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| | | Fiction | Home » » » An Abundance of Katherines | | | | | | | Description: | | When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. He’s also a washedup child prodigy with ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a passion for anagrams, and an overweight, Judge Judy-obsessed best friend. Colin’s on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will predict the future of all relationships, transform him from a fading prodigy into a true genius, and finally win him the girl. Letting expectations go and allowing love in are at the heart of Colin’s hilarious quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere. | | | Features: | |
• ISBN13: 9780525476887
• Condition: USED - Very Good
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| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| John Green | | Hardcover:
| 256 pages | | Publisher:
| Dutton Juvenile | | Publication Date:
| September 21, 2006 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0525476881 | | Product Length:
| 9.3 inches | | Product Width:
| 6.34 inches | | Product Height:
| 0.84 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.97 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.1 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.3 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.9 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.9 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 62 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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 Of love and math and Eureka momentsJul 11, 2010
John Green is enthusiastic about what he does. He loves to talk about it, and even more, he loves to do it. He loves to write, and that exuberance shines off of each page.
Reading 'An Abundance of Katherines' is like reading about the kids I wished I knew in high school. Colin and Hassan and Lindsey made me laugh more times than I can count. Of course, the reality is that John Green made me laugh - but while I was reading it, that's not how it felt. It felt like I was part of the joke, taking part in the conversation. That feeling alone makes it something pretty special.
'An Abundance of Katherines' is a story about a road trip. Sort of. Colin and Hassan really don't spend much time on the road, but they do get away from Colin's tragic history of being dumped by 19 girls named Katherine, and give him time to uncover his mathematical theorem to predict the rise and fall of all romantic relationships. They keep getting distracted, though - by feral pigs and Hardees, by pink mansions and tampon strings, by girls named Katrina (not a Katherine) and Lindsey (DEFinitely not a Katherine). And through these distractions, they find their way.
The book is quite a ride, from beginning to end. I could say quite a lot about it that would probably make it sound way less fun that it actually is. For example: it's poignant and clever, sharp and observant. It packs quite an emotional punch and leaves you thinking about relationships and friendships and intelligence and human potential. These are all true, but the glue that brings it all together is John Green's enthusiasm for his craft. He takes what might be boring and makes it engaging and fun to read. And it makes for a nearly-perfect novel.
When so many writers seem to "suffer" for their work, it's kind of refreshing to read someone who so clearly loves what he does. And when he can transmit that love straight to us, the reader...well, that's writing at its best.
That's pretty much magic.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
=]Jul 09, 2010
An Abundance of Katherines sounded unique. So I went for it. I thought it was a great book. The beginning was a little tough to stick through, but I found myself reading hungrily not too far into the novel. The humor is fantastic, with plenty of one-liners that you'll want to quote to all your friends. While some chapters were slow, and the characters could be frustrating at times, the novel was an interesting read. The characters really developed and grew by the end of the story. The book holds a lot of good lessons about moving on and being yourself. I found it very enjoyable.
 A Clever, if Implausible, ReadJul 08, 2010
Like Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines is more than run-of-the-mill YA fluff. John Green excels at addressing themes of loneliness, identity, friendship, love and loss with a light touch, and An Abundance of Katherines does not disappoint here.
However, the book's levity, while often welcome, occasionally detracts from the potential emotional impact of the book and can be a tad grating. In this novel, one gets the sense that the balance of humor to seriousness, and fantasy to reality, is a bit off.
The premise definitely asks readers to suspend their disbelief: Colin, a geeky, socially awkward child prodigy on the wane, has miraculously had 19 girlfriends, all named Katherine, in his 19 years. After Katherine #19 dumps him, Colin's parents grant him permission to go on an aimless road trip from his Chicago home all the way to Tennessee, where a tough-taking but kind-hearted matriarch offers him a job on the spot (she just happens to have a charming, beautiful daughter Colin's age, too- although a Lindsey this time, not a Katherine).
Green knows how to brighten this plot with humor (largely in the form of Colin's best friend and road-trip accomplice, Hassan) as well as fill it in with deeper questions of identity and morality. But even though Green makes this a story worth reading, a story that draws the reader in and really makes one want the best for Colin, Lindsey and Hassan, some of the more egregious improbabilities of the plot are just too big to disguise. Foremost among these weaknesses is Colin's 19 Katherine streak, which is a tenuous premise to balance a whole book upon no matter how well Green glosses it. The novel is cute, clever and charming, to be sure, but leaves some lingering qualms unaddressed.
Good for the smart YA readers in your lifeMay 29, 2010
When John Green's novel opens it's the morning after high school graduation and Colin Singleton is bemoaning the loss of his girlfriend, the latest in a statistically improbably string of girls named Katherine who have broken up with him. His streak of exclusively dating Katherines--the latest, and most serious, was the 19th--is one of the things that has defined Colin. The other is that he is--or was, at this point--a child prodigy. His ability to remember minutiae is circus-freaky good, and he can anagram anything instantly. But child prodigies don't necessarily grow up to become geniuses capable of original ideas. And Colin is worried that for all his studying and smarts, he won't really matter in the end. If he's not a child prodigy, what is he? By way of dealing with both problems--the hole left by Katherine and his identity crisis--Colin and his friend Hassan embark on a road trip. Unlikely experiences and new relationships result. Eventually, Colin sees a way of dealing with both of his problems through, of all things, a mathematical theorem.
John Green's anagram-laced prose is clever and his story, if unlikely to keep readers up late, turns out to be very sweet. (My only complaint about Green's writing is his over-use of the Norman Mailer-inspired expletive "fugging," which becomes tiresome very fast.) The book is packed with interesting information--stuff Colin injects into his conversations because he doesn't know his audience well enough to keep quiet, but also stuff Green puts in the footnotes. (For example, we're told that Nikola Tesla was unusually fond of pigeons, and he reportedly said of one particular bird, "I loved that pigeon. I loved her as a man loves a woman.") If you have any smart YA readers in your life, this one may be for them.
-- Debra Hamel
Unexpected...May 21, 2010
I got to read this book when I was into a reading withdrawal, meaning I'd read just about anything... to my shock, this is excellent. I did not read the other reviews (until now) and I did not look up the author, this is the first work I've read from him, and kudos.
The book is smart, and Hilarious. I made the mistake of reading it outside the privacy of somewhere where I was alone, and found it terribly hard to not laugh.
The main character is someone whom takes you into this emotional ride, in how you feel about him, first you aren't sure if to feel bad for the guy or feel sorry for him. I even sometimes felt depressed about my own answers to the questions he asked himself, it is deep into the book where you find the answers along with him.
The supporting characters made the story, without them Colin (the main character) wouldn't be himself, and it is because of his pure sense of being that this book is so great. Read it, tell other people to read it.
There's some math in it, but if you skip it, you'll love it as much, and like myself even feel more fulfilled about the story without knowing the tedious details of the math, just as I did not google all the other historical facts in the story to verify their validity until the second time I read the book.
The book is smart.
There's some parts where it "lags" a tad, but what book doesn't? the good outdoes the bad by Miles.
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