Review Detail

"How will I ever get out of this labyrinth" - Simon Bolivar

Miles Halter, John Green's protagonist in Looking For Alaska, is fascinated by famous and obscure last words and tired of his safe life at home. So, as he leaves for boarding school at Culver Creek to seek what the dying poet Francois Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps", he finds himself centered in a didactic and enlightening world of discovery, deep friendships and meditations on love, life and human frailty.

As Mr. Green presents his novel in two parts, the author is able to subvert the light aura of romanticism of the first section with a significantly stunning shift into more somber and introspective naturalism in part two. Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another with a sublime balance of humor, danger, sentimentality and existential crisis.