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Hi!
I’m better known as tz and for the first challenge of ’32
books for 2017’ that is your bestfriend favourite book. The book suggested by
Hannis Fithrisha is Looking for Alaska by
John Green. Shout out to her for picking something that I can manage to
decode and thus writing this review about.
This book, Looking for Alaska by John Green is the first
published of his long before The Fault in our Stars in 2005 with 223 pages. It
had won awards in 2006 and received its proper recognition when TFIOS became
famous and landed a spot in the ‘in cinema’ line. John Green is Ed Sheeran type
in writing his book. The language used is not that high and is very romantic
and poetic and everything that a non native speaker of English could ever hoped
for.
This book revolve around two last words by famous people
that the main character, Miles Halter, weirdly into.
The first one, quoting François Rabelais's last
words: "I go to seek a Great Perhaps."
It is about how an average boy (Miles Halter) is seeking a
way out or in the book says ‘The Great Perhaps’ from his mundane life. He goes
to boarding that was his father’s former school in the hopes of finding friends
and to create memories that he will tell his children and grandchildren when
the time comes. Along the way, his path intersects with a girl (Alaska Young)
that may have the potential to help him seek The Great Perhaps. The flaw here
is that Miles got too attached to a girl that he thought was his soulmate until
he became too emotionally dependant on that girl to change his life and make it
more meaningful without realising his obsession towards her is unhealthy. The ‘Great Perhaps’ is mention throughout the
book with the meaning of possibilities of certain action leads to. He wanted to
change his life, he did it. He doesn’t just sit around for his life to change.
Second one, quoting Simón
Bolívar's: "Damn it. How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!".
Which Alaska Young had Miles decode this for her. Miles undoubtedly tries to
understand this particular last word for her. And suddenly, he received the
news the Alaska had been killed in an accident while leaving campus. He and a
few other of his mutual friends with Alaska tries to solve the sudden death of
their beloved friend, whether she took a short cut out of the labyrinth. Labyrinth
is this point of view is the human suffering and how we choose to face it It’s
either you try to endure it or you just bail from it. Sometimes, people just
get lost while going through this
labyrinth and just leave it all to fate to solve their problems for them
without realizing it doesn’t work that way.
There are a few faith triggering question throughout the
book because the author sometimes like to touch on faith and religion and
trying to help the readers see world or problems at hand from different
perspective. For instance, what is there after death? Do heaven and hell
exists? Or just a creation on mind to soothes the living. From my point of
view, I do believe in heaven and hell and existence of God and all the five
pillars of Islam but to some, they view this faith as fiction. The author
touches on Buddhist and Christians believes as well as Islam.
This book has taken me on a wonderful journey through life
questioning questions that just triggers you, heart and mind. I cried reading
the death of Alaska Young because I’ve fallen I love with her character and I
can not blame Miles for obsessing over her. She is my alter ego and the person
I’m trying to be minus the indecency. The kind that just carpe diem, enjoying life and just there when anybody needs her.
But alas, I am merely tz and I will achieve great things just by being myself.
And that my friends, is the start of self love that can take you anywhere you
could ever dream of.
4.4/5
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