I couldn't have gotten back on track for reading had I not picked this book to read next after what a debacle Choke ended up being. This book is much hyped and talked about considering its movie adaption is already being premiered in many countries and is much well received like the book. In all the reviews that I read through and watched, everybody attributed it to be quiet a tear jerker. And the sadist in me did look forward to shedding a tear or two.
Two hundred pages went by and the downpour was yet to happen, thanks to all the Hindi movies, that kind of insensitise you to all things cancer (read: Anand, Kal Ho Na Ho, Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se etc. etc.). The subject of cancer is a much trite and banal theme in most Hindi movies, ending with the tragic death of the protagonist. I agree I did feel sad when the boyfriend, Augustus Waters, of the protagonist, Hazel Grace's (who is herself a cancer victim) dies of the same affliction and I did share quiet a copious tears, but it wasn't a book that would stay long enough with me. I have shed equal or more for other books having death in them. Having said that, what resonated for me in the book was the chemistry between the two. The writing is sensitive and even though it is about the plight of cancer patients and how their affliction encumbers their everyday life day in day out it does connect with you. What I liked best about the book, is how a book by the name An Imperial Affliction actually brings the two of them together. Fault in our stars is not aimed at garnering sympathy votes for the cancer victims but instead only offers a peak in to their lives and how they go about trying to be as normal as possible with their suffering.
There is quiet a bit of beautiful writing in the book and I recommend that it be read, not for the hype but for the beauty of the in between.
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