The Fault in Our Stars
The
Fault in Our Stars is a
novel by John Green.
It is his fourth solo novel, and sixth novel overall. It was published on
January 12, 2012. The title is inspired by Act 1, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's
play Julius Caesar,
in which the nobleman Cassius
says to Brutus: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But
in ourselves, that we are underlings." The story is narrated by Hazel
Grace Lancaster, a 16-year-old girl with thyroid cancer that has affected her
lungs. Hazel is forced by her parents to attend a support
group where she subsequently meets and
falls in love with 17-year-old Augustus Waters, an ex-basketball player and amputee. An American feature film adaptation of the novel directed by Josh Boone
and starring Shailene Woodley,
Ansel
Elgort, and Nat
Wolff was released on June 6, 2014.[1] A Hindi feature film adaptation is set to be released in May 2020. Both the book and its
American film adaptation were met with strong critical and commercial success.
Plot synopsis
Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 16-year-old with thyroid
cancer that has spread to her lungs,
attends a cancer patient support group at her mother's behest. At one meeting,
Hazel meets a 17-year-old boy currently in remission named Augustus Waters,
whose osteosarcoma
caused him to lose his right leg. Augustus is at the meeting to support Isaac,
his friend who has eye cancer.
They meet after the support group and begin to talk. When everything seems to
be going well, Augustus pulls out a cigarette and puts it between his lips.
Hazel is disgusted by this and yells at him saying that he's already got cancer
and he wants to pay money for more cancer. Augustus explains that he does not
actually light the cigarette. He says, "You put an object of death right
between your lips, but you don't give it the power to kill you." Hazel,
impressed by this, goes to his house to watch a movie. Hazel and Augustus
strike a bond immediately and agree to read each other's favourite novels.
Augustus gives Hazel The Price of Dawn, and Hazel recommends An Imperial
Affliction, a novel written by Peter Van Houten, who lives in Amsterdam, about a cancer-stricken girl named Anna that parallels
Hazel's own experience. After Augustus finishes reading her book, he is
frustrated upon learning that the novel ends abruptly without a conclusion. The
novel ends in the middle of a sentence, which means she either died or became
too sick to continue telling the story. Hazel explains the novel's author retreated
following the novel's publication and has not been heard from since.
A week later, Augustus reveals to Hazel that he has tracked
down Van Houten's assistant, Lidewij, and, through her, has managed to start an
e-mail correspondence with Van Houten. The two write to Van Houten with
questions regarding the novel's ending and the fate of the mother of Anna. Van
Houten eventually replies, explaining that he can only answer Hazel's questions
in person. At a picnic, Augustus surprises Hazel with tickets to Amsterdam to
meet Van Houten, acquired through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
While on the plane to Amsterdam, Augustus confesses his love
for Hazel. Hazel and Augustus finally meet Van Houten but are shocked to find
that he is a mean-spirited drunk. Horrified by Van Houten's behaviour, Lidewij
confesses to having arranged the meeting on his behalf, angering Van Houten,
who proceeds to insult Hazel's cancer, starting an argument and causing Hazel
and Augustus to flee from his home. Lidewij resigns as Van Houten's assistant
and takes Hazel and Augustus to the Anne
Frank House, where Augustus and Hazel share
their first kiss. Hazel and Augustus go out for a fancy dinner while in
Amsterdam where they drink champagne and "taste the stars". Later
that night Hazel and Augustus have sex in Augustus's hotel room, the first time
for both of them. While having sex, Hazel tells Augustus she loves him.
Augustus confesses to Hazel that his cancer has returned.
The two affirm their love and support for one another. Upon their return to
Indianapolis, Augustus's health worsens and he ends up in the ICU for a few
days. Fearing his death, Augustus invites Isaac and Hazel to his pre-funeral, where they give eulogies. Augustus dies soon after,
leaving Hazel heartbroken. Van Houten shows up at Augustus's funeral to
apologize to Hazel, but Hazel does not forgive him.
Hazel learns that Augustus was not writing a sequel to An
Imperial Affliction like he told her, but an obituary for her, and reads it after Lidewij discovers it amidst Van
Houten's letters. It states that getting hurt in this world is unavoidable, but
we do get to choose whom we allow to hurt us, and that he is happy with his
choice, and hopes she likes hers too. The book closes with Hazel stating that
she is happy with her choice.
Publication history
On December 21, 2011, Barnes
& Noble accidentally shipped 1,500 copies
of The Fault in Our Stars before the release date to people who had
pre-ordered the book. Green released a statement saying, "Mistakes happen.
The people who made this error were not bad or incompetent people, and they
were not acting maliciously. We all make mistakes, and it is not my wish to see
Barnes and Noble or any of their employees vilified."[2] Many people who received the book pledged not to read it
until its release date, January 10, 2012, or discuss it until the next day,
January 11, as per a request of Green's not to spoil it for other readers. Most
kept to this promise, leaving the experience untarnished for those who got the
book on the intended release date.[3]
The book rose to #84 on the Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble bestseller lists in June 2011
shortly after its title was announced.[4] Green promised that every pre-order would be hand-signed by
him, requiring him to sign every copy of the first printing. He proposed that
the general public vote on the color Sharpie
he would use to sign the books, resulting in him signing the 150,000 books with
a variety of Sharpie colors, each in proportion to the number of votes received
for that color.[5] However, some people who ordered from international
booksellers received unsigned copies because those bookstores, including Amazon
UK, underestimated how many books they needed and ordered more after the
signing was complete, but Green agreed to fix this problem, telling people with
unsigned pre-orders to email him so they could be sent a signed bookplate.[6] Many fans submitted their book cover designs to various
outlets including Tumblr and Twitter, tagging Green in these posts so he could
see them. The sizeable number of posts received prompted Green's publisher
Penguin to seek a fan-designed cover for a reprint of one of Green's other
books, An Abundance of Katherines.[7] The Fault in Our Stars debuted at #1 on The New York Times
Best Seller list for Children's Chapter Books[8] and remained in that spot for seven consecutive weeks.[9] A Hebrew edition of The Fault in Our Stars was
published in Israel in August 2012 and more editions of the novel are
forthcoming in Dutch, German, Spanish, French, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic,
Chinese, Persian and Portuguese. The Fault in Our Stars has also gained
places on several bestseller lists. It was #1 on The Wall Street Journal bestseller list, #1 on the Indiebound bestseller
list, and #9 on The Bookseller
bestseller list. The novel was also The New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice.[10] As of January 2013, there are nearly 1 million copies of
the novel in print.[11] In December 2012, it was announced that a special edition
with a silver cover and an expanded Q&A, dubbed the 'Exclusive Collector's
Edition', would be available from Barnes & Noble. All or at least most of
the copies first available for purchase of this edition of the book contained a
printing error wherein several pages of the first chapter were replaced with
pages from the Q&A section at the back of the book.[12]
Critical reception
The Fault in Our Stars
received critical acclaim. Critics mostly praised the book for its humor,
strong characters, language, themes and new perspective on cancer and romance. The New York Times' review of the book called it "a blend of melancholy,
sweet, philosophical and funny" and said that it "stays the course of
tragic realism", while noting that the book's unpleasant plot details
"do nothing to diminish the romance; in Green's hands, they only make it
more moving."[13] NPR's
Rachel Syme noted that "[Green's] voice is so compulsively readable that
it defies categorization," saying that the "elegantly plotted"
book "may be his best." [14] Time called The Fault in Our Stars "damn near
genius."[15] Entertainment Weekly wrote, "[Augustus and Hazel's] love story is as real
as it is doomed, and the gut-busting laughs that come early in the novel make
the luminous final pages all the more heartbreaking", and gave the novel
an overall A− grade.[16] The Manila
Bulletin says that the book is "a
collection of maudlin scenes and trite observations about the fragility of life
and the wisdom of dying. And while it does talk about those things and more,
the treatment of it is far from being maudlin or trite."[17] The Manila Bulletin also added that "Just two
paragraphs into the work, and he immediately wallops the readers with such an
insightful observation delivered in such an unsentimental way that its hard not
to shake your head in admiration."[17] The Manila Bulletin stated that The Fault in Our
Stars was a triumph for John Green.[17] USA Today
called it a "elegiac comedy."[18] They gave the book a rating of four out of four stars.[18] The School Library Journal stated that it was "a strong choice for Adult
Collections."[19] The Fault in Our Stars received a starred review
from Kirkus Reviews,
who described it as "a smartly crafted intellectual explosion of a
romance."[20]
Several well-known authors have contributed their own
positive reviews for the book. Jodi
Picoult, author of My Sister's Keeper, calls The Fault in Our Stars "an electric
portrait of young people who learn to live life with one foot in the
grave." She goes on to say that the novel is "filled with staccato
bursts of humor and tragedy." Bestselling author of The
Book Thief, Markus
Zusak, describes it as "a novel of
life and death and the people caught in between" and "John Green at
his best". Pertaining to Green's writing throughout the book, E.
Lockhart, author of The Boyfriend List,
says "He makes me laugh and gasp at the beauty of a sentence or the twist
of a tale. He is one of the best writers alive and I am seething with envy of
his talent."[21] Time named The Fault in Our Stars as the #1 fiction book
of 2012.[22] Kirkus Reviews listed it among the top 100
children's books of 2012.[23] It also made USA Today's list of the top 10 books of
2012.[24] In 2013, the Edmonton
Journal named the book one of their
"favourite books of the year."[25]
One notable unfavorable opinion appeared in the Daily
Mail.[26] In the piece, the plot of The Fault in Our Stars was
described as "mawkish at best, exploitative at worst" and the book
was characterized as belonging to the "sick-lit" young adult
genre, together with other young-adult novels such as Never Eighteen and
Before
I Die. This entire genre, as well as the
genre of young-adult novels dealing with suicide and self-harm (the piece
mentions Thirteen Reasons Why, By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead, The
Lovely Bones, and Red Tears) was
criticized as being "distasteful" and inappropriate for their target
audience of teens.[27] The Guardian
criticized the piece, pointing out in particular that The Fault in Our Stars
was chosen by The Guardian as that month's "teen book club
choice" because "it's a gripping read, featuring two compelling
characters, that deals sensitively and even humorously with a difficult
situation without descending into mawkishness." In general, The
Guardian faulted the Daily Mail for suggesting that the issues of
illness, depression, and sexuality are inappropriate precisely "in the one
place where difficult subjects have traditionally been most sensitively
explored for teens: fiction written specifically for them."[27] For his part, in an interview for The Guardian, John
Green said: "The thing that bothered me about The Daily Mail piece
was that it was a bit condescending to teenagers. I'm tired of adults telling
teenagers that they aren't smart, that they can't read critically, that they
aren't thoughtful, and I feel like that article made those arguments."[28]
Film adaptations
English adaptation
Main
article: The Fault in Our Stars (film)
In January 2012, Fox
2000 Pictures optioned the rights to adapt the
novel into a feature film.[1] Scott
Neustadter, Michael
H. Weber and Josh Boone
wrote the adapted screenplay, with Josh Boone also serving as director.[29] Shailene
Woodley stars as Hazel, while Ansel
Elgort plays Augustus.[30]
Principal photography took place between August and October
2013, with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania doubling for the novel's setting of
Indianapolis, and included some location shooting in Amsterdam.[29] The film was released on June 6, 2014, in the United
States,[31]
receiving positive reviews and grossing over $307 million worldwide against its
budget of $12 million.[32][33]
Hindi adaptation
Main
article: Dil Bechara
In August 2014, India's Fox
Star Studios announced it would adapt the novel
into an Indian Hindi-language
film, with the working title of Kizie Aur Manny.[34] Filming began in July 2018, in Jamshedpur,[35] with first-time director Mukesh
Chhabra guiding lead actor Sushant Singh Rajput and lead actress Sanjana Sanghi (in her film debut).[36]
The film is scheduled to be released sometime in 2020, after
having being initially scheduled in November 2019, under title Dil
Bechara (Helpless Heart) that is
named for one of the songs written for the movie that the director felt summed
up the message of the film.[37]
References
· Deahl, Rachel
(January 31, 2012). "Fox
Options John Green's 'Fault in Our Stars'". Publishers
Weekly. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
· · Green, John
(December 21, 2011). "The
Leaking of The Fault in Our Stars". John Green's Tumblr. Archived from the
original on January 9, 2012. Retrieved
December 26, 2013.
· · Green, John
(December 23, 2011). "There Will Be
NO SPOILERS!!!". Vlogbrothers. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
· · Trachtenberg,
Jeffrey A (July 1, 2011). "Tweeting
from a La-Z-Boy, An Unfinished Book Hits No. 1". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 24, 2013.
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