'Fault in Our Stars' movie to be released

The release date for the movie adaptation of the book “The Fault in Our Stars,” written by Indianapolis author John Green, has finally been set — June 6, 2014. 

In honor of the movie, which will star Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, I decided to reread and review the novel for my column.

“The Fault in Our Stars” tells the story of Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 17-year-old girl battling terminal thyroid cancer.

Forced by her parents to attend a cancer support group, Hazel is intent on hating every minute of it — until she notices the group’s newest member staring at her.

Augustus Waters, a 17-year-old who lost his leg to osteosarcoma, keeps staring until Hazel finally stares back because, as she says, “boys do not have a monopoly on the Staring Business, after all.”

And so a love story begins.

Readers shouldn’t expect a melodrama or a sappy triumph-over-adversity story.
Instead, “The Fault in Our Stars” uses dry humor to deal bluntly the truths of life, love and death.

Narrator Hazel is sarcastic and heartbreakingly aware of her limited time, but she never resorts to the typical cliché themes seen in other cancer stories.

For example, upon seeing a poster with the phrase “Without pain, there would be no joy”, she quips, “This is an old argument in the field of Thinking About Suffering, and its stupidity and lack of sophistication could be plumbed for centuries, but suffice it to say that the existence of broccoli does not in any way affect the taste of chocolate.”

Long story short, Green’s novel is a lot like Hazel’s view of life — it’ll make you chuckle even as it makes you cry.

I’d recommend “The Fault in Our Stars” to both men and women and to fans of a wide variety of genres including young adult, philosophy, romance, humor and classic.
 
And read it now so you’re ready for the official movie release next summer.

­— jenfagan@indiana.edu

Follow columnist Jenna Fagan on Twitter @jenna_faganIDS.