“Looking for Alaska” by John Green — Young adult fiction, but don’t let that put you off
*Spoiler-free*
Sometimes I hear of adult readers returning to young adult fiction looking for nostalgia and the comfort of an easy read — similar to the experience of browsing Netflix endlessly only to return where we knew we would end up, watching the shows that got us through our teens and young adulthood. But if ‘Looking for Alaska’ is young adult fiction, there is no sacrifice in terms of quality as a result of the book’s genre or target audience. Nor could it be said that it is an easy read.
Despite its title, the book is not set in Alaska. ‘Looking for Alaska’ follows Miles Halter as he leaves his lonely, self-contained life with his parents behind and integrates into the fully functioning society within the walls of Culver Creek boarding school where he becomes known as ‘Pudge’ (ironically, given his slight build). Pudge is the main character of the book by virtue of the fact that he brings us with him to the world of Culver Creek. As a reader though, we get the impression that life almost happens to him. He is moulded by those around him. For that reason, the plot is driven by more assertive characters like Pudge’s friends Colonel and the eponymous Alaska as they scheme and plot and smoke and drink. We see the story unfold through Pudge’s eyes but still we are far more connected to other characters (as I wrote this, I actually had to check if the book was written in the first or third person which I think shows how little subjective narration Pudge brings to the storytelling).
Unlike some other authors of young adult fiction, Green manages to write about teenage characters’ feelings and experiences without condescension. His writing validates their feelings, not just as adolescents, but as people living experiences which are intense and often difficult. This is not a tale of teenage angst written from the rose-tinted perspective of someone who has lived through “worse” or “more”; Green’s conveys the characters’ feeling of guilt and shame and anger with a genuineness that is rarely found in books about younger characters.
The dialogue is sharp, witty and silly, all at once — at times I was reminded of the classic film, ‘Stand by Me’. The character quirks peppered throughout are believable and enjoyable, with the Colonel memorising capitals and populations and Pudge himself reciting the last words of notable and/or historic persons on command.
“Like in the Civil War, a general named Sedgwick said ‘They couldn’t hit an elephant from this dis-’ and then he got shot.”
‘Looking for Alaska’ is also a reminder of the youthful tendency to accept without questioning; whether it be the unwritten rules governing life at Culver Creek or the inexplicable nicknames with which new arrivals to the school are christened. Powerless to change it for the most part, teens have a unique ability to adapt to their environment.
Structurally, ‘Looking for Alaska’ does not have chapters, but is written in shorter mini-chapters which countdown the days to and then the days since a particular event. This makes it easy to fly through the book — both because the shorter chapters are easily digestible and because of the suspense created by the countdown. In keeping with the countdown that ticks away in the background, the pace of the book starts out slow at one hundred and thirty six days before and gradually crescendoes as we get to four, two and finally the day before. Cleverly crafted, this pacing makes even more sense once we learn what we have been counting down to.
Having read this book, which was recommended to me by my seventeen year old brother, I can see the appeal of reading young adult fiction even as a not-so-young adult. Nothing is lost in terms of plot, and the dialogue and plot actually outshine many books I have read recently.
‘Looking for Alaska’ might be about adolescents, but it is about more than adolescence.
