the_outsiders

THE OUTSIDER by S. E. Hinton

1997. Speak (Penguin USA). Paperback.

I read this book to help Cherry's daughter Yi; it's a set text
for her English class at Cunberland High Year 10. It's a story
of fighting gangs and teenage angst from the 1960s; West Side
Story in print in a way. It is apparently the bestselling work
of young adult fiction of all time.

The story is very satisfying and authentic (a story about teenagers
written by a teenager). S.E. Hinton was 15 when she began the story
and 16 when she finished it. An author interview in this edition says
that Hinton enjoyed using her initials to disguise her gender and
has since enjoyed the slight anonymity of not revealing her full name.

The story is very satisfying, though it's hard for a reader in 2021 to
believe that readers were shocked by the swearing; which is bowdlerized
and tame by modern standards.

The author interview with Hinton is so good that I'll quote from it
again. "One of my reasons for writing The Outsiders was that I wanted
something realistic to be written about teenagers. At the time realistic
teenage fiction didn't exist. If you didn't want to read Mary Jane Goes
To The Prom and you were through with horse books, there was nothing
to read. I just wanted to write something that dealt with what I
saw kids really doing".

                                             21st March  2021

My book reviews are at https://github.com/stucooper/booksiveread