Author: John Green
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile, 256 pages.
Copyright: 2006
Summary:
Plot: After being dumped nineteen times by girls named "Katherine", ex-child prodigy, Colin Singleton (what irony!) conspires to think of a Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability and solve the great mystery that is relationships.
Major Characters: Collin Singleton, Hassan, Lindsey Lee Wells
Major Subjects: Humor
School Library Journal Review:
Grade 9 Up–This novel is not as issue-oriented as Greens Looking for Alaska (Dutton, 2005), though it does challenge readers with its nod to postmodern structure. Right after intellectual child-prodigy Colin Singleton graduates from high school, his girlfriend (who, like the 18 young women and girls whom he claimed as girlfriends over the years, is named Katherine) breaks up with him and sends him into a total funk. His best friend, Hassan, determines that he can only be cured with a road trip. After some rather aimless driving, the two find themselves in Gutshot, TN, where locals persuade them to stay. There, Colin spends his spare time working on a mathematical theorem of love, hypothesizing that romantic relationships can be graphed and predicted. The narrative is self-consciously dorky, peppered with anagrams, trivia, and foreign-language bons mots and interrupted by footnotes that explain, translate, and expound upon the text in the form of asides. It is this type of mannered nerdiness that has the potential to both win over and alienate readers. As usual, Greens primary and secondary characters are given descriptive attention and are fully and humorously realized. While enjoyable, witty, and even charming, a book with an appendix that describes how the mathematical functions in the novel can be created and graphed is not for everybody. The readers who do embrace this book, however, will do so wholeheartedly.–Amy S. Pattee, Simmons College, Boston
Review:
Picture this: You used to be a childhood prodigy. Member of an academic game team. You excelled in school. You were special. You met a girl named Katherine and the two of you started dating.
Then she dumps you.
Then eighteen more girls named Katherine dump you.
Suddenly, you're a teenager with no claim to fame except for your former status as a prodigy. No new ideas. No girl. No plans for the summer excepting wasting away in your room and moping.
This is not your life. But it is Colin Singleton's life immediately after his graduation from high school. Colin is a new high school graduate, a soon-to-be-ex child prodigy, and this theorem, the theorem that could potentially make him a genius, is the problem he is facing.
You see, Colin has a problem. Colin falls in love very easily. He tries to make himself a genius by coming up with the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, to not only make himself known for something, but to also figure out why all nineteen Katherines have dumped him.
As a distraction, Colin and his best friend Hassan set out on a road trip to nowhere, in The Hearse (Colin's car). Seeing a sign for the grave of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the boys head to Gutshot, Tennessee; a small town, where they happen upon Lindsey Lee Wells, a girl who is nothing like any Katherine has been for Colin. Their road trip stops in Gutshot, Tennessee. But the adventures don't. Hired by a local bigwig to compile an oral history of Gutshot, Colin and Hassan find themselves staying with Hollis and her daughter, Lindsey. It is in Gutshot that Colin finally has what he has always wanted, a truly original idea. Thus, Colin begins to create a theorem of love in his attempt to understand his own rocky love life.
The hook of An Abundance of Katherines is an intriguing one. Looking at the cover, it'd be easy to assume this was a novel about cloning. Instead, it's a coming-of-age story for Colin and his best friend, Hassan. Colin's desparation to prove himself--not only as a genius but also to the Katherine XIX (as she's known in the novel)--is a fascinating journey. The novel does hit some predictable markers for a young adult story, but John Green hits them with such refreshing honesty and nicely done characters that you won't really mind that much.
Reading Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Notes about Audience: Recommended for ages 14 and up.
Other books by John Green:
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