The Fault In Our Stars.

Once in awhile, I adhere to the dictates of pop culture and read some of it’s over-hyped books especially those that turn into movies. In this case; the fault in our stars. After a few abortive efforts, I finally got round to reading the book to its end.
Reading the book in entirety has taken me close to a year because of John Green’s First-person narrative when it comes to the narrative mode. Literally placing oneself in someone’s shoes is more taxing than you can imagine. The story never flows as well as I would like and it is unsettling. These are the things one has to put up with when adhering to pop culture dictates.

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves.” - Shakespeare

The book was an OK read. I expected it to have a sad ending but John Green spared us from that by making it as ambiguous as the ending in the mentioned An Imperial Affliction. Did she or didn't she die? No one knows since it ends on a love scene. If most of us readers were as obsessive as Hazel Grace was with the ending of An Imperial Affliction, we’d all be camped at John Green’s door asking for answers regarding the state of her life.

These were some of my favorite quotes/passage from the book.

“I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence.” – Augustus Waters

“I’m in love with you, and I’m not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I’m in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we’re all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labour has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we’ll ever have, and I am in love with you.” – Augustus Waters

However sad Hazel Grace’s story is, I am glad she gave herself the chance to love and be loved. Now that I have finally done away with the book, watching the movie is not on my agenda. In most cases, movies have the bad luck to not live up to par with the books they originate from.