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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Debut Novel, July 8, 2008
This story takes places in the 1950's in England, though much of the angst portrayed is just as common place today, no matter where you live.
We meet Lewis Aldridge at the beginning of the story, he is 19 years old and just out of prison for setting fire to a church. He is hoping for a new chance at life, a new beginning, but things are off to a rocky start with his father, right from the beginning.
The story then reverts back to Lewis' childhood. He is a happy though quiet child who enjoys his mother, Elizabeth's, company. Elizabeth is an outcast of sorts in that she tends to drink too much and is a free spirit. When her husband, Gilbert, returns from the war there is a shift in patterns at the house. They are expected to behave in a certain way and tend to him. It is obvious from the start that Gilbert is cold and distant from his son. When a tragic incident occurs and Lewis has to return home, without his mother, things get worse for Lewis and the strained relationship between father and son continues to deteriorate.
As time continues, Gilbert, the small community and even Lewis' new stepmother all consider him to be damaged. Lewis becomes even more aloof and begins to cut himself.
Kit Carmichael is the young daughter in an influential family. Her dad just happens to be Gilbert's boss as well. Kit has always liked Lewis and she wants to help him. She has her own problems to deal with in her family but she is always in Lewis' corner. Kit is actually somewhat of an outcast herself and does not agree with most of her family's observations.
When Lewis completes his stint in prison and does return home, he and Kit decide to change their situation and break free from their lives as they know it. They can no longer sit quietly and accept their roles in life.
This is a wonderfully written first novel. Its themes of war, alcoholism, emotional and physical isolation can be applied to today's world as well. No matter the time or place, the possibility of change and hope is always something to strive for.
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
AN ACHINGLY BEAUIFUL STORY, March 14, 2008
British writer Sadie Jones has given us an amazing debut novel, an achingly beautiful story of loss, love, and redemption. She astounds with her picture of 1950s England, a Surrey where emotions roil beneath a peaceful bucolic surface. With penetrating insight and scrupulously wrought studies she traces the characters as they develop. Her portrait of a young man who almost perishes in a painful search to define himself is especially moving.
The Outcast opens as 19-year-old Lewis Aldridge is released after serving a two-year prison term for setting fire to the village church. He goes home as, in truth, he has nowhere else to go. He's hoping for a new beginning but that is not to be.
Lewis's childhood is described in a flashback to when he was 10-years-old and adapting to his father, Gilbert, being home again after the war. Prior to that time Lewis and his mother, Elizabeth, enjoyed a happy, loving relationship. She doted on him and he returned her affection. Always a shadowy figure, Gilbert, once again takes his place in the home yet remains a puzzlement to the boy.
Soon a dreadful tragedy occurs that sends Lewis into a horrific spiral of isolation, violence, and self-mutilation. Elizabeth drowns on what had begun as a happy river side picnic for Lewis and his mother. Gilbert is little solace to the boy and remarries within a year. Alice, his second wife, knows little of how to reach Lewis who is ostracized by his childhood friends. Riddled with self-hatred his behavior becomes increasingly anti-social, and he withdraws even deeper into himself.
He is virtually shunned by other villagers save for Tasmin and Kit, daughters of Gilbert's employer, Dicky Carmichael. Kit is the youngest daughter who was a tag-along playmate in Lewis's childhood, often ridiculed by her older sister and ignored by the others. The Carmichael household is a dark one, harboring the secret of Dicky's domestic violence. "Dicky often hit Claire (his wife), it was a habit, and part of the pattern of the family, and it wasn't questioned between them at all."
Dicky's rage is soon vented on Kit as he beats her mercilessly, always slapping her hard across the face with an open hand so as not to leave any marks. He would beat her with a belt "until his arm felt quite tired."
Upon his return from prison Lewis finds no welcome or comfort in his home. "Very often Gilbert and Alice were fairly drunk by supper anyway, so it wasn't as bad as lunch, but sometimes the being drunk was worse - you could see what was underneath."
When Lewis learns of the abuse suffered by Kit he longs to rescue her, but feels he has no power to do so. Is it possible that one damaged individual can save another?
With lucid, affecting prose Sadie Jones carries us along to a startling yet satisfying conclusion.
Highly recommended.
- Gail Cooke
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Stunning look at choices we make, April 12, 2008
Sadie Jones debut novel The Outcast haunts me still, days after finishing it. The novel delivers a story of love, loss, and redemption as a result of a series of situations that couldn't be helped and were no one's fault really-but irrevocably changed lives.
It's 1957 and 19-year-old Lewis Aldridge has just been released from prison. The crime was setting fire to a church. He heads to his family home simply because he has no where else to go. He's met at the door by his stepmother, Alice, who cheerfully greets him. His father, Gilbert's greeting is different. He demands Lewis drive with him to the church, to see that it has been `fixed.' Lewis is silent. The stage is set; Lewis may have hoped for a new beginning, but already things are not looking good.
We view Lewis' childhood as a flashback. His father recently returned from the war and while Lewis is happy that his father is home, he really doesn't know him. The close relationship Lewis and his mother shared while Gilbert was gone, changes. During a picnic at the river, Elizabeth, Lewis' mother drowns-and suddenly everything changes for Lewis.
Gilbert remarries within a short period of time and neither Gilbert nor Alice, the new wife, can reach the steadily retreating Lewis. The people of the community avoid Lewis, and he continues to withdraw, his anti-social behavior increasing. Two sisters, Tasmin and Kit (daughters of Lewis' boss Dicky Carmichael), are the only people who haven't ostracized Lewis.
But there is a dreadful secret in the Carmichael house, and when Lewis discovers it, he feels powerless to change things. The question is simple: can the damaged Lewis help another damaged soul?
The Outcast will leave you breathless. The characters are rich, full-bodied and well-developed. The plot is startling in both its complexity and yet the ease of putting forth a story of abuse, neglect, guilt and love. The Outcast demands you look at life and ask yourself what are the consequences of the choices we make? Every reader will, I suspect, walk away from this stunning debut with a perspective somewhat different from the next person who reads it.
Armchair Interview says: Highly recommended.
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