An Abundance of Katherines
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| Author | John Green |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Young adult novel |
| Publisher | Dutton |
| Publication date | 2006 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 256 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0525476881 |
An Abundance of Katherines is a young adult novel by John Green. Released in 2006, it was a finalist for the Michael L. Printz Award.
An Abundance of Katherines is about many things: heartbreak, friends, family, and Math. Most importantly, however, 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.
Plot summary
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 K-a-t-h-e-r-i-n-e - 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. After following a sign for the grave of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the corpse that started WWI, Colin and Hassan end up in Carver County, Tennessee, in a little town called Gutshot. There, among others, they meet a kind girl named Lindsey Lee Wells, who defies all Colin's expecations of women and the world; her group of friends, whom Colin and Hassan humorously refer to using acronyms (i.e. TOC, The Other Colin, and JATT, Jeans Are Too Tight); and her mother, who opens her home to the two boys.
Colin seeks a Eureka moment, some stupendous discovery to bring meaning and significance to his life. He eventually finds it in Gutshot -- however, it is not the mathematical revelation he was expecting, but rather a personal breakthrough, the culmination to his journey of self-discovery.
Trivia
- In the novel, Colin and Hassan say "fug" instead of "fuck" as an homage to Norman Mailer. It is explained in the book that Mailer replaced every instance of the word fuck in his novel The Naked and the Dead to "fug" in order to please a publisher, who refused to publish it on the basis that it had too much profanity.
- On an episode of Brotherhood 2.0, Hank Green (who is married to a Katherine) made fun of the novel by calling it "An Abundance of Katherines... in my pants."
Awards
An Abundance of Katherines was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book
Unshelved Comics animates An Abundance of Katherines: http://www.overduemedia.com/archive.aspx?strip=20070520
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