Well, I tried to like looking for alaska by John Green, but ultimately, I was unable to appreciate much for a variety of reasons. I'm disappointed in my inability to have noticed what made this book a Printz Award winner, but the fact for me remains I found the book to be lacking for precisely the same reasons it was lauded by Kirkus Reviews on the back cover of my edition: "What sings and soars in this gorgeously told tale is Green's mastery of language and the sweet, rough edges of Pudge's voice. Girls will cry and boys will find love, lust, loss and longing in Alaska's vanilla-and-cigarettes scent." I disagree.
I found the singing flat, and instead of flying, there was some hopping about interspersed with a little leaping, perhaps. The language felt contrived and forced, especially when the "locals" talked. Pudge's voice was often uneven for me. One minute he was an astute, wise-beyond-his-years kid, and the next he didn't know what a blowjob was? Yeah, right. I'm not sure if girls will cry or boys will find lust--scratch that, teenage boys find lust in taking out the garbage--but they will surely start smoking cigarettes by the end of this book.
So, I found the tale sort of boring and predictable, and there wasn't much spectacularly memorable about any of the characters for me. They were stock character designs, really, and I had a hard time believing them. Whereas in Alexie's book, I bought his truth, here Green leaves me flat. The only character I truly liked was the Old Man, but even he didn't get a fair shake, in my opinion, and in the end did something so completely out of character by assigning Alaska's question, that I lost even that connection. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, for some reason, Green's text did not allow me to suspend my disbelief and fully engage with his novel.
The language felt contrived to me. When Green slipped from voice to voice, it was not fluid for me, and rather, it seemed herky-jerky and lacked honesty. The "y'alls" were supposed to function as a delineator between the "teen speak" and the "adult speak" in some ways, and it didn't work for me. It was too obvious. It wasn't "au natural" the way good dialogue rolls, rather it felt "au forced" to my mind's ear. I lived in the south as a kid too, and Green's language doesn't ring true for me. His caricature of Lara's accent nearly drove me from finishing the book. I've known plenty of eastern Europeans too, and while accurate, Green's display grated on my reading nerve.
And finally, I realize adolescents are adolescents, but I don't believe Green's renditions completely. Lara and Pudge both knew what a blowjob was, and that whole sequence screamed "tacked-on to further clarify Alaska's importance to the group..." Ugh. And what's with all the drinking, smoking, and yakking about the same shit over and over and over again? I felt like I was reading the same reworked dialogue in different contexts at times. Some stuff felt over-presented and other stuff under-presented, like the pranking-planning by the Colonel. That last prank was so lame, my lame-o-meter went haywire and nearly broke into a million pieces. Sigh.
Apologies, but I tried to like this book, I really did. However, I found it to be trite and contrived, lacking authenticity, and the story fell flat for me. The language didn't work. The characters were not real for me. And ultimately, I was unable to suspend my disbelief enough to buy what Green was selling.
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