, internally, or both.

{#books #novels #rave #LookingForAlaska #JohnGreen}