Book: The Outsiders

[alexcat]

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I reread The Outsiders after watching the Great American Read. I had read it as a teen and reread it some years later as well. I know many people said they identified with Ponyboy and the others, but nothing in my teens was remotely like their lives. I grew up in a rural area and never knew any 'greasers'. if we had them, I never knew anything about it. I also have not ever really identified with any of the other great 'coming of age' books either, books like Catcher in the Rye or A Separate Peace.

Having said all that, the narrative is compelling and does leave on a hopeful note about life and family.



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Comments

[kara_mckay]

I was able to relate to the Outsiders to a limited extent, and I had a friend who loved them. We were assigned Catcher in the Rye and A Separate Peace in high school, and I liked A Separate Peace without knowing until decades later why that book in particular might be assigned to teenagers. I hate Catcher in the Rye. Hate, hate, hate. I still own all three of those books, and the only reason I hang onto Catcher in the Rye is sentiment for my junior year English teacher.

[alexcat]

I probably identified more with Scout in "To Kill a Mockingbird" perhaps for the small town feeling.

Catcher in the Rye is probably my least favorite book in the world!

[kara_mckay]

I made it through Catcher in the Rye, but I don't know if I would've if it hadn't been for a grade. I hate to be stereotypical, but the one that I just could not do was Moby Dick. I tried. I tried valiantly. It got to the point where I was slogging along without absorbing anything I was reading just so I could say that I'd read Moby Dick. When I realized that was what was happening, I said, "Fuck it," and put it back on the shelf.

[lynnenne]

I also have not ever really identified with any of the other great 'coming of age' books either, books like Catcher in the Rye or A Separate Peace.

I hated Catcher in the Rye. Misogynist, homophobic white boy has a nervous breakdown because the world hasn't given him everything he believes he's entitled to - I see enough of that in real life, sorry.

Haven't read The Outsiders, but I find it tough to believe that a group of cis white boys anywhere in America could really be "outsiders" - then or now.

[alexcat]

Honestly? They existed. In the US of the 50s, 60s, and 70s there were always the outsiders - poor white kids from the wrong side of the tracks without social status, who hung out on the fringes of polite society and were given no chance unless they excelled at something and didn't piss off their betters. They certainly had no voice and white privilege didn't apply to them because they simply didn't count.