MADreads

Searching for the real Margo

November 15th, 2008 Katie H.

Quentin Jacobsen is your average teenager.  Among his fellow classmates in the Orlando-area high school he attends, he pursues some usual adolescent vices and joys:  hanging out by the band room, trying to convince his parents to let him use the car, trying to attain some medicoum of popularity, dreaming about the future.  But in one aspect of his life, Quentin has always known that he is extraordinarily lucky: he lives next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman. 

Witty, popular, and something of a badass, Margo and Quentin were close friends before a time and life caused them to drift apart.  But just before graduation, Quentin is suprised by Margo’s appearance outside his bedroom window.  For one night, he joins her in a set of wild pranks as she settles scores.  The following morning, Quentin hopes that there’s a chance to revive their friendship.  But Margo has disappeared.  At first, Quentin isn’t surprised.  Margo had run away before, only to turn up without much explaination in nearby Mississippi.  But as graduation approaches, Quentin grows increasingly concerned about Margo’s whereabouts, and begins to suspect the worst. 

Author John Green blends mystery, road trip antics and ruminations on identity in his latest young adult title, Paper Towns.  The title refers to places on a map that don’t actually exist, but are used by mapmakers for copyright reasons.  Quentin learns that Margo has something of an obsession with the concept, and he tries to track down the nonexistant town where he thinks she is hiding.  But as he pieces together clues, he finds that the question is not so much where Margo is, but whether he even knows who she really is.  When Quentin and Co. hit the road, the action becomes an increasingly manic whirl in desperate pursuit of Margo. 

Green has traveled smart boy/enigmatic girl territory before in his Printz Award-winning Looking for Alaska.  What was a winning combination in that book works with a lighter tone beautifully in Paper Towns.  Green has a pitch-perfect ear for dialogue, and his cast of characters throw off zingers with aplomb (”getting you a date to prom is so hard that the hypothetical idea itself is actually used to cut diamonds”).  But under all the humor and pranks, there’s the looming question of the fate of friendships as childhood comes to a close.  This is my second Green title, and I’m once again impressed by how adroitly he blends humor and wit with the sometimes painful aspects of growing up.  I’m already waiting impatiently for his next title.

Entry Filed under: Young Adult