Lauren’s Library Nook: “Looking For Alaska”
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People constantly ask me about my favorite books and authors. “Looking for Alaska” by John Green is my favorite book by one of my favorite authors and it has been for years.
Before reading Green’s debut novel “Looking for Alaska,” I read “The Fault in Our Stars” and “Paper Towns” by the same author and was sure that his books couldn’t get any better — but I was so wrong.
In “Looking for Alaska,” the protagonist, Miles, moves to Birmingham, Alabama, to attend Culver Creek boarding school for his junior year. Miles’s roommate and new friend in the making, Chip, introduces him to his friend Alaska. Miles becomes fascinated by her.
From the beginning of the story, Miles is influenced — hence his move to Alabama — by the poet Francois Rabelais whose last words entailed “seeking the Great Perhaps.” Meanwhile, Alaska is influenced by Simon Bolivar’s final words that surrounded the idea of “the labyrinth of suffering.” The difference between Miles and Alaska’s missions in life made the interactions between these two characters unique and ones that I enjoyed reading.
But their relationship is a little more than complicated.
Alaska has a boyfriend, and Miles ends up with a girlfriend. But the two still find themselves sharing a kiss — and it’s clear that there is something between them.
Here is where the story takes a turn.
Alaska frantically leaves the friend group hangout early one night, intoxicated, and drives straight into a police car cruiser.
Alaska disappeared. She was dead.
That’s one part of the book that I appreciated from John Green. Alaska didn’t disappear at the end of the book. No, she disappeared halfway through the book … which left me wondering what Green’s plans for the second half of the book were going to be. After all, why bring such an important character into the story to then not exist at all?
I think it made Alaska’s character more mysterious — and more important too.
There’s a part in the book that says, “We are all going, I thought, and it applies to turtles and turtlenecks, Alaska the girl and Alaska the place, because nothing can last, not even the earth itself. The Buddha said that suffering was caused by desire, we’d learned, and that the cessation of desire meant the cessation of suffering. When you stopped wishing things wouldn’t fall apart, you’d stop suffering when they did.”
“Looking for Alaska” constantly questions the concept of death and what it means to “go to seek a great perhaps” and how to “get out of the labyrinth of suffering.”
The second half of the book is devoted to Miles and Chip finding more out about Alaska’s death. They find a note that suggests Alaska was contemplating suicide, but other clues point to the fact that she might have been unable to swerve out of the way of the police car while driving under the influence.
“‘Sometimes I don’t get you,’ I said. She didn’t even glance at me. She just smiled toward the television and said, ‘You never get me. That’s the whole point.’”
I won’t spoil the ending of the book, but I will say that I believe Miles’s fascination with Alaska stems from her mysteriousness. He never could fully understand her or why she did and said the things she did — and I think that’s exactly what Alaska wanted.
Throughout the book (when she was alive), there was always something about her that Miles could not figure out. Which brings me to the question, did Miles love Alaska? Or did he love the idea of chasing after her and solving the mystery of her so that he could finally figure her out?
I guess I could ask similar questions to Alaska. Was she just private with her life? Or did she enjoy the attention and run with it?
I’m not sure, but maybe you’ll come to your own conclusion. What I do know is that Miles and Alaska were very different, but it made them all the more alluring in their dynamic with each other.
Shank is the Editor-in-Chief. Follow her on Twitter