Books : The Outcast

Rating: - Where Was the Love?
I read this novel with greater speed than usual, because I just so wanted something good to happen to Lewis - I was frightened for him! The novel starts by reminding us that in 1945 most young children hardly knew their fathers as they had been brought up by their mothers whilst the men were at war. Suddenly there's a man in the house and the dynamics of daily life changed dramatically for 7-year-old Lewis. Three years later, the centre of his life was gone and in the 1940/50's bereavemnt counsellors didn't exist, so how was this child expected to come to terms with his loss? Love from others, you would think, but his father shuts him out emotionally and five months later introduces him to his new 'mother'. This was middle-class life in the 50's - when keeping up appearances and a stiff upper lip were everything, and the rot was kept hidden. I wouldn't recommend reading this novel if you're at all depressed, because its content is quite terrible - the reader is spared nothing. Great writing though.

---

Rating: - Ghastly,melodramatic rubbish
Talk about over egging the pudding.Tradgedy upon tradgedy befalls our hapless hero Lewis...and he thoroughly deserves it!.He's an unsympathetic character who creates his own misery and then keeps wallowing in it.I just wanted to keep yelling 'lighten up you self pitying idiot'!.
Theres no light and shade with the remaining characters in this tedious tale and the 'baddies' are hilariously awful in a 'Snidely Whiplash' kind of a way.By the end,I fully expected someone to end up tied to a railway track with an express train approaching.
The author seems to have mistaken a gripping and suspenseful plotline and engaging characterisation with unremitting and ridiculous histronics.A tawdry,badly written melodrama.

---

Rating: - read it
Dear Amazon, last time I wrote this review it appeared under the name of George! Please could you publish it under the name of J.Crow. South Wales, thanks.
Sadie Jones has written an authentic , moving and original novel that evokes the 50's with eery accuracy.
I grew up in the 50's and 'The Outcast,' is a vivid and moving reminder of the secrets and lies of that battle-weary decade.
Also, why this knee jerk reaction that compares any good new young novelist who writes crisp , readable, unadorned prose with Ian Mc Ewan. Both Sadie Jones and Ian Mc Ewan are fine writers, but very different.

J. Crow. South Wales

---

Rating: - Pulls apart the 1950s middle class society
I didn't like Lewis when I started to read but found that as he got older I became sympathethic towards his delicate mental state.
The loss of his mother and the way that was handled by his father and the rest of the society had a dramatic impact on his adult personality which developed throughout the book.
The 1950s society is shown in a very negative way with the stiff upper lip and no acknowledgement of any type of mental frailty.
All the way through the book I just wanted to hug Lewis but still felt that it wouldn't have made me like him any more. That said, his character was very believeable and totally real.
The book cleverly tackles many subjects which are talked about more openly in today's society but in the 50s were hidden and shameful. It is a scarey thought that the real criminals are often the ones hidden behind a veil of respectability.

---

Rating: - Wonderful!
Wonderful! I have not read such a funny novel since 'Cold Comfort Farm'. No-one could have written a more brilliant pastiche of 'The Atonement' Loved it.