Stella Bain

Last updated
Stella Bain
Stella Bain - cover.jpg
Author Anita Shreve
LanguageEnglish
GenreFiction
Publisher Little, Brown and Company/Hachette Book Group
Publication date
November 12, 2013
Publication placeUnited States
Pages272 pp.
ISBN 978-0-316-09886-1
OCLC 827257567

Stella Bain is an American novel by Anita Shreve, set during World War I. The book was released on November 12, 2013 by Little, Brown and Company.

Contents

Synopsis

The book tells a story of a woman whose real name is Etna Bliss, but she doesn't remember it due to her concussion which turn out to be a hysteria that she got when she ran away from her American husband to London. There, she becomes an ambulance driver serving during World War I. During one of her shifts, while wearing only a VAD uniform she got hit by a bombardment. After it, she is being awoken at the Abyssinian hospital with shell shock. A cranial surgeon and psychologist named August Bridge finds her in that state next year in London, and becomes her mentor for a time being. While in his care, Etna begins to draw houses and people that she knew of but couldn't remember from where. Later on, she begins to remember someone from Admiralty and demanded Dr. Bridge to go there because she had a hutch that she have someone there. [1] Following her trip, she finds Samuel, an officer who invites her to a restaurant. It turns out to be a person she truly loved when they along with his brother Phillip, [2] immigrated to Camiers before the war happened there in 1915. Following long court proceedings which started in February 1917, despite being diagnosed with shell shock, she wins custody over her adult children Clara and Nicholas only by 1930.

Reception

The book received mixed reviews, with The Harvard Crimson saying "Shreve cannot control dialogue rhythm and the reader's visualization of the scene without relying on punctuation to do her work," hinting on the author's weak parts of the story. [1] USA Today , on the other hand, gave it three stars, saying that "If there is a fault in the author's writing then its only the fact that she made it more to be a love story rather than a war one". [3] Jim Higgins of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said that the book was reminiscent of Pat Barker's Regeneration . [4]

It was also reviewed by such newspapers as the Los Angeles Times , [5] San Francisco Chronicle , [6] the Boston Globe , [7] the Washington Post , [8] and Toronto Star . [9]

Related Research Articles

Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter is a series of urban fantasy novels, short stories, and comic books by Laurell K. Hamilton. The books have sold more than six million copies; many have made The New York Times Best Seller list.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rita Moreno</span> Puerto Rican singer, dancer, and actress (born 1931)

Rita Moreno is an American actress, dancer, and singer. She has performed on stage and screen in a career spanning over eight decades. Moreno is one of the last remaining stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Among her numerous accolades, she is one of the few actors to have been awarded an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony (EGOT) and the Triple Crown of Acting, with individual competitive Academy, Emmy, and Tony awards. Additional accolades include the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004, the National Medal of Arts in 2009, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2013, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2015, and a Peabody Award in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angela Bassett</span> American actress (born 1958)

Angela Evelyn Bassett is an American actress. Known for her work in film and television since the 1980s, she has received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards. In 2023, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and she received an Academy Honorary Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stella McCartney</span> English fashion designer (born 1971)

Stella Nina McCartney is an English fashion designer. She is a daughter of British singer-songwriter Paul McCartney and the American photographer and animals rights activist Linda McCartney. Like her parents, McCartney is a supporter of animal rights and environmentalism, and uses vegetarian and animal-free alternatives in her work. Since 2005, she has designed an activewear collection for Adidas.

Anita Desai, is an Indian novelist and Emerita John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times. She received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1978 for her novel Fire on the Mountain, from the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Literature. She won the Guardian Prize for The Village by the Sea (1983). Her other works include The Peacock, Voices in the City, Fire on the Mountain and an anthology of short stories, Games at Twilight. She is on the advisory board of the Lalit Kala Akademi and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, London. Since 2020 she has been a Companion of Literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dickey Chapelle</span> American photojournalist (1919–1965)

Georgette Louise Meyer known as Dickey Chapelle was an American photojournalist known for her work as a war correspondent from World War II through to her death in the Vietnam War.

<i>Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</i> Newspaper based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper and also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely read. It was purchased by the Gannett Company in 2016.

Anita Hale Shreve was an American writer, chiefly known for her novels. One of her first published stories, Past the Island, Drifting, was awarded an O. Henry Prize in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anita Nair</span> English-language Indian novelist

Anita Nair is an Indian novelist who writes her books in English. She is best known for her novels A Better Man, Mistress, and Lessons in Forgetting. She has also written poetry, essays, short stories, crime fiction, historical fiction, romance, and children's literature, including Muezza and Baby Jaan: Stories from the Quran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drew Gilpin Faust</span> American historian and college administrator

Catharine Drew Gilpin Faust is an American historian who served as the 28th president of Harvard University, the first woman in that role. She was Harvard's first president since 1672 without an undergraduate or graduate degree from Harvard and the first to have been raised in the South. Faust is also the founding dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She has been ranked among the world's most powerful women by Forbes, including as the 33rd most powerful in 2014.

Alexis Wright is a Waanyi writer best known for winning the Miles Franklin Award for her 2006 novel Carpentaria and for being the first writer to win the Stella Prize twice, in 2018 for her "collective memoir" of Leigh Bruce "Tracker" Tilmouth and in 2024 for Praiseworthy.Praiseworthy also won her the Miles Franklin Award in 2024, making her the first person to win the Stella Prize and Miles Franklin Award in the same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Metz White</span> American artist (1934–2018)

Nancy Metz White (1934–2018) was a Wisconsin artist with large-scale outdoor public sculptures installed in two parks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. White welded and sometimes brightly painted steel and forge flashings reclaimed from Milwaukee heavy industry. She described herself as a practitioner of urban archeology.

<i>Gertie the Duck</i> Milwaukee mallard honored with a statue

Gertie the Duck is an icon of Milwaukee, Wisconsin history and the subject of a 4-foot-tall (1.2 m) bronze sculpture by American artist Gwendolyn Gillen. It was installed on the Wisconsin Avenue bridge in September 1997.

<i>Lemonade Mouth</i> (film) 2011 television film directed by Patricia Riggen

Lemonade Mouth is a 2011 American teen musical drama television film, based on the 2007 novel of the same name by Mark Peter Hughes. The film was directed by Patricia Riggen and written by April Blair, and stars Bridgit Mendler, Adam Hicks, Naomi Scott, Hayley Kiyoko and Blake Michael. The film tells the story of five high school students who meet in detention and form a band to stand up for their beliefs and to overcome their individual and collective struggles.

<i>Before Watchmen</i> 2012 comic book series published by DC Comics

Before Watchmen is a series of comic books published by DC Comics in 2012. Acting as a prequel to the 1986 12-issue Watchmen limited series by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, the project consists of eight limited series and one one-shot for a total of 37 issues.

<i>The One and Only Ivan</i> 2012 book by Katherine Applegate

The One and Only Ivan is a 2012 novel written by Katherine Applegate and illustrated by Patricia Castelao. It is about a silverback gorilla named Ivan who lived in a cage at a mall, and is written from Ivan's point of view. In 2013 it was named the winner of the Newbery Medal. It has won several other awards and is currently nominated to several reading lists. It was followed in 2020 by The One and Only Bob, presented from the point of view of Ivan's best friend, the dog Bob. A second sequel, The One and Only Ruby, was published in 2023.

<i>The Book of Life</i> (2014 film) 2014 film by Jorge R. Gutierrez

The Book of Life is a 2014 American animated fantasy adventure comedy film directed by Jorge R. Gutierrez in his feature directorial debut and written by Gutierrez and Doug Langdale. It was produced by 20th Century Fox Animation, Reel FX Animation Studios, and Chatrone, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Guillermo del Toro, Brad Booker, Aaron D. Berger, and Carina Schulze produced the film. It features the voices of Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana, and Channing Tatum, with supporting roles from Ice Cube, Ron Perlman, Kate del Castillo, and Christina Applegate. Based on an original idea by Gutierrez, the film tells the story of a bullfighter who embarks on an afterlife adventure to fulfill the expectations of his family and friends on the Day of the Dead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carrie Coon</span> American actress (born 1981)

Carrie Alexandra Coon is an American actress. On television, she has starred as Nora Durst in the HBO drama series The Leftovers (2014–2017) and played Gloria Burgle in the third season of the FX anthology series Fargo (2017). She won a Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress for The Leftovers and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for Fargo. She also starred in the second season of the anthology drama series The Sinner (2018) and has played an aspiring socialite in the HBO period drama series The Gilded Age since 2022. For her work in The Gilded Age, she received another Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress.

Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, "Luna" for short, is a character from the Final Fantasy video game series made by Square Enix. She is a central character in Final Fantasy XV (2016), originally a spin-off title called Final Fantasy Versus XIII, a prominent character in the game's associated media, and has made appearances in mobile projects within the Final Fantasy franchise. Lunafreya is the Oracle, a powerful figure in the game's world of Eos who communes with its deities, the Astrals. Originally engaged to main protagonist Noctis Lucis Caelum as part of a political marriage, she remotely helps Noctis's quest to become the True King of legend and save their world from darkness.

<i>Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark</i> (film) 2019 film by André Øvredal

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a 2019 supernatural horror film directed by André Øvredal, based on the book series of the same name by Alvin Schwartz. The screenplay was adapted by the Hageman Brothers, from a screen story by Guillermo del Toro, as well as Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. The film, an international co-production of the United States and Canada, stars Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Austin Zajur, Natalie Ganzhorn, Austin Abrams, Dean Norris, Gil Bellows, and Lorraine Toussaint.

References

  1. 1 2 Jude D. Russo (November 18, 2013). ""Stella Bain" an Overwrought Tale". The Harvard Crimson . Archived from the original on September 3, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  2. "Stella Bain Review". Kirkus Reviews . November 12, 2013. Archived from the original on September 3, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  3. "Who is 'Stella Bain'? You'll enjoy finding out". USA Today . November 24, 2013.
  4. Jim Higgins (November 15, 2013). "Anita Shreve's 'Stella Bain' a story of finding identity, truth". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . Archived from the original on September 3, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  5. Alice Short (November 27, 2013). "Anita Shreve's 'Stella Bain' an improbable mystery woman". Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on September 5, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  6. Natalie Bakopoulos (December 6, 2013). "'Stella Bain,' by Anita Shreve". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  7. Karen Campbell (November 12, 2013). "'Stella Bain' by Anita Shreve". The Boston Globe . Archived from the original on September 3, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  8. Carolyn See (December 20, 2013). "'Stella Bain,' by Anita Shreve". The Washington Post . Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  9. Laura Eggertson (November 27, 2013). "Stella Bain by Anita Shreve: review". Toronto Star . Archived from the original on September 3, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2014.