Paper Towns is
told from the perspective of a boy named Quentin, who has been in love with his
next-door neighbor, Margo, since they were young kids. Apparently close in
childhood, they have since drifted apart, her to the popular crowd, and him to
the band geeks. One night, Margo climbs into Q's window and invites him to
chauffeur her around on a night of highly specific pranks targeted at those she
believes have wronged her.
Because of his strong obsession for Margo, Q does everything
that she asks of him, even breaking into SeaWorld and removing an eyebrow off a
longtime bully. As the night goes on, he develops the impression that things
will change between the two of them. Much to his dismay, Margo does not attend
school the next day, or any day henceforth. Q develops an even stronger
obsession of needing to know where she went and if she is still alive. He
spends hours and days trying to figure out what he believes are clues to where
she went.
Despite the exciting premise of this story, I was
surprisingly bored by the entire thing. At no point did I truly enjoy it,
although there are random bits of laugh-out-loud humor. Those bits are few and
far between, but, when they do occur, they are worth the wait. Much of the
story is Q thinking about Margo, Q talking about Margo, Q going off on various
hunches to see if he can find Margo. It's all about Margo, and, quite frankly,
I don't see the appeal. She is a completely unsympathetic character, and, if
all our main character cares about is
Margo, then he is unsympathetic too.
This is unfortunate, because I quite enjoyed just about
every other character in the book. His best friend Radar is great, with his
intelligence that spans absolutely everything and his parents' collections of
Black Santas. The other best friend, Ben, is hilarious, even though he can be beyond
abrasive. Even Q’s parents are fabulous. For the longest time, they were my
favorite part in the story. They are both therapists, thus making our narrator
is the most "well-adjusted person in the world." That bit may not be
true, since he is clearly delusional about Margo, but it is still wonderful to
observe the parents' back-and-forth discussions that involve psychoanalyzing
whatever they are talking about.
One thing I did like about the book is the ongoing theme of Moby Dick. The attention is not focused so
much on the book itself, but whether Captain Ahab is a hero or a madman for
his relentless pursuit of a whale. When Q's class is assigned an essay to
answer the hero vs. madman question, he picks the hero option. When he does
this, it becomes clear that he is meant to be Ahab and Margo the whale. That's
essentially what the story is: Q relentlessly chasing after an obscure idea of
a person, someone that he has set up on a pedestal for almost all of his life.
I don't mind that Q's character is similar to others in John
Green books, such as Colin in An
Abundance of Katherines or Miles in Looking
for Alaska, although all three protagonists
are essentially identical. That's not the problem. The problem is
really that all of these boys allow girls to push them around and dictate
their lives and still manage to think of said girls as ethereal heroines
deserving of any and all praise. This trait is detestable and its ongoing repetition
baffles me.
I will say: most of this book bored me to tears and the only
reason I kept reading was to see what really happened with Margo (even though I
cared for her even less than I cared for Quentin), but I am still glad I read
it. John Green does write quirky, intelligent characters that are enjoyable,
but I think the more important thing is that this book felt real. All the angst
of high school could not possibly be better expressed. Unfortunately, the
malaise and monotony could not be better expressed either.
The literary references in the book are pretty great, although there’s nothing truly obscure. There's Slaughterhouse-Five, The Bell Jar, Leaves of Grass, Moby Dick, and perhaps a few more that I have forgotten. The book
has little bits of wisdom spread throughout, as well as practical philosophy to
live by.
I’m glad I read this book. I’m glad I found out what all the
fuss was about. But I definitely don’t intend to buy into all the hype next
time.
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