The book that made me cry

Cassius: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” — From Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Act One, Scene 2

I put down the book with tears in my eyes. I just couldn’t stop myself from crying especially toward the end when, during the pre-funeral, the dying boy listens to eulogies from his friends, most of them also afflicted with cancer, and dies days later happy with the thought that he has attended his own funeral…alive!

But I’m going ahead of the story.

What can you say about a 25-year-old girl who died?

That was the opening sentence of the 1979 Erich Segal best-seller Love Story which was about a middle-class girl (played by Ali MacGraw in the movie) who falls in love with a rich boy (Ryan O’Neal) and then, sob and sigh, dies.

Like Love Story, the current best-seller The Fault In Our Stars by John Green gives it to you straight right at the start, that the main characters who are so young and so beautiful and with so much ahead of them are dying of cancer — Hazel, 16, of the lungs that requires her to go around with an oxygen tank on a little steel cart wheeled anywhere she goes; and Augustus, 17, of osteosarcoma that has cost him a leg.

The fact that you know from the very start that Hazel and Augustus are dying — as is their close friend Isaac, 17, who’s at the risk of losing his sight due to cancer of the eye — doesn’t spoil the suspense, unlike when you watch a movie and you warn your friends who have seen it to please not reveal who dies at the ending, or else. The book unveils one surprise after another, making you not pity but fall in love with the characters who are dying.

All of us are, that’s true, terminal and sooner or later, we’re all headed in one destination. But unlike you and me, Hazel and Augustus’ lives have expiration dates declared by the doctors…you know, a few months to live and some such death sentence that leaves the patient, no matter how brave he/she may be, in agonized waiting, counting the seconds and the minutes and the hours and the days and the months until…

But unlike most cancer patients, young as they are, Hazel and Augustus continue to enjoy life, despite being aware of the Damocles’ Sword hanging above their heads, two remarkable teenagers who meet at a Support Group session and discover that they match and get instantly smitten with each other. They are smart, funny and sarcastic, refusing to let their failing health stop them from living life to the full, energized by the intensity of first love in defiance of their tragic fate lurking at the bend, as if challenging, to quote the title of a novel, death be not proud.

In Love Story (which I’ve watched in the moviehouse back then and have watched on DVD again and again), the MacGraw/O’Neal characters never realize their all-time dream of seeing Paris (“Screw Paris,” O’Neal told MacGraw when she rued that she was spoiling their plan). But in The Fault In Our Stars, Hazel and Augustus did fulfill their dream of visiting Amsterdam purposely to ask (nay, “grill”) author Peter van Houten why he ended An Imperial Affliction (find out what it’s all about when you read TFIOS), the young lovers’ favorite book, with a cliff-hanger, cutting it in mid-sentence and thus leaving the readers to speculate what happened to the characters.

But van Houten (a fictional author, I presume) turns out to be a bitter, grouchy old man who turns off Hazel and Augustus, prompting them to instead make beautiful memories together to last a lifetime (how ironic, ‘no?) by seeing as much of Amsterdam (highlighted by a visit to Anne Frank’s house) as they could, never mind if Augustus was limping on one metal leg and Hazel lugging her oxygen tank around, with Hazel’s loving and understanding mother as chaperon.

In an earlier letter to Augustus (who has been regularly corresponding with the author), van Houten wrote, Everyone in this tale has a rock-solid hamartia: hers, that she is so sick; yours, that you are so well. Were she better or you sicker, then the stars would not be so terribly crossed, but it is the nature of stars to cross, and never was Shakespeare more wrong than when he had Cassius note, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/But in ourselves”…

That explains the title of the book whose movie version (from 20th Century Fox) is showing in the Philippines starting on June 5, starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort as the ill-fated young lovers, their second movie together after Divergent in which they played siblings.

Spoiler alert: Aside from the pre-funeral, what I find so touching is when Hazel (from whose point of view the story is told) approaches Augustus’ casket and, as she relates in the book…As I knelt, I realized they’d closed his eyes — of course they had — and that I would never again see his blue eyes. “I love you present tense,” I whispered, and then put my hand on the middle of his chest and said, “It’s okay, Gus. It’s okay. It is. It’s okay, you hear me?” I had — and have — absolutely no confidence that he could hear me. I leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “Okay,” I said. “Okay.”

Of course, if you’ve lost a loved one to the Big C, or any ailment for that matter, you whisper to yourself, “It’s okay,” even if you know too well that it’s not okay, that it will never be okay because you know that you will carry the unbearable pain of final parting the rest of your life until the final reconciliation Up There, a pain that you don’t really get over with but just have to learn to live with.

I will watch the movie on opening day and if it’s as good as the book, I will cry some more in the darkness of the moviehouse, confronting the pain left in my heart by my loved ones who departed the same way that Augustus did.

“When we previewed the movie,” recalled The STAR L.A. correspondent Raymond de Asis Lo, “everybody cried and cried for more than one hour.”

Is the fault really in our stars, not in ourselves?

Clarification from mom of Echo’s son

Here’s a rejoinder to this corner’s story about the Boracay wedding of Jericho Rosales and Kim Jones, from Kai Palomares, mother of Jericho’s 13-year-old son Santino:

I read your story that was e-mailed to me by a friend, but not during its publication because I was at home recuperating from a surgery.

I just want to clarify that our son, Santino Rosales, was not, contrary to your story, a Bible Bearer at the wedding; neither was he there. We got a text from Kim a week before the wedding while we were in L.A. if Santino could attend. That was too short a notice, considering that the wedding was planned months ahead. By then, the other secondary sponsors had already prepared weeks earlier.

We were invited via text message months before the event but we never got the invitation so we never knew who the members of the entourage were and we learned that Santino would be the Bible Bearer only from your story.

Rikka hosts personality development seminar

Success starts with a winning personality, and a winning personality is a result of confidence, impeccable personal hygiene, and stylish fashion taste. 

This will be the theme to be expounded by Rikka Infantado (photo) at an upcoming seminar titled Win in Life With a Winning Personality.

At the moment, Rikka hosts the Stars N Style radio program on DZRJ 810AM.

You can catch the seminar on July 6, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Forum, 4th floor Fully Booked, Bonifacio High Street, BGC, Taguig City. Seminar fee is only P1,000 plus 12 percent VAT.  Call 463-1655 or e-mail [email protected] to register.

Is Wally back to old ways?

Could it be true that Wally Bayola (photo) has resumed his relationship with the woman shown with him on the sex video that left his career in shambles?

After that video went viral, Wally disappeared from Eat, Bulaga! in which he, together with Jose Manalo and Paolo Ballesteros, host the Juan For All, All For Juan portion. Wally should thank all the saints in heaven that the Bulaga producers took him back. But the question is: Has he learned his lesson?

“Obviously, no!” said the Funfare DPA. “Wally’s wife Riza is planning to take legal action against him and the woman. Through Wally’s ordeal, Riza and their children stood by him, forgiven him. Kailangan ba tanggalin uli si Wally sa Eat, Bulaga! para matauhan for the second time? Ay naku, some people never learn!”