RECENZIE SCRISĂ DE RĂZVAN ANTON.  A apărut inițial pe Teoriile unui blogger.

John Green's 'The Fault in Our Stars' hollowed me on the inside. It created paradox inside my mind. It gave me a feeling which is arguably unequalled by any book I have read up to present. The reason why I'm saying this is that it creates a piece of perfection in a totally imperfect, putrid situation. Two 17 year-old teenagers meet during a cancer support group and fall in love with each other. Naturally, their cancers also meet. As a side effect. Hazel and Augustus are a paradox. Although they are suffering from terminal stage disease, none of them provokes pity to the reader. Because their illness, even if omnipresent, is not the main focus of their lives. Their love is. Their personalities shape the novel. Hazel and Augustus are not characters. They are not created to be characters. They are portrayed as people. Normal people in an abnormal situation. That's what makes them interesting. That's what validates them in front of the reader. They accept their condition, without turning it into a priority of their lives. [caption id="attachment_6561" align="alignleft" width="208"] Click pe copertă pentru detalii [/caption] Hazel cannot breathe without oxygen tanks, because her thyroid cancer gave her lungs mets. Augustus has a wooden leg as a result of his cancer. As a reader, you are permanently aware of these facts. Yet, you never look at any of them as dying people. You look at them as teenagers who are in love with each-other. Who create their personal space using a phone line. Who share the same 'fault' but choose to live under the same star, disregarding the negative as much as possible. The connection between them is made stronger by An Imperial Affliction, a novel with an open ending which Hazel rereads over and over again. Augustus borrows the novel from Hazel and they both end up wishing to know how things would end and what the sequel of the novel would be. They even go to Amsterdam to meet Peter van Houten, the author of the story that bonded them together, but instead of getting an ending to their common obsession, they only find out that the man whom they had considered a genius had in fact become a notorious alcoholic, full of regrets and frustration. However, every disappointment they go through only makes them bond more. Hazel and Augustus are not what you would expect as a reader. You would probably expect to get a thorough description of illness, the progress of illness and eventually death. Nonetheless, before being cancer victims. they are teenagers. With the specific revolt. With the craziness that makes 17 be 17. With Augustus being the most non-smoker of smokers, or the most smoker of non-smokers, almost always holding an unlit cigarette between his lips, arguing that it is the way in which he chooses to control death. Smoking could kill him, he is aware of death by holding it between his lips, but he does not allow it by not lighting the cigarette. Hazel BECOMES more of Hazel because of Augustus. She grows next to him. She no longer spends her days inside. The two of them communicate effectively. So effectively that you feel that they truly belong to each other forever. Unfortunately, as a reader, you know there is no forever for them. But you still hope for it. You hope for it up until the last page has been turned and the last line read. This is what makes the novel great. In spite of being constantly told that the universe wants attention, that pain demands to be felt, that everything is temporary and oblivion is natural, you know that Hazel and Augustus have lived their piece of infinity. And you are part of it. Forever !