Book Review- The Fault in Our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars

By John Green

pp 317, Dutton Books

There are some books that leave an eternal impression on the pages of your mind. There are some that you can read time and again. But won’t you agree if I say that there are books which are highly appreciated but somewhere in your mind, you realize that they are good, but not like those creating an everlasting impact on your mind, in your life and sometimes, on your thinking.

‘The Fault in Our Stars’ in one of those books for me. I won’t call it badly written, lacking emotions, or meagerness of realism but it is just a good book for me that I can read and maybe forget forever. Let me clarify I am not criticizing it.

So, ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ is a book that talks about cancer patients, who are very well cognizant of the fact they are soon going to envisage their impending fates. It talks about two teenagers- Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters- who happen to be cancer patients and the protagonists of the book. What next? They meet, fall in love, and spend lovely time together. They embark on a journey to a foreign land and realize some bitter truths of life- at such young age. Finally, Hazel realizes that Augustus is the one who is going to face the fate first, which eventually happens. At last, she finds a letter which was written by Augustus before his demise. All that she understands is that Augustus came like a breeze and changed her notion of life. She realizes that one becomes happy or sad with the choices one makes in life, something Augustus made her realize. The book reaches its climax with Hazel realizing that she is happy with her choice in life.

This, my friends, is ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ for you all.

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This sixth book by John Green is entertaining, funny, realistic, and makes you like it, if not love. It talks about human emotions along with the vulnerabilities it brings. It clearly and closely depicts the agony of not only cancer patients but their parents and friends, and what they go through every day, every moment. Many of you may love it, cry with it, and read it again and again.

For me, it is a good book, just a good one as I said earlier. But I won’t hesitate to say that it is not one of the best books (romantic or tragic one to be precise) that I have read in life, to date. It doesn’t make you (or me, I should say) as wishful to make a person survive to live with the love of life, as Erich Segal’s ‘Love Story’ makes. It doesn’t make one as determined in love as ‘Wuthering Heights’ does. It doesn’t make a great, hugely powerful impact that ‘The Sun Also Rises’ makes.

But still I would not call it bad. It is a good book and readable. Even if you are not a bookoholic, it is one book that you can read to experience one good, sweet, romantic love story.

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‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ is a proof our society is changing positively

An actress of 42 is romancing an actor of 33! Isn’t it something we come across quite rarely in Bollywood? And even if we do, the movie is either an “artistic” one or it’s not shown in a very conventional manner like other b-town movies depict. In short we’ve never had an out and out commercial masala entertainer with this “older woman-young man” element before. Contrary to this, Karan Johar’s next directorial venture ‘Ae dil hai mushkil'(ADHM) shows our very own beauty queen Aishwarya Rai Bacchan romancing our youth icon Ranbir Kapoor. The sizzling chemistry between Mrs Bacchan and Mr Kapoor is ready to break the stereotype that tells us that only a 50 plus male actor can romance a lady who’s in her 20s or even less than that. It’s not just the romance but also the passionate intimacy between them which is worth noticing as married actresses are always forbidden to show such intimacy on screen.

Now it’s not just that. Coming out of the reel world of cinema, it’s a kind of taboo for a man to have an affair with an older woman and vice versa in our society. Even if it’s been shown in the movies, the movies are either rejected by the audiences or it’s shown as illicit or a part of infidelity. But with this movie, I can’t see people even raising that point of age gap between the lead pair. In fact the pairing seems to be extremely fresh to us all. The hype and craze of the movie shows that audience is more than  just ready to accept the lead pair ignoring the age factor which has been hitherto a very important aspect of our movies. If it’s not the changed perspective of our society on relationships then what else is this!
Also, it seems that this movie will touch more mature issues as seen in the teaser how four people and their lives are intertwined with each other. Keeping in mind all these aspects it is very much clear that we are evolving and so is our Bollywood which is seen as the mirror of our society. Showing such mature overtone in the movie proves that our society is growing up and accepting the fact that relationships are much more than age or other such factors.
Well that’s not a very astonishing fact actually as it’s a Kjo movie and he’s known to break stereotypes in Bollywood be it making a movie on terrorism like My name is khan, or on homosexuality like Dostana or Kapoor&sons. So kudos to Kjo and let’s just wait for ADHM to witness how many other stereotypes are ready to be broken in terms of relationships and their depth. Till then enjoy the beautiful heart touching soulful music of the movie and have fun. 😉😉😉