The morning after noted child prodigy Colin Singleton graduated from high school and got dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, he took a bath. Colin had always preferred baths; one of his general policies in life was never do anything standing up that could just as easily be done lying down.
An abundance of Katherines was the second book by John Green. It was published after his made-of-awesome award winning breakout novel Looking for Alaska, but before his current award winning made-of-awesome novel Paper towns.
Katherines tells the story of Colin Singleton who, like most of John Green’s male characters is something of a nerd. In fact, he was once considered a child prodigy. Curiously, Colin just happens to have been dumped 19 times in his life, and every time it was by a girl called Katherine. Not the same Katherine. Different Katherines. Hence the title.
While it always felt odd to me that a child prodigy could have had 19 girlfriends by the end of high school, I enjoyed reading this book. After the most recent dumping, Colin heads out on a road trip with his best friend, who happens to be a big Judge Judy fan. It is on this trip that Colin sets about calculating a formula which will be able to predict the future course of any relationship and the likelihood of being dumped.
It’s a fun book. Odd things pop in and out of the story, and Colin’s slightly skewed view of the world accompanied by his larger than life friend make for some funny situations.
While it hasn’t received the same level of attention as his other two books, An abundance of Katherines is distinctively John Green and well worth a read.