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| An Abundance of Katherines | 
| Author: John Green
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
Buy Used: $3.42
You Save: $13.57 (80%)
New (44) Collectible (1) from $5.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 161576
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0525476881
EAN: 9780525476887
ASIN: 0525476881
Publication Date: September 21, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: EX-LIBRARY; used item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned for refund. Buy with confidence - your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics!
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| Customer Reviews:
 Girls, Math, and a Road Trip January 12, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
An Abundance of Katherines is about many things: Heartbreak. Friends. Family. Math. Most importantly, it is about a young man who takes a road trip to find himself. The literal journey works well for the metaphorical one, of course, and is a familiar storytelling device. Author John Green has made it his own - or rather, Colin's own.
Colin Singleton used to be a prodigy. Used to be, because now he's a recent high school graduate, and what means "gifted prodigy" at age 2 means simply "smart" at age 18. Not only that, but his girlfriend Katherine just dumped him. In his lifetime, Colin has dated 19 girls named Katherine - never Kathy, never Catherine, always Katherine - and been dumped by every single one.
Stuck in that between-time, between boy and man, between high school and college, and positively heartbroken, he goes on a road trip with his best (and only) friend, the blunt and unabashed Hassan. They end up in Carver County, Tennessee, in a little place called Gutshot. There, they meet a kind girl named Lindsey Lee Wells, and her mother, who opens her home to the two boys.
Colin wants to have a Eureka moment, to make an amazing discovery. He also wants something more personal: to matter. When he vocalizes this, things change for him. He changes. This means that when his Eureka moment does occur, it signifies something other than what he predicted. And that's a good thing.
The same can be said for this book. The book jacket summary and title may make readers initially assume that the story will detail each of Colin's relationships in turn. Instead, they are anecdotes that he shares, stories that he tells, memories that he has. They don't fuel the story; they fuel the character. In other words, this book moves beyond what readers expect to find, and impresses them and surprises them in new ways.
This is not unlike Lindsey Lee, the girl in Gutshot, the self-proclaimed chameleon who changes how she sounds and how she acts depending on who she is talking to at the time. She never wants to leave her small town, yet she seems more worldly than Colin. She acts tough and thinks she's the opposite of Colin, but the characters learn that they have more in common than either of them could have imagined.
Fans of John Green's Printz Award-winning novel Looking for Alaska will not be disappointed by his sophomore effort. Though the stories themselves are vastly different, with Abundance being much lighter in tone than Alaska, both novels boast intelligent writing and memorable characters.
An Abundance of Katherines is more than heartache and theorems. Colin asks if love is graphable, and he finds out that life is unpredictable. What really matters? How can a person matter? Whether or not your name is Katherine, pick up this book, and Colin will share his discoveries with you.
 A stunningly original, witty, and humorous coming-of-age tale January 6, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I'll admit. I was thrown by the cover. If I hadn't been familiar with John Green's impressive debut, LOOKING FOR ALASKA, I might have passed AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES by, assuming it was a self-help book. But nothing was going to stop me from diving straight into Green's sophomore offering. There is a condition in the book world that goes by many names, most often known as "sophomoritis." This refers to the follow-up work by a debut novelist where said follow-up is often judged to be inferior to the original work that caused a stir.
I am pleased to report: there will be none of that here.
AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES is the story of Colin Singleton who, at the end of his high school career, is unceremoniously dumped by a girl named Katherine. It must be noted that she is, in fact, the 19th girl named Katherine with which Colin has had a relationship, none of which ended very well. Mired in rejection and plagued with the knowledge that his status of "child prodigy" is nearly at an end, Colin sets off on a walkabout with his best friend, Hassan, with the idea of finding a mathematical formula that can predict where any relationship will head (and thus elevate him to the adult status of "genius").
The pair takes a road trip to Gutshot, Tennessee, where they are hired to chronicle the town's oral history and find themselves involved with the locals in ways they never imagined. Yes, there's some math involved but it's nothing that should scare anyone away. (Plus, there's a handy appendix at the back that explains how everything works.)
This novel is gripping in its simplicity and stunning in its originality. Decidedly less dark than LOOKING FOR ALASKA, Green loses none of his bite in exploring the angst of a teen facing familiar coming-of-age problems compounded with the anxieties only a genius can feel. If you've visited the author's blog, you know his penchant for wry humor --- and that's what comes to the forefront and gives AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES its driving tenor. As with LOOKING FOR ALASKA, Green demonstrates his uncanny ability to craft interesting, three-dimensional characters in much the way that Georges Seurat built a masterpiece with a million tiny dots.
Combine the witty writing, the lifelike characters and the ingenuity of the story, and it seems certain that Green has another hit on his hands.
--- Reviewed by Brian Farrey (emohawk9000@gmail.com)
Green returns with an irreverent, cerebral and funny story January 2, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Colin Singleton is a high school graduate for only a day when his girlfriend, Katherine, dumps him. Wallowing in self-pity, Colin becomes obsessed with what went wrong. But rather than concentrating on his own character, he channels his energy into constructing a formula that will predict what people will be dumpers and dumpees. Perhaps he's concerned because he's just been dumped for the 19th time, all by girls named Katherine.
The protagonist doesn't have too much time to retreat into himself before his Lebanese sidekick, Hassan, appears and proposes a road trip. The two confer with skeptical parents and are quickly off in Colin's car. They have no idea where they're headed, but it's not too long before they stop to visit the gravesite of a famous figure in world history. There, in a small Tennessee town, they meet Lindsey, a tour guide at the facility and her mother, Hollis, owner of the local factory.
As with Green's hugely successful Looking for Alaska, the author creates highly developed and likable main characters. Hassan is everything that Colin is not: crudely spoken, unmotivated and ready for adventure. The young Singleton has always pushed himself to live up to his promise as a prodigy. Filling his head with useless trivia and extensive knowledge of obscure languages, it's little wonder that he has never stopped to ask himself why he will only see girls named Katherine. Hassan is there to tell him when his digressions are boring, when he's taking his obsessions too far and when he needs to break out of his comfort zone and take a chance.
While the book is told in the third-person point of view, Green's narration echoes the thinking patterns of his main character. Through the course of the book there are dozens of footnotes, often with random tidbits of the kind that occupy his protagonist's head. Rounding out the short book is an appendix of notes and formulas that expound upon Colin's life and work.
This book is highly recommended for young adults, although adult readers will also appreciate this irreverent, cerebral and funny story.
An extremely funny book December 11, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
An Abundance of Katherines is about a boy named Colin who has just graduated from high school, and is experiencing a bit of a mid-life crisis. You see, in his youth, Colin was a prodigy. And now, at 18, he feels washed up, having not lived up to his potential, not become a full-fledged genius. To top that off, he's just been dumped by his 19th Katherine. Colin only dates girls named Katherine, and has had 19 relationships of varying length and depth with Katherines since early elementary school. This most recent one lasted nearly a year, before K-19 broke Colin's heart.
To take Colin's mind off of his problems, his best friend Hassan proposes that the two friends go on a road trip. They make it as far as Gutshot, Tennessee, where, in part due to Colin's celebrity as a prodigy, they are offered a summer job doing video interviews. They become particular friends with Lindsey Lee Wells, daughter of eccentric local factory owner Hollis, and move into the gigantic bright pink Wells home. The rest of the novel recounts Colin's history with the many Katherines, in flashbacks, interspersed with Colin and Hassan's adventures in Gutshot.
This isn't a very plot-driven novel. I found it to be not such a good bedtime reading book, because I would fall asleep. However, I loved the writing. John Green has a gift for the quirky yet memorable turn of phrase. Even using restraint, I ended up with seven passages flagged for possible quotation. For example:
"Colin's mother shook her head rhythmically, like a disapproving metronome." (page 12);
"And so the periodically incontinent prodigy ended up in a small windowless office on the South Side" (page18); and
"Maybe if a guy is actually, literally, on fire, he won't be thinking about hooking up. But that's about it. Whereas girls are very fickle about the business of kissing. Sometimes they want to make out; sometimes they don't. They're an impenetrable fortress of unknowability, really." (page 76)
I especially loved Colin's friend Hassan. He's a chubby Arabic guy, with a sense of humor, and he's quick to point out when Colin is going off on a tangent that's "not interesting." I really think that everyone should have a friend to tell them that. I actually think that Colin is borderline on the Asperger's Syndrome scale. He needs to be taught what other people find interesting. Here is the quotation:
""Not interesting," Hassan said. Hassan's not-interestings had helped Colin figure out what other people did and did not enjoy hearing about. Colin had never gotten that before Hassan, because everyone else either humored or ignored him. Or, in the case of Katherines, humored then ignored. Thanks to Colin's collected list of things that weren't interesting, he could hold a halfway normal conversation." (page 26). There is a footnote containing a partial list of not-interesting things, like mitosis, baroque architecture, and "the significant role that salt has played in human history."
And, for another window into Hassan's sense of humor, this is his explanation for why Hollis offered he and Colin jobs:
""She wants to make me happy. We fatties have a bond, dude. It's like a Secret Society. We've got all kinds of s*** you don't know about. Handshakes, special fat people dances--we got these secret fugging lairs in the center of the earth and we go down there in the middle of the night when all the skinny kids are sleeping and eat cake and friend chicken and s***. Why d'you think Hollis is still sleeping, kafir? Because we were up all night in the secret lair injecting butter frosting into our veins. She's given us jobs because a fatty always trusts another fatty."" (page 72)
I like reading a novel that's not afraid a) to have a character who is smart, and b) to include math. I love that the title on the cover is formatted as a formula. It's also interesting to see Colin, Hassan, and Lindsey evolve over the course of their summer together. I think that even non-prodigies will be able to relate to the unique problems of at least one of the three teenagers, and will perhaps be inspired to change. And if not, they'll still have a good time reading this extremely funny book.
This book review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on December 4, 2006.
Deeper than a lot of Adult Novels on the market today. December 3, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
After my 14-year-old daughter finished this book and thought it was wonderful, I thought I would see what all the fuss was about. What I found was a wonderfully well-written and refreshing novel. It is light-hearted and fun, yet it has some very tender teenage emotions involved. In order to get over his heartbreak after being dumped by Katherine XIX, Colin attempts to find a theorem to figure out how relationships work and if you can formulate when one person will be dumped by another person. I found the math rather complex but the story was wonderful.
Colin is a loveable nerd who does anagrams all the time and knows endless amounts of trivia as well as useful facts and figures. He thinks of himself as a "has been" but I found him adorable. His character is quirky, as are all the characters in this book, but sincere and very likeable.
Hassan, Colin's best friend and sidekick, is one very funny guy. I found myself laughing out loud and wishing some of my friends were more like Hassan. Hassan and Colin are a great pair and together along with a girl they meet in Tennessee named Lindsey the book moves rapidly. In fact, I thought the story started out strong and just kept getting better.
Disregard the YA rating for the book, it is a good read no matter what your age. In fact, I'll be looking for more books by John Green in the future.
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