Rated the book

When someone says the word “writer,” one immediately sees a pleasant middle-aged man with an attentive look and a decent suit. good manners, education and a sense of humor. Chekhov, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Umberto Eco. nice stereotype. but a text that will touch the hearts of thousands of people can be written by anyone: a housewife, a pensioner, a child. remember Anne Frank. when she died in a concentration camp, she was 15. and her diaries are still alive. American Susan Eloise Hinton, author of Outcasts, also wrote her book at 15, as translator Anastasia Zavozova writes in the preface. and this book managed to get into the list of 100 banned books of the twentieth century and into the school curriculum. and Francis Ford Coppola filmed two of Hinton’s books: “Outcast” and “Rumble Fish,” and even with such a cast that later grew into the brightest stars; Yes, they can play bowling in any dance hall if they bring all their Oscars, Globes and other film awards. A separate personal joy: Tom Waits starred in “Cast Away.”

But let's get back to the book. she has an amazing feature. when a person writes about something he is well versed in, the text turns into a bathyscaphe for the reader: deep immersion, everything for real, no foreign objects. teenager Hinton wrote about teenagers, and it was very real. naturally. when you are little, you see only peers, and adults exist only in a parallel reality: this is how in the cartoon about Tom and Jerry they show the cat’s owner - slippers, a hem, and a commanding voice for a few seconds of screen time. in "Outcasts" there are practically no adults either. there are no women either (one girl in the entire book, and a nurse with a single phrase - an insignificant percentage, you will agree), but this is the American sixties, it was the time of men, then women existed only in the role of talking furniture. Yes, there is a lot of naivety in the book, but that is the main part of the charm. in my head the book was read in the voice of Marty McFly. and the only thing that gave away the young girl in the author of the book was the periodic remarks about boys “he was very handsome.” It was especially funny to hear this from the lips of other boys.

The main conflict is between groups of aggressive bigwigs (the slant is not on the dudes, but rather on “American Psycho”) and street kids from the outskirts. and some are all in white, while others are always to blame, but both of them prefer to resolve issues with their fists, testing themselves for strength, and them for weakness. but one day a story will happen that will allow you to see what is really important.

I agree, the book is as simple as five kopecks, but these five kopecks fall into the slot of a slot machine, which instantly sends you back in time. that same thing when you don’t understand what’s happening and why everyone around you is so angry. when you are completely alone and there is no one to protect you. when you don't have the words to explain to someone that something wrong is happening. and there’s no one to really explain it to. and time passes before you understand that in response to any offensive words you just need to hit as hard as possible. and you hit so hard that sparks come out of your eyes, although, of course, the relics are not enough. and you dream about brass knuckles to fight more effectively. but the bestiality in the blood and the determination “I’ll tear you to shreds with my teeth” are enough to make them fall behind. and nothing tragic happens, you’re lucky. but the boys in the book had a hard time. simply because there is class hatred between the rich and the poor. and a solid "Lord of the Flies". and the world is imperfect. but kindness exists. and she will win.

Rated the book

I learned about the existence of this book on the website. It’s surprising that, given my love for teenage literature, I had never heard of it or the film of the same name, directed by the great Francis Ford Coppola. But the cast alone should be of interest! But no, this story, which has become a cult in the United States, still remained unfamiliar to me. A controversial book, piercingly honest and at the same time a little deliberate. I won’t say that this is the best work for teenagers that I have ever read, but it is undoubtedly worth the reader’s attention. Especially the attention of those who have not yet left the age of teenagers. To an adult, it is likely that this cry from the heart of a fourteen-year-old Oklahoma boy “from the bottom” will seem too emotional, and the plot – far-fetched.

On the other hand, I have long since left adolescence, but still, after hesitating a little, I rated “Outcasts” with the highest score. Either because, despite the naivety and unpretentiousness of the plot and the rather poor language of presentation, the story hooked me and it was difficult to stop reading. Perhaps because in my youth something similar to what is described in the book also happened. True, in those distant times, boys aged 13 to 19 fought among themselves not on the principle of class intolerance (in the eighties we were all in approximately the same living conditions), but on the principle of territoriality and fought “district to district.” And I remember very well how one winter evening our common neighbor, who at that time was about fifteen years old, burst into a group of girls standing at the entrance, among whom I was, and with horror in his eyes told him that he had just been “on the switch” he seems to have killed a boy from a neighboring area. It just happened that way - he had brass knuckles, and Vadik had nothing to defend himself with. So he pulled out a poorly fitted board from the nearest fence. Who knew that a huge nail was firmly stuck in it? In the darkness and heat of battle there was no time for this... and this same nail pierced the enemy’s head with frightening ease...
True, Vadik was incredibly lucky - he was wrong. There was a lot of blood, but his opponent did not suffer any serious damage. However, in such fights, boys were often maimed and even died.

But the heroes of this book will have to go through the realization that they, even while defending their own lives, took someone else’s. And now they have to live with it.

And Ponyboy Curtis (this is not a nickname, this is the real name of the main character, given to him at birth. And not the strangest one given to three sons by a cheerful father) realizes a lot in a very short period of time. He will understand that the world is imperfect, but everyone in it has their own truth, will be convinced of the value of true friendship and the indestructibility of brotherly love, will lose loved ones and accomplish a real feat, will receive psychological trauma and gain a terrible but necessary experience. And he himself will tell us about it. The way he can. Without embellishment. Let it be a little clumsy, but honestly and without unnecessary sentimentality.

P.S. I'll definitely watch the film adaptation. One of my favorite actors is Patrick Swayze, still very young, in the role of my most favorite character from the book - you can’t miss this.

Rated the book

Susan Hinton surprised me. It’s not that I’m a fan of teenage problems, and I didn’t expect anything special from the book, but it turned out to be very touching about something important.
And not even about friendship, about the fact that we are united by the desire to live and the inability to maintain peace.
We don’t have greasers or wobs, and I don’t think I’ve ever noticed such a brutal confrontation in a stratified society. Maybe somewhere right now there are similar battles for a place in the sun. And although there is enough space for everyone, these guys certainly won’t be able to live together.
Vobs are majors, darlings of fate.
Gryazers are guys from poor or dysfunctional families, often without parents at all. The guys are different - some are trying to lead a tolerable life, raising their younger ones, others are mired in banditry and other “coolness”.
Mudders and vobs, seeing each other on the horizon, carry out a massacre without disdaining the methods and objects at hand. One of these fights ends in death.
And events will unfold with lightning speed, completely covering some with a veil of rage, and sobering others.
This small world of boys playing cruel games is completely devoid of interference from the older generation. Are we really so blinded by our worries... Or are we scared ourselves...
It’s scary for the guys to realize that no matter how expensive the price they pay, even if they put the most expensive sacrifice on the altar, they won’t be able to pay off, they won’t be able to break the vicious circle.

I got so used to them in this short period of time spent hand in hand, I was so careful about them that my skeptical attitude from the first pages was replaced by an acute feeling.
Very vivid, tangible, possible.
Not about me, but I was there, nearby. I wanted so badly to fight, to stop... to listen.

A must read for teenagers. It would be nice to include it in the school curriculum, there is something to talk about and think about. Also, it would be great to adopt the idea of ​​a topic for an essay from your teacher, to write not about how you spent your summer, but about what you think. Maybe then questions will come to the surface, many questions that concern us.
But is society ready to answer them?
“What kind of world is this where all I have to be proud of is my reputation as a bully and greased hair? I don’t want to be a bully, but even if I don’t steal, attack people or get drunk, I’m still considered trash. Why would I be proud of it? Why would I even pretend to be proud of it?”

© S. E. Hinton, 1995

© Anastasia Zavozova, translation into Russian, 2016

© Victor Sonkin, translation of the poem, 2016

© Livebook Publishing Ltd, 2016

* * *

Translator's Preface
Short-lived gold
Novel by S. E. Hinton "Outlaws"

Perhaps it would be strange to begin a preface to a novel with advice not to read it, but it’s still worth saying about this right away. If you are an adult, and not just an adult, but consider yourself to be such - a mature, formed, serious person who has no time for trifles and who has already passed all these teenage worries, doubts and insecurities, then it’s probably better for you to close this book right away and don't waste your time on it. Because much of the incredible and enduring charm of Outcasts lies precisely in the fact that it was written by a teenager, for teenagers.

Susan Eloise Hinton, a high school student from Tulsa, Oklahoma, began writing the novel Outcasts in 1965, when she was sixteen years old. The reason for this was a story that happened to Hinton’s friend. He was beaten in broad daylight and in front of passers-by by several teenagers from wealthy neighborhoods. Until then, Hinton had rarely thought about the fact that her social circle consisted mainly of greasers - greased guys with cigarettes who lived in the poor part of the city. More precisely, I didn’t think about the fact that it would occur to someone not only to divide people into groups based on how they dress, where they live and how much money they have, but also to openly hate them because of this. Hinton herself recalls how one day she was walking home with a group of friends - a car drove past them, from which they shouted: “Muddies!” hooligans!

After the same story with the beating, an indignant Hinton came home and rushed to write down her thoughts and impressions of what happened. This is how the novel “Outcasts” began - with a scene where the main character, a fourteen-year-old boy from a poor neighborhood, walks home from the cinema and on the way he is attacked by five guys, representatives of the “golden youth”. Contemporary American writer Rainbow Rowell, a very famous author of several teenage books, speaking about Hinton’s novel, noted, among other things, that it was all written as if “on the exhale”, there are no pauses or delays, only a stream of furious speech, internal monologue of a teenager - and this is true. At first, Hinton didn’t even intend to publish the novel, she just needed to throw out her anger somewhere at the people who beat her friend and her indignation at the whole situation, at the narrow caste groups into which their entire school was divided. (The school confrontation reached such a point, Hinton recalled in an interview, that representatives of different groups entered the school through different doors.) But one day she showed the novel to her friend, and she showed it to her mother, who at one time wrote and published a book for children. She liked the novel so much that she sent it to her New York agent and on the day of Susan Hinton's prom she received a contract to publish the book.

This is not to say that the book was an instant success. For some time it sold rather sluggishly, but fortunately for Hinton, it was at this moment that discussions about what literature for teenagers should be intensified in the United States. Hinton herself recalls that in her childhood the books were “either about horses, or about how Mary Jane goes to the ball,” but it was impossible to read anything about how real teenagers live in general. As the discussion reached a new level, more and more teachers and librarians began to cite the novel “Outcasts” as an example. They noted the genuine, lively, unsweetened tone of the novel and the fact that its heroes were boys whom no one seemed to have noticed before - representatives of teenage gangs, residents of poor neighborhoods, children from single-parent families. It was the choice of heroes, by the way, that gave the book an aura of some scandalousness. The book was banned in many states, even though it has sold approximately 20 million copies since its publication. It was the realism of the characters that became the reason for the ban - the underage heroes of the book smoke, drink alcohol, face domestic violence, fight, speak rudely and often break the law themselves. The American Library Association included Hinton's novel on its list of "100 Banned Books of the 20th Century," but in many states it is included in the school curriculum.

A film was even made based on the novel - in 1983, fans of the book wrote a petition that was signed by thousands of people. They asked Francis Ford Coppola to adapt the film, and the director agreed. The film starred the then very young and little-known Sy Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez and Ralph Macchio. A small cameo - a half-minute role of a nurse in the hospital - also went to Susan Hinton, with whom Coppola had a very warm relationship.

This fierce, passionate and still very lively love for the novel, which since 1967, in general, has not shown any sign of fading, is, of course, caused by what started this preface. This is a novel written by a teenager - for teenagers. Written sincerely, on an exhale and from the heart. A novel that, after it is read for the first time - at ten, eleven or twelve years old - leaves behind memories and feelings that will never be there again if you read the novel in some distinctly adult, distinctly serious state. Of course, since the author of the novel was only 15-16 years old when she wrote it, one should not expect any exceptional literary polish from the book. But some immaturity and naivety of expressions is more than compensated by the surprisingly sincere feeling that permeates the entire novel, a feeling thanks to which Hinton made her way to the hearts of her non-adult readers - the desire not so much to write a book as to throw out teenage rage and the horror of growing up, which we all have to go through too early or it's too late to go through.

Small town in Oklahoma, 60s. In a long-standing conflict, gangs of teenagers - the greasers and the wobs - confront each other. The first rule of greasers is not to go alone, the second is not to get caught. And always stand by your friends no matter what they do. 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis is sure: the rich kids - the wobs, the golden youth from the west side of the city - will never understand the kids from the poor neighborhoods on the east side. And only one terrible night, one skirmish with Wobs, changes everything.

Susan Eloise Hinton began writing the novel Outcasts in 1965. Written sincerely and from the heart, the book tells about the problems of real teenagers - representatives of teenage gangs, residents of poor neighborhoods, children from single-parent families. The American Librarians Association included Hinton’s novel in its list of “100 Banned Books of the 20th Century”: in some states it remains banned to this day, in many others it has long been included in the school curriculum.

In 1983, the book was filmed by director Francis Ford Coppola. The film became a successful start to big cinema for young Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, C Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez and Ralph Macchio.

The work belongs to the genre of Foreign classics. On our website you can download the book "Outcasts" in fb2, rtf, epub, pdf, txt format or read online. The book's rating is 3 out of 5. Here, before reading, you can also turn to reviews from readers who are already familiar with the book and find out their opinion. In our partner's online store you can buy and read the book in paper form.

Outcasts Susan Hinton

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Title: Outcasts

About the book "Outlaws" by Susan Hinton

Small town in Oklahoma, 60s. In a long-standing conflict, gangs of teenagers - the greasers and the wobs - confront each other. The first rule of greasers is not to go alone, the second is not to get caught. And always stand by your friends no matter what they do. 14-year-old Ponyboy Curtis is sure: the rich kids - the wobs, the golden youth from the west side of the city - will never understand the kids from the poor neighborhoods on the east side. And only one terrible night, one skirmish with Wobs, changes everything.

Susan Eloise Hinton began writing the novel Outcasts in 1965. Written sincerely and from the heart, the book tells about the problems of real teenagers - representatives of teenage gangs, residents of poor neighborhoods, children from single-parent families. The American Librarians Association included Hinton’s novel in its list of “100 Banned Books of the 20th Century”: in some states it remains banned to this day, in many others it has long been included in the school curriculum.

In 1983, the book was filmed by director Francis Ford Coppola. The film became a successful start to big cinema for young Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, C Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez and Ralph Macchio.

On our website about books lifeinbooks.net you can download for free without registration or read online the book “Outcasts” by Susan Hinton in epub, fb2, txt, rtf, pdf formats for iPad, iPhone, Android and Kindle. The book will give you a lot of pleasant moments and real pleasure from reading. You can buy the full version from our partner. Also, here you will find the latest news from the literary world, learn the biography of your favorite authors. For beginning writers, there is a separate section with useful tips and tricks, interesting articles, thanks to which you yourself can try your hand at literary crafts.