BookTalk
Miles “Pudge” Halter’s claim to fame is memorizing famous last words. Take Henrik Ibsen, the playwright. Well, he’d been sick for a while and his nurse said to him ‘You seem to be feeling better this morning’ and Ibsen looked at her and said, ‘On the contrary.’ and then he died. Or Civil war General Albert Sidney Johnston, who when asked if he was injured answered, “Yes, and I fear seriously” and then he died. Finally, we have poet Francois Rebelais. Who’s last words of: “I go to seek a Great Perhaps” spur Pudge into a life changing decision.
Previously a slightly friendless Florida high school-er, Pudge transfers schools his junior year choosing his father’s Alma Mater of Culver Creek Boarding School. Here he will make friends with The Colonel, named such for his gift of planning pranks, Lara the cute Romanian, Takumi the rapping chinaman, and Alaska, the sexiest, moodiest, most exciting, self-destructive, reading, smoking, master-pranker Pudge has ever met. Like all good stories this tale hinges on a single event…Before it was all fun, games, and adventure….After nothing will ever be the same…
Review
To be honest when this novel started I thought it was going to go in a different direction. Something not so ambivalent. I thought it was going to have something to do with a prank gone wrong. Maybe a sudden disaster or accident. What eventually happens is unsettling. Not so much because the turning point is a dramatic scene. It’s the swiftness, the unexpected and yet quietly shown change that is so challenging.
I’ll admit that I don’t often look to my covers for book inspiration. While I love a good cover as much as the next person rarely do I rely on the image to portray an actual person/theme/feeling that exists in the book. But that image of the candle just blown out…That is the perfect image for the novel. That is exactly what happens. And that is exactly why dealing with the major plot point of the novel is so hard. There is no reason, no one to blame. Not even clear 20/20 hindsight with which to deal with your emotions. If it’s this hard as a reader imagine the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the characters.
This is the shortest review ever…Looking for Alaska is a YA classic for a reason. Perfect for the high school reader. I won’t go any further because if you’ve read it…you know what I’m talking about. And if you haven’t, I’m not going to ruin a classic.
Rating: 4.5/5 Just short of perfect on my personal scale…ambivalent ending got me…
Sara O
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