Review: An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I recently found myself standing in a train station, facing the prospect of a very long train ride (eight hours, as it turned out) without having had the foresight to pack a book. Searching the book stand I spotted An Abundance of Katherines. I'd noticed the title before, at the library, and I'd heard good things, so I decided to give Green's novel about a boy a try.

Said boy, Colin, is a prodigy (former prodigy) who has just graduated high school (valedictorian) and been dumped by his girlfriend, Katherine XIX. You see, one of Colin's (many) quirks is that he only dates girls named Katherine. Nineteen times has our young protagonist been dumped by a girl named Katherine. His best (and only) friend, Hassan, comes up with the genius plan to take a road trip for the summer, which they hope with give Colin the time to get over his breakup and have fun just rambling around. They set out, and wackiness ensues.

So, three stars.

This probably really a two star book, saved only by the fact that I really did enjoy it. It's one of those cases where the whole is somehow greater than the sum of the parts.

This is, as other reviewers have certainly noted, a pretty formulaic book. Geeky White Guy with ennui hangs out with a Quirky Minority Friend who inexplicably puts up with GWG's crap. They have a journey (literally, in this case) of some kind, during which they meet The Girl, who is also very quirky/geeky in some way, but attractive, and who not only also inexplicably puts up with GWG's crap, but finds him magically attractive. She helps him find himself and realize that life is awesome, and they end up together. The End.

It's basically Garden State for the YA crowd.

The characters lack any real depth, and the basic plot is so formulaic, I'd guess that most readers know exactly what's going to happen with everyone almost from the moment they meet. Seriously, I almost couldn't bear to put a spoiler tag here, because this is such a "been there/done that" book.

That said... I kinda liked it. I'll admit it, it was funny! It's like going to a silly comedy after a long week. Sure, you know what's going to happen, and most of the jokes and gags are variations of things you've seen before, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun. Colin is annoying twerp of a character, and Hassan might actually be slightly offensive, but the absurdity of their situation, and the snappy "nobody is actually as clever as this all the time except in works of fiction" dialog worked for me (at least, while I was stuck on a train for eight hours).

I also liked that the narrative seemed to be deliberately structured to reinforce the lessons being given to Colin. The narrative structure is messy at first, with flashbacks being told arbitrarily as they occur to the character, but it eventually transitions, and the flashbacks are told in sequence like a coherent story within the story, once Colin learns how to tell stories.

The whole thing is pretty silly, of course. The individual components don't really feel like they belong together, especially, and few of them actually matter to the central plot. Does it matter that Colin only dated Katherines? Not even a little bit. Does it matter that he's great with anagrams or that he's a human encyclopedia or that he's terrible at making friends? Nope. You could pretty much change any of his quirks and it wouldn't really impact the story. You'd have the same story if he only dated redheads, or if he was a video game auteur.


So, there you have it, fellow readers. An Abundance of Katherines is basically the YA equivalent of a generic summer comedy. It's unremarkable, fundamentally silly, and not particularly well crafted, but you might enjoy it anyway, if the mood is right.





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