Looking For Alaska

Over here at Patricorp, we know that annual awards are a two-sided proposition. On the one hand, we appreciate the recognition that comes with winning the ACE Hardware "Widget of the Year" award. Customers know that they can trust our widgets to fulfill all of their widget-ing needs. They know our products are of a high quality, and likely to delight. Our customers even gain confidence in our ball bearings. However, they also begin to wonder why such an award (or the 17 other annual awards designed to recognize widget excellence) exists. Many ask if the widget awards could be rolled into a broader category, with awards given to makers for excellence in the widget/ball bearing/gasket/grommet field.

With all of this in mind, we eyed the Michael J. Printz Award indication on Looking For Alaska ambivalently. Sure, it's nice to be an award winner, but what does it all mean? Does it validate the story the book contains? Does it mean that John Green is an excellent writer (and if so, is he as good at writing as we are at producing widgets?)?

Luckily, we progressed past the cover art to the actual book. We took a whirlwind tour through Culver Creek Boarding School, through the before, through the after, and perhaps, into the Great Perhaps. And Holy Widgets, weren't we glad we did. This book, this is why we got into literary criticism. With plot so rich, writing so elegant, and characters so tragically flawed, we felt L4A making its way from our fingertips, through our skin and into our blood stream. L4A isn't a perfect book. None really are. But it was beautiful. We had a hard time admitting the book was over. It ended like it began, with a bit of uncertainty, and a bit of optimism.

For the most part, we loved the characters. We would have like to see more depth from Alaska and Takumi. We would have liked to see more imaginative pranks. We would have liked to see the Weekend Warriors as characters, not caricatures. We'll take what John Green gave us however. It was beautiful.