Can we talk?

Radio Book Club

         A local radio station started a book club this month. I signed up, thinking I want to know what the local community is reading and discussing. Not many others signed up. We're talking about 5 counties and a college town. So far no one has answered the questions set up by a librarian. I just got a copy of the book yesterday, so I want to read more before attempting to discuss it.

         The first book is The Fault In Our Stars, by John Green. Green was a chaplain to  children who have cancer, and their families for six months. He decided from that experience to become a writer, and did not become clergy as planned. He knows the terminology and tells a good story so far. I like the characters and want to read more. I'm only about 40% through my e-book.

         He uses not only a lot of medical terms, but a lot of $5 words. He explains some of them, since the main characters are teenagers, and they ask each other. What surprises me is how little editing was done for grammar and word choices. It was made into a movie last summer, so one would expect later editions to have been corrected. For example there is no such word as "enthused" as an adjective or a verb, which is how he used it. The word "loan" was used when he meant "lent". He wrote about public art, where arcs of steel "imagined". Arcs are not living things with minds. They can't imagine anything. He should have said "Imaged".

         Granted they don't hurt the story, but many people will be like me and trip over things like these. They distract from the smooth flow of the story. Green is well-educated. We really can't make excuses, but where was his editor?

         I've also discovered that it has been the object of a lot of ridicule and parody. It's about two teenagers who are dying. Why does anyone think that's funny? I haven't seen the movie. Maybe it was a poorly made movie, and they only mean to ridicule the movie makers, but it sure comes across like they're ridiculing sick people. Apparently, there are a lot of deviant, self-infatuated people who have no compassion. When they encounter troubles in life, do they expect to be treated with sympathy, or are they prepared to be treated crudely and judged on their looks while undergoing chemo? It seems like tender-heartedness or sentimentality brings out the worst in some people, shallow people. Maybe they fear the vulnerability, or death itself, so they strike out however they can. That's too bad.