For this month’s Writer’s Book Club, I’m reviewing the 1967 coming-of-age novel The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton (and narrated by Jim Fyfe). The book gave birth to a 1983 film adaptation starring C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, and Diane Lane, a 1990 television series, and a 2024 Tony award-winning Broadway musical. (Click here for the movie trailer.)
S. E. Hinton began writing the novel when she was fifteen and finished it when she was sixteen and a junior in high school. Viking Press published it when she was eighteen. Incredible!
In The Outsiders, Ponyboy Curtis is the fourteen-year-old narrator and main character. His parents are deceased, and he lives with his older brothers, twenty-year-old Darry and sixteen, almost seventeen-year-old, Sodapop. The Curtis boys are members of a lower-class greasers gang who often tangle with the rival socs of the upper-middle class. When a fight with the socs turns deadly, Ponyboy and fellow greaser, Johnny, go into hiding.
What I like about The Outsiders
Hinton is great at understanding teenage slang and using it effectively. The dialogue is unique and believable. Speaking from experience, this is hard to do. In an early draft of The Devil Particle, I included teenage slang, thinking it was authentic, and was told by a high school senior, “We don’t talk like that.”
I also appreciated the relationship between Ponyboy and his oldest brother, Darry. Seen through Ponyboy’s eyes, Darry is overly strict and downright mean. Pony assumes Darry doesn’t like or even love him. If I’d read this as a teenager, I probably would’ve agreed with Ponyboy’s assessment of his brother. But as a parent, I understand that Darry, now the head of the family, is overprotective. He’s harsh because he loves Ponyboy so much and doesn’t want to lose him. There’s a poignant scene in the novel when Ponyboy finally realizes this.
Issues I had with the book
While the deadly fight scene, and the events leading up to it, is plausible, I had a hard time believing boys would be violent just for sport. Sure, they’d pick on each other, but these gangs regularly held rumbles where one or more of the boys would end up in the hospital. Even when other greasers, rather than socs, fought Ponyboy’s gang, many of the boys would come armed with bats, knives, or guns. They did this for fun? I found it hard to believe.
I wanted more (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing) – or in this case I wanted less
The book has everything a well-written story should have, including a hero. My complaint is about the 1983 movie. My daughter Jessica and I watched it after having listened to the audiobook and two things struck us — how closely the movie followed the novel’s plot and how horrible the soundtrack was. The music didn’t match the drama playing out on the screen and IT NEVER STOPPED. I wanted to mute it, but then, of course, we’d miss out on the great dialogue.
Fun fact — I did a quick Wikipedia search for the movie and learned this: “In addition, Sofia Coppola (credited as Domino), daughter of the film’s director, plays the child asking the greasers for 15 cents, and S. E. Hinton plays Dally’s nurse. Brief uncredited appearances include Nicolas Cage, Melanie Griffith, and Heather Langenkamp. Additionally, Michael Peter Balzary (bassist “Flea,” from Red Hot Chili Peppers), and Cam Neely (former NHL player and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame) had uncredited appearances as rival gang members during the rumble scene.”
How this has affected my writing
It’s helped me understand how to write from the perspective of teenagers and nclude their naivety, misconceptions, and eventual understandings.
The Outsiders gets 👍🏻 👍🏻 👍🏻 👍🏻 for depicting the teenage mind so well.
For more amazing young adult books, including The Devil Particle, check these out:
Exciting News!
The Devil Particle is a finalist in the 2024 Kindle Book Awards!
They’ll announce the winner on November 1st!
