An Awfully Big Adventure

Rating:
Summary: A Great Character Novel from Beryl Bainbridge
Review: "An Awfully Big Adventure" was a sheer pleasure to read. With her ability to make mundane life seem utterly unique and interesting, Bainbridge creates characters that no reader could soon forget. Stella, a young girl with her head-in-the-clouds who experiences the usual coming-of-age in a not so usual way; Meredith, the homosexual director with many skeletons in his closet and a lust for power over men; and O' Hara, a man who yearns for the past and finds it in a devestating way. With such a title, one would not expect such serious subjects as blackmail, incest, and adultery, but treated so subtlely, it is reminiscent of the play within the novel "Peter Pan", about the truths of growing up, whether you desire it or not.

Rating:
Summary: This has a really chilling ending and there's a lot about
Review: Beryl Bainbridge's characters are always a little 'off.' They function, they have relationships, they may appear normal--but on some level, they are strange. There is always something emotionally different about them, and the protagonist Stella in "An Awfully Big Adventure" is no exception to this.

Stella Bradshaw lives in 1950s Liverpool with her unimaginative Aunt Lily and disgruntled Uncle Vernon in the boarding house they own. Stella loves "playacting," and Uncle Vernon imagines that a life on the stage will provide a suitable outlet for Stella's 'artistic temperament,' but unleashing her on a troupe of unsuspecting actors has rather a detrimental effect. She is a precocious 16 year-old, and after it is clear that Stella lacks academic promise, Uncle Vernon decides to pull some strings and gets Stella involved with the local playhouse--it's that or "behind a counter at Woolsworth." Soon Stella is employed as a general dogsbody running errands for the actors and actresses in the troupe. They see her as a young, naive, impressionable girl who needs looking after. However, Stella can defend herself very well, and soon she takes a large role in the tragic events that unfold. The actors--a rather worldly bunch--make the mistake of underestimating Stella, and they misconstrue her actions as those of a gauche schoolgirl. In fact, it's not so much that Stella lacks experience--although this is true, but she also lacks the appropriate emotional responses. Against the backdrop of the troupe's successful production of "Peter Pan," --(an ironic deliberate selection) the drama of the personal lives of the troupe unfolds.

"An Awfully Big Adventure" is beautifully written--a well crafted book--and Bainbridge's work is consistently excellent. I can also recommend the film version of this book with Hugh Grant playing a delectably corrupt Meredith. Bainbridge has written a impressive number of novels, and deserves recognition as one of the greatest British novelists. Most of her novels have a female protagonist--although that long-established trend has changed in recent years with "Master Georgie," and "The Birthday Boys." Stella is a disturbing character, and one of Bainbridge's many unforgettable lost souls.

Rating:
Summary: Witty, disturbing, and fascinating
Review: Fair warning: Do not start reading *An Awfully Big Adventure* on a day when you've got a lot to do, because you will not be able to put this book down for even a second. This story of a 1950's theatre company centers on Stella, a 16-year-old stagehand who becomes involved, directly and indirectly, in the human drama that goes on behind the scenes of a production of *Peter Pan*. Her hopeless crush on the play's director leads her into all kinds of scandal, including an affair with another member of the company. This book is written in a witty style, and it really is hilarious, but many of the themes and events in the book are deeply disturbing, which makes for a very satisfying black comedy. If you don't enjoy dark humor, you'll probably hate this-- otherwise, you should totally read it. It's one of the most entertaining books I've read in ages.

Rating:
Summary: Witty, disturbing, and fascinating
Review: Fair warning: Do not start reading *An Awfully Big Adventure* on a day when you've got a lot to do, because you will not be able to put this book down for even a second. This story of a 1950's theatre company centers on Stella, a 16-year-old stagehand who becomes involved, directly and indirectly, in the human drama that goes on behind the scenes of a production of *Peter Pan*. Her hopeless crush on the play's director leads her into all kinds of scandal, including an affair with another member of the company. This book is written in a witty style, and it really is hilarious, but many of the themes and events in the book are deeply disturbing, which makes for a very satisfying black comedy. If you don't enjoy dark humor, you'll probably hate this-- otherwise, you should totally read it. It's one of the most entertaining books I've read in ages.

Rating:
Summary: An Awfully Sad Story..
Review: I read this book expecting something more lighthearted,perhaps,But jeeze,this was depressing! The author obviously is down on the theatrical world(I read on the jacket cover she was a young actress before becoming a writer) Maybe she had some really negative experiences in the theatah,but the book was so down and pretty mean-spirited as well. Yes,there are a lot of jerks in show biz,but, I've through personal experience met a lot of great people as well,however everyone in Ms. Bainbridge's book was rather unlikable. No wonder the poor girl went nuts! A little too cynical for my tastes,but it had it's moments...

Rating:
Summary: This has a really chilling ending and there's a lot about
Review: Stella that I could relate to. It's a quick read and definitely worth picking up. It's a very secretive book, much like its heroine. She's a strange one.

Rating:
Summary: An Awfully Awful Adventure
Review: This dark and dreary book set in post war Liverpool(mid-50s) is really drawn out and confusing. The story is that of Stella, a sixteen year old actress, as she learns the hard way where acting stops and reality begins. She chases the director, and in trying to get his love, romances an aging actor who turns out to be her father. Tha characters are poorly developed past names, except for Stella, but she unfortunately, is hard to follow. She doesn't act normally, and the reader is left to puzzle over her. Near the end of the novel, we find that she was abandoned by her mother as a baby and is left with the deep physcoloical scars. This book loses the reader on page one, making it hard for the reader to want to fumble through it.

Rating:
Summary: One of Bainbridge's Best
Review: This is a phenomenal book- but it is crucial to approach it with the right mindset. This is not a light comedy, or a fantasy about the joys and agonies of growing up. The laughs to be found here are dark, and the story is painful and disturbing. It is also deeply powerful and moving, full of richly created characters and brilliantly subtle parrallels to J.M. Barrie's classic play, "Peter Pan." Do not open this one expecting anything easy, but do expect to be moved if you are willing to lose yourself inside. Highest possible recommendation.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: This spare little (205 pages) novel doesn't waste a word, yet signifies volumes. The highly honored Ms. Bainbridge, winner of the prestigious Whitbread Prize and short-listed (six times!) for the Booker Prize amply displays what all the fuss is about. She is that good.

The book is hard to categorize. It isn't a coming-of-age, a psychological thriller, a dazzling Peter Pan parable; it is all these things and more.

Stella raised in blue-collar, post WWII Liverpool is a troubled and troubling 15-year old who determinedly washed out of school and has been fixed up as a "student" (read gofer) at a provincial repertory company. She has no particular acting ambitions, but is certain she would be very good at it. We get a many-sided view of Stella; as she sees herself and as she is perceived by the people around her. Every scene and every word of dialogue interlocks like a jeweled timepiece. The reader is almost unaware of the ever-increasing momentum until it crashes upon you in a chilling finale. You think Ms. Bainbridge is through with you, but not quite. Just when you think you are utterly and completely emotionally drained, Ms. Bainbridge delivers a final twist, and now you know you are. I was left stunned.

An excellent example of fine prose. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Character Novel from Beryl Bainbridge
Review: Very honestly, I only read the book because the movie had struck me with its great directing, talented acting and a terrific unusual plot, and I must say I am not at all sorry I did so. I found the book refreshing and incredibly well-written.

An elaborate variation on Barrie's children's book in a grown-up-too-soon world, the novel combines with seeming effortlessness the youth's innocence and the wisdom and power of love of experience.

A young girl, accepted into the theatrical troupe of a small English town, finds herself enamoured of the stern mysterious director, unaware of the fact that his affections lie in the direction of his own sex and whose major characteristic is making everyone around him as miserable as he feels, trapped in unrequited love. She is indifferent to a great actor, who returns to his home town after becoming world-renowned and who, despite the great difference in their age, feels very close to her. She leaves him only to lead his investigation of her prior life to a tragic secret...

Read the book. You'll be surprised and, as variations on children's books are supposed to do, it'll make you older...