The Outcast

Book Description

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• Audiobook

  Lewis is seven in 1945 when his chillingly distant father returns from the war and destroys his idyllic life with his mother. By the time he's 10 his beloved mother is dead and he has a very young stepmother. Jones reveals all the hypocrisy of stuffy ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

• Ophelia’s Child

  Some silences are caused not by the absence of sound but by sound suppressed, forbidden. These two types of muteness can have the same origin: the psyche, as Freud knew, can be more censorious than any tyrant. Skip to next paragraph THE OUTCAST By Sa ... (read full critics)

  nytimes published on Sat, 18 Sep 2010

4 Reviews

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  An absorbing read in which it is I think impossible not to feel tremendously sympathetic towards the protagonist Lewis Aldridge who although only nineteen has already had an awful lot to cope with in his young life. What an unhappy young man although nobody seems to notice, or if they do they cert ... (continue)

  An absorbing read in which it is I think impossible not to feel tremendously sympathetic towards the protagonist Lewis Aldridge who although only nineteen has already had an awful lot to cope with in his young life. What an unhappy young man although nobody seems to notice, or if they do they certainly do not offer to help him.

  It was the 1950’s stiff upper lip era and this angry and deeply troubled young man was just labelled as a trouble maker.

  The early years of his life were spent solely in the company of his mother Elizabeth as his father was away fighting in the Second World War and they were very close. It is therefore no surprise to the reader at least, that after the tragic death of his mother Lewis suffers from overwhelming grief and anger. His father seems unable or unwilling to help his son and the damage done to Lewis, festers inside him until one day in his teenage years he just cannot take any more.

  Never having had the support he needed from his family or local community as a boy, when he returns as a young man after serving a jail sentence his actions have still not been forgiven. His return in fact triggers chaos for the whole community.

  The only person willing to help Lewis is young Kit Carmichael the youngest of his childhood playmates, who has her own painful secrets to hide. In her attempt to save Lewis from himself she brings her own father’s horrifying behaviour towards her and other members of her family, out into the open.

  A painful, menacing but beautifully and evocatively told story of duplicity amongst the middle classes in a nineteen fifties village in southern England.

  If you interested in finding out more about this author you can do so by following this link. I will certainly be looking out for her next novel ‘Small Wars’ set in Cyprus in 1957.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadie_Jones

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  Lindyloumac said on Feb 13, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Fabulous first novel set in England in the 1940s and 1950s, which I found very moving.

  The storyline as per the exclusive Amazon.co.uk interview with Sadie Jones: "The Outcast is about a boy called Lewis - his childhood and adolescence – as he grows up in the stultifying world of the home cou ... (continue)

  Fabulous first novel set in England in the 1940s and 1950s, which I found very moving.

  The storyline as per the exclusive Amazon.co.uk interview with Sadie Jones: "The Outcast is about a boy called Lewis - his childhood and adolescence – as he grows up in the stultifying world of the home counties in the late forties and fifties. It is an everyday tale of drunkenness, violence and a fair amount of sex, set amongst the well-brought-up professional classes. It is also a love story."

  Lewis believes he is a broken person. However, is it really him or everyone around him in his village?

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  wgeddert said on Jul 28, 2008 | Add your feedback

• *** This comment contains spoilers! ***

  

  This is a depressing debut-novel, but a very well written one and I read it avidly.
  It's hard to say that I enjoyed reading Lewis' story of physical and emotional isolation. Every page is pessimistic and weighs you down, but the ending left me with the feeling that hope and possibility of change ar ... (continue)

  This is a depressing debut-novel, but a very well written one and I read it avidly.
  It's hard to say that I enjoyed reading Lewis' story of physical and emotional isolation. Every page is pessimistic and weighs you down, but the ending left me with the feeling that hope and possibility of change are something to always strive for.

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  momiji1020 said on Dec 8, 2010 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

• 

  This is a book which will test all your emotions. From sadness to anger to sorrow, you follow the seven stages of grief with Lewis and his father. Here is a young boy who watches his mother drown and cannot do anything to save her. This is where the author leaves it up to the reader to decide if ... (continue)

  This is a book which will test all your emotions. From sadness to anger to sorrow, you follow the seven stages of grief with Lewis and his father. Here is a young boy who watches his mother drown and cannot do anything to save her. This is where the author leaves it up to the reader to decide if Lewis deliberately lets his mother drown or if he really cannot save her. His father so locked up in his own grief that he cannot find room to let his son into his heart. Is he blaming his son? I return to the relationship between the family. The father is away at war and the mother forms a very strong bond with her son, they are company for each other. The father, Gilbert returns from war to his devoted wife and they are in love and besotted with each other but Elizabeth has room for Lewis in her heart too. Gilbert is jealous of the relationship between his wife and his son. Is Gilbert so consumed by his jealousy and grief that he blames Lewis for his loss and cannot find room in his heart to love his own flesh and blood? This is one of the questions the author asks of the reader. Gilbert is lonely and remarries a younger, ineffectual woman, Alice, quite soon afterwards. Lewis is devastated as he sees this replacement for his mother come to live in his home and also see his father behaving in the same way towards his new wife. Lewis cannot cope and becomes introverted. His friends don't bother with him anymore and when he does attempt to play with them they shut him out. He is the outcast.
  Every village has it's top dog and Dickie Carmichael is that. The wealthy landowner who runs his own business, wife beater and child abuser. Everyone is in his pocket including Gilbert who works for him. Dickie is a troublemaker and uses his influence to disgrace and provoke Lewis, and also to embarass Gilbert. Lewis cannot take anymore and during his teeneage years becomes extremely troubled, drinking and indulging in delinquent behaviour in a way to explore and find himself. He is only calm when he self harms. Eventually after much provocation by Dickie and constantly being shut out by his father he commits arson and is imprisoned for two years. Returning home all seems well at the beginning. Gilbert asks Dickie to give Lewis a job and surprisingly Dickie offers him a place as a filing clerk at the quarry. This goes well but Tamsin, Dickie's eldest daughter suddenly appears, treating Lewis as a charity case but knowingly leading him on and provoking him. Tamsin is in cohorts with her father and you know that it won't be long before Lewis is provoked into acting irresponsibly. Of course he is framed by Dickie and his family. His ally the younger daughter Kit is not heard by her family and when she tries to defend Lewis she is punished severely by her father. I will not spoil the story but I highly recommend this book. If you want to experience an emotional roller coaster then this is for you. I felt real empathy for Lewis and Kit. It brought out feelings of anger against the schemers and perpetrators of violence in this novel and against those who weakly stood by and let things happen.

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  Booketta said on Oct 20, 2010 | Add your feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Paperback 448 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0099513420
• ISBN-13: 9780099513421
• Publisher: Vintage
• Pub date: Jun 16, 2008
• Also available as: Hardcover, Others and eBook

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