Making It As a Modern Male IV: YA Novels and the Teenaged Boy

John Green's second teen novel, An Abundance of Katherines, is a sort of modern quest novel. Colin Singleton (note the metaphoric surname) finds himself out of a job as child prodigy when he graduates from high school and fears that he'll never live up to his early promise to become an adult genius. Colin desperately wants to matter, but before he can do that he has to figure out why he has been dropped by nineteen girlfriends, all named Katherine.

Still in deep visceral pain from being dumped by Katherine XIX, Colin's only friend, Hassan Harbish (a fat, hairy Muslim couch potato with a killer wit) convinces him that what they need to find themselves is a road trip. Their trip winds up in Gutshot (note metaphoric name), Tennessee, where a side trip to see the (faux) grave of Archduke Ferdinand leads them to meet local teenagers, in particular a cool and appealing non-Katherine named Leslie. Colin and Hassan stop off, get hired to do an historical project for Leslie's mom, owner of a local factory making strings for tampons (don't even go there looking for metaphors), and, although dreadfully lacking in the social skills to meld with cool rural Tennessee teens, try to hang out with Leslie, her boyfriend TOC (The Other Colin) and their friends.

Perseverantly*, Colin, obsessing (is there such a word as Aspergerishly) over the many Katherines, feverishly attempts to create a mathematical formula which can graph the end of relationships from 1) breakup, 2)divorce, or the BIG ONE, 3)death. Meanwhile, Colin and Hassan try to fit in with the local teens, dining at Taco Hell, going on a wild pig hunt, and in Colin's case, developing a close relationship with Leslie. Not that that's easy, because unlike some teen boys, Colin talks way too much, mostly about himself and mostly on subjects which show how erudite and polyglot he can be. Still Colin and Leslie find some common ground and gradually grow closer until, inevitably, the hunky but dense TOC proves unfaithful and Leslie turns to Colin and becomes his Leslie I.

Colin's big insight, as he completes his formula for dumping, is that he can't predict or control the future and that that is a good thing. That's a trite truism that is nevertheless really true. It's not the end but the journey itself, as they say, and at last Colin isn't a singleton, but a part of everyone's else's story, as they are part of his. This conclusion won't be new to most readers, but with this book, it's not the conclusion but the journey itself that makes it a truly fun read. Just going along for the ride with Colin and Hassan is a trip.

*John Green's book is filled with footnotes, so I'm doing it, too! (Perseverantly, from perseveration, meaning "Uncontrollable repetition of a particular response, such as a word, phrase, or gesture..." [see Wikipedia])