The Outcast

by Sadie Jones

Paperback, 2007

Status

Available

Call number

823.92

Genres

Publication

Vintage Books (2007), Edition: 2nd Impression

Description

It's 1957 and Lewis Aldridge is travelling back to his home in the South of England. He is straight out of jail and nineteen years old. His return will trigger the implosion not just of his family, but of a whole community. A decade earlier, his father's homecoming casts a different shape. The war is over and Gilbert reverts easily to suburban life--cocktails at six-thirty, church on Sundays--but his wife and young son resist the stuffy routine. Lewis and his mother escape to the woods for picnics, just as they did in wartime days. Nobody is surprised that Gilbert's wife counters convention, but they are all shocked when, after one of their jaunts, Lewis comes back without her. Not far away, Kit Carmichael keeps watch. She has always understood more than most, not least from what she is dealt by her own father's hand. Lewis's grief and burgeoning rage are all too plain, and Kit makes a private vow to help. But in her attempts to set them both free, she fails to predict the painful and horrifying secrets that must first be forced into the open.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member brenzi

When The Outcast opens it’s 1957 and 19 year old Lewis Aldridge has just been released from two years in prison. He is returning home, the outskirts of London, to his father and stepmother, neither of whom wants him. The rest of the book is the haunting story of Lewis’ life, before and after

this point, as the author weaves the story by moving back and forth in time, developing a narrative with tension and suspense that had me holding my breath and furiously turning pages.

Lewis’ story is one of repression and loneliness. As a ten-year-old, he watches helplessly as his mother drowns in a river close to their home and without her to anchor him, he is lost. His father, Gilbert, marries a much younger woman, only a few short months later. Lewis struggles to fit in and control his anger, but he is a child in need of extensive counseling, and none is offered him.

In the meantime, his father’s influential boss, Dicky Carmichael, is revealed as an abusive bully who is systematically beating his younger daughter, Kit. Lewis and Kit are unwitting partners in trying to escape their individual nightmare existences. And Lewis’ stepmother, Alice, has turned into a public drunk who is making sexual advances on him.

It’s hard for a guy to keep his head up under these circumstances. Lewis does try, but the cards are stacked against him. My heart went out to him. Sadie Jones paints such a sympathetic character, flaws and all that I found myself wanting desperately for him to succeed. In the end, we’re left with hope, Lewis is left with hope. He has a future that could never have been predicted early on in the narrative.

Sadie Jones produced a knock-out debut novel. Her spare prose, told with unnerving realism make for a riveting read that reveals the strait-laced life of the fifties wasn’t all it appeared to be. Very highly recommended.

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LibraryThing member lauralkeet

When he was only 10 years old, Lewis Aldridge witnessed a terrible tragedy. Unable to express his feelings and shunned by his father, Lewis grew up a troubled young man. The Outcast opens with a prologue set in 1957, when 19-year-old Lewis is returning home after two years in prison. Sadie Jones

then takes her readers back in time to recount Lewis' childhood and the events that led him to commit a crime.

Lewis' father Gilbert served in World War II, and when he returned home in 1945 Lewis was only 7. He didn't really know his father at all, and struggled with his intrusion into the family and his close relationship with his mother. After the tragedy, Lewis withdrew into himself. The other children in his village didn't know how to respond to him, and the adults were disturbed by his silence. In his teens, Lewis expressed his intense grief and self-loathing in increasingly harmful ways, eventually leading to imprisonment.

As Lewis' life fell apart, he couldn't help but compare himself with the Carmichaels, a model family in his village. Dicky Carmichael was Gilbert's boss; he and his wife Claire host an annual New Year's party and weekly Sunday lunches, all with plenty of cocktails to go around. Dicky and Claire's older daughter Tamsin is a beautiful young woman who knows how to use her sexuality; their younger daughter Kit is precocious and cares deeply for Lewis. But the Carmichaels have dark secrets of their own, which remain carefully concealed even as the Aldridge family's troubles are exposed to public viewing.

When Lewis is released from prison, he is thrust back into village society and gossip, and struggles to find his way. He gravitates toward the Carmichael girls, even as their parents reject him because of his criminal record. Tensions escalate, particularly after Lewis discovers the Carmichael secret, and all hell breaks loose.

I read this book in two days, because I just couldn't put it down. Lewis is a sympathetic character, and I was pulling for him throughout. He had been through so much, and had so little support. It was easy to see how he became so troubled, and I nearly cried whenever he began to go off the rails, or struggled with his place in society. The Outcast is intense, dramatic, and highly recommended.

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LibraryThing member mrstreme

Lewis Aldridge was an outcast – shunned by his father who reminded him too much of his deceased wife, bewildered by his young stepmother and largely ignored by his peers in his home village. Alone and hurt, Lewis became a man torn between the hatred he felt for being cast out and the desperation

to feel accepted. In her debut novel, The Outcast, Sadie Jones exposed parts of Lewis’s soul who were hard to read about, but like a bad car accident, you keep looking, hoping to learn more.

Lewis will be a character that I won’t soon forget. Most of the time, he was a character worthy of sympathy – a terrible victim of cirumstance that was acting out against society. Then, Lewis would show uglier colors and deeper flaws. He did unforgiveable things. And his bad reputation made him the target for any accusation – from rape to theft – whether he committed the crimes or not.

As I finished The Outcast, I realized that Lewis was not the only “outcast” in this book. His parents were sad and lost too. His friends’ parents, the Carmichaels, were unscrupable. When Lewis made this realization, he felt even more broken. The only good in the world, for him, was 15-year-old Kit Carmichael, who was the constant recipient of her father’s physical abuse. He was determined to help her, despite the personal costs.

It’s hard to say one could “enjoy” this book. The characters, though real, were tragic. Their destinies did not seem optimistic. But the ending left you with a glimmer of hope that the strength of the human spirit could endure all.

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LibraryThing member Cariola

I got so caught up in [The Outcast] that I stayed up until 3:30 last night finishing it. That says something for the power of the book--even though, in terms of content, it is probably the most depressing book I've ever read. The novel starts in 1957, as Lewis has just been released from prison and

returns home. We flash back to 1945, with seven-year old Lewis and his mother taking the train to London to meet his father, who has long been away in the war. Dad turns out to be . . . well, not exactly an affectionate father; and things go from bad to worse a few years later when Lewis's mother dies. (No spoilers or details, I promise!) Different sections of the novel cover pivotal events in the years in between and in the weeks following Lewis's return. There's only a sliver of happiness in the ending, so if you're looking for a light summer read, don't pick up this one.

My main criticism is that it is a bit hard to believe that so many characters could be so cruel and downright abusive with no one seeming to notice or care and everyone blaming a ten-year old boy for his own misery. I know that the setting was 1945-57, but even then people might question some of the things that happen to Lewis. No one seems to figure out that his quietness has something to do with the fact that he witnessed his mother's death or that he's angry that his father remarries only five months later? Still, the author's ability to evoke a visceral response in her reader is the novel's strength. She made me physically experience the sadness and anxiety and hopelessness that Lewis must have experienced.

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LibraryThing member LizzieD

Elizabeth and Gilbert Aldridge are an ill-matched couple but very much in love when he returns to her and their son Lewis after WWII. Elizabeth is a free spirit who clearly sees the pettiness of Dicky Carmichael, Gilbert's boss; Gilbert also knows Dicky for what he is, but his conventional ambition

leads him to suppress judgment. Then, when Lewis is ten, Elizabeth drowns, with Lewis as the only witness, a little boy too small to save her. Suddenly Lewis is alone. His father withdraws from him and remarries a woman too young and too wrapped up in Gilbert to offer any help to Lewis at all.

The book opens with Lewis at nineteen coming back home from a four year prison sentence to Gilbert and Alice who don't want him and can't not take him. Meanwhile, Dicky's daughters have grown up: Tamsin, lovely and shallow; and Kit, less obviously beautiful, but still in love with Lewis.

The rest of the story shows Lewis - both before and after his time in prison - trying to connect with the world. It seems as though his assessment of reality is correct: "It looked like everybody was in a broken, bad world that fitted them just right." That is not the end of the story though, and the book ends with Lewis looking forward in hope.

The Outcast is beautifully written in straightforward, understated prose. Flashbacks are skillfully done, and the whole thing moves forward to its bittersweet conclusion.

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LibraryThing member Whisper1

This book packs a wallop and is definitely not for those who like soft, rosy stories.

It is a book that will haunt me for awhile...a long while.

As stated in the opening chapter, two people went into the woods for a picnic and only one returned!

When young Lewis witnesses the drowning of his mother,

his life spins way out of control while his father and the upper crust social strata of 1940-1950's England encourages and foments denial.

When his father rapidly marries and Lewis' feelings are pushed further and further underground, he acts out in ways that harm himself and those around him.

This is a graphic novel -- not in the sense of cartoon like pictures -- but in the reality of stark images written at the hand of a very adept and powerfully skilled author.

Struggling to write a review about the awesome power of this book, I'll simply say it is a very compelling look at the phoniness of society. It is an incredible story of a young man struggling to find meaning in a very crazy environment.

While those around him are quite comfortable in their accouterments, lavish lifestyles, dinner parties and social status, their out-of- reality behaviors literally drive Lewis crazy!

While the adults emotionally and physically abuse their children behind closed doors, they quite comfortably drive their Rolls Royce cars out into the guilded land of la la land.

Highly recommended!

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LibraryThing member lit_chick

Lewis Aldridge is a young boy in 1950s rural England when he witnesses his mother’s drowning. Within weeks, his distant father, Gilbert, has emptied their family home of her belongings; and within months, he is remarried to a much younger woman, Alice. The accident is not spoken about, and

Lewis’s grief is never acknowledged. “The silence around her memory became brittle and dangerous and neither dared break it.” (69)

Not surprisingly, Lewis is unable to cope. His grief manifests itself first as defiant behaviour; but as time goes on, the unresolved childhood trauma will take him to much darker places. Gilbert’s response to his son is cold, punishing aloofness; and Alice seeks solace in alcoholism. Finally, Lewis is completely lost:

“I feel like I’m falling away from everything, like the world’s just far away from me. And dark. And I’m dark too. Just recently I don’t know if I can get back.” (233)

Kit Carmichael instinctively knows what Lewis needs and seeks to help him. But Kit is a young girl and herself the victim of a cruel and abusive father. Dicky Carmichael, also Gilbert’s boss, detests Lewis and forbids Kit’s association with him. Lewis’ descent accelerates, aided in no small measure by the deliberate ignorance of 1950s society as concerned the “private” matters of mental illness, alcoholism, and domestic violence.

Jones’ debut novel is impressive; her spare and to-the-point style suits her purpose well. The Outcast is a compelling read, the enduring gift of which, for me, is the reminder of the residual damage which results from a society’s chosen ignorance.

“If one didn’t mention a thing afterwards, it was as if it hadn’t happened.” (75)

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LibraryThing member Cait86

After two not-so-great reads, The Outcast was exactly what I needed to get over my reading slump. While definitely not a cheery book, The Outcast is emotionally moving, physically shocking, and beautifully written.

Sadie Jones' debut novel tells the story of Lewis Aldridge, a nineteen-year-old boy

who in 1957 has just been released from a two-year prison sentence. As Lewis returns home to the small English suburb of Waterford, Jones flashes back to Lewis' childhood and relates the events leading up to his imprisonment. At the age of ten, Lewis experiences a tragedy that changes the course of his life. The next seven years are a downward spiral of violence, self-mutilation, and extreme loneliness. At seventeen, he finally commits an act that sends him to prison - much to the delight of the inhabitants of his town, who always believed that Lewis was "no good."

The Outcast also centres around Kit Carmichael, a girl who has loved Lewis her entire life. When he finally returns from prison, Lewis encounters Kit again and again. As Lewis attempts to return to a normal life, Kit is the only one who believes in him - who believes that he is good. As tensions mount in Waterford, Lewis and Kit hope for redemption, hope for freedom, and hope for a better life.

Jones is a talented author whose style appeals to me. Her prose slips from descriptive to obscure, and the reader is left to make his or her own connections between events. Lewis and Kit have complex, intense emotions, and I often found myself mirroring those emotions. The supporting cast - Lewis' family and Kit's family - are all well-drawn additions to the plot. No character or event seems extraneous, and the ending, while not cut-and-dry, is a satisfying conclusion to the novel.

Though not an overly optimistic novel, The Outcast does offer the reader a sense of hope. Jones expresses the idea that we all have our own set of personal tragedies, and while Lewis' are certainly harsher than most, as human beings we push on through the bad. We seek some form of atonement for our mistakes, we hope for an upturn in our fates, and we continue to live. Lewis and Kit do just this - though times are often bad, they continue to hope, to love, to live.

The Outcast is a fantastic first novel, and I look forward to future works by Sadie Jones.

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LibraryThing member kidzdoc

This debut novel opens in 1957 London, as Lewis Aldridge, a 19 year old from the northern suburb of Waterford, is released from prison after serving a two year sentence. No one comes to greet him, and with no practical skills and nowhere to go, he chooses to return to the small town that has been

distrustful of him since his mother's disappearance a decade earlier. Secrets abound in Waterford, where social appearances are far more important than genuine love and respect, and Lewis' reputation as a pariah and his continued troubles at home and in the community cause him to become progressively unrattled.

Lewis is befriended by Kit Carmichael, a younger girl who has always admired him. However, her father is Lewis' father's employer, a respected but abusive man who despises Lewis and threatens Kit and his older daughter, Tamsin, to avoid the wayward boy. As tensions build, Kit becomes the only person who can communicate with Lewis, whose own father adds to his increasingly unstable behavior.

The Outcast was a brilliant page turner for the first 2/3 of the book, with its realistic though disturbing portrayal of the lives and secrets in a small town community in postwar England, and the characters of Lewis, Kit and others were compelling. Unfortunately, the last 1/3 of the novel doesn't meet the same standard of excellence. However, this was still a very good novel, and one that I would strongly recommend.

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LibraryThing member writestuff

Sadie Jone's debut novel - The Outcast - is a disturbing and provocative story about loss, adolescent struggle for understanding, familial relationships and secrets, and finally redemption.

When ten year old Lewis Aldridge loses his mother to a tragic accident, he finds himself on the outside of his

father's love and understanding. Wrapping himself in a cloak of silence, and converting his grief to anger, Lewis detaches himself from his friends and family. Eventually, Lewis' anger boils over and he lashes out at not only himself, but a community which has turned against him.

The novel actually begins with Lewis' release from prison after serving two years for his crime, then rewinds to his childhood to show the reader Lewis' relationship with his mother, the carefree Lizzie; and his cold and distant father, Gilbert. After Lizzie's death, Lewis' father remarries the younger Alice - a woman whose floundering self-esteem and desire to be "liked" results in further alienation of her stepson. The community where Lewis grows up is filled with damaged characters - all who believe primarily in "appearances," while harboring dark secrets. The Carmichael family (with the violent Dicky, and his two daughters and ineffective wife) parallel the lives of the Aldridges.

Jones deliberately sets down the story of Lewis' early years, casting the narrative in an all seeing omniscient voice which gives the reader a sense of impending doom. By the time the reader has caught up to the present with Lewis returning home after his imprisonment, the story has taken on a pace of its own. The layers of Lewis' psyche begin to unfold, and the closely held secrets of the characters are exposed.

Jones weaves her story with the careful precision of architect The characters - who are not terribly likable - demand to be read. The cruelty heaped upon Lewis seems interminable. And there were moments when I wanted to scream at his uncaring father and insipid stepmother. The intertwined lives of all the characters seem too broken and damaged to be mended, but Jones ultimately leaves the reader with the hope of understanding and redemption.

The result of all of this is an emotionally driven and powerful novel which is compulsively readable. I can recommend this debut by Sadie Jones for readers who enjoy a character driven novel which explores the deeper meaning behind what it means to be human.

Rated 3.5.

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LibraryThing member catarina1

Compelling read. Well-drawn characters. Setting is 1950's England where "appearances" are most important. Theme is really "broken" or "wrecked" people. There' s alcoholism, child abuse, wife battering, religious hypocracy - all good family values.

"It looked like everybody was in a broken, bad world

that fitted them just right".

In the end all of the characters are doomed to this "broken, bad world" except Lewis and Kit who may have found a way out.

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LibraryThing member Carlie

For Lewis Aldridge, the main protagonist in The Outcast, life was pretty normal until he was ten years old. Since his unsuccessful attempt to rescue his mother on a fateful summer day and then watching her drown in the river near their home, Lewis has lived a painful existence. Lewis the child and

later Lewis the man can't seem to get it right when it comes to living.

The novel is divided into three parts and a prologue. Near London in 1957, we learn that Lewis has just been released from prison. The story begins when Lewis is just a child leading a typical life with his mother. Soon his father returns from war, changing the dynamic of the family. As mother, father and son settle into their new lives together, things begin to be more normal until his mother dies. Then, less than a year later, his father remarries a young woman.

No one knows quite how to interact with Lewis. This great tragedy in his life makes him feel unapproachable, and Lewis doesn't know what to think anymore. His distant father isn't helpful, his inexperienced step-mother quickly becomes exasperated, and his friends find him strange. He's not normal, and he knows it. His pain becomes more and more unbearable, and he begins to cut himself to relieve the tension. He begins to run away to London occasionally where he meets a woman at a jazz club who introduces Lewis to manhood. One day after a violent interaction with a neighborhood boy, he decides to do something more by burning down the church.

He gets out of prison two years later to find that not much has changed since he left, including how others relate to him. He has such hope that things will be better now and that he can regain the trust of others. It is devastating to him that his father is still cold and his step-mother is still bewildered. He reconnects with some old friends, but the relationships are awkward and tenuous.

Lewis' final lesson to learn is that everyone else's life is not as idyllic as it seems. There is plenty of pain to go around for everyone. He finds help and release from unexpected places. He finds betrayal and conspiracy. But he also finds tenderness and love.

I gravitate toward debut novels, and this one was excellent and replete with strong symbolism and messages about human nature, loss, love, and the damage of misunderstandings. The story weighs you down while simultaneously lifting you up. I felt love for Lewis but was a little afraid of him as well. Jones brings the reader into the fray, making you feel that you are with the characters, witnessing and feeling with them.

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LibraryThing member srtrent

I approached this book with uncertainty based on reviews I had read. Once I began the first page, though, I was caught in the net of complicated characters and actions that all carried their consequences. There was not a single character whose life was left untouched by the others, some to their

detriment, but others to their perceived salvation. True to life, the problems faced by these characters never came to a magical resolution, but instead shaped the people they would become...just as in real life. The book was superbly written with enough happiness at the end to leave the reader feeling comforted but not enough to ruin the story with a fairy tale ending.

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LibraryThing member tandah

In one house, a tragic set of circumstances lead to sad, disturbing behaviour and consquences; in another house, the bullying head abuses his mostly compliant family. A horrible, well-told story, which I could only read in small chunks, greatly relieved to get to the hopeful, final pages.

LibraryThing member Luli81

An unexpected gift.
I loved this novel, the story of a haunted boy who is forgotten by his own father. He abandons the fight to remain socially acceptable until one of his friends from his infancy comes to his rescue. And unknowingly, of her own.
I'll be following this author.

LibraryThing member samsheep

This was an amazingly good book! It said on the back that it was a bit grim (or words to that effect) and - don't get me wrong - it was unbelievably relentlessly grim! Yet I kept the faith that there would be some kind of relief and I wasn't disappointed. It brought me to tears several times. She's

an incredible writer. Oof!

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LibraryThing member CasualFriday

The outcast of the title is a young man who returns home to his small, smug English village after serving two years in prison for arson. Poor Lewis Aldridge watches his mother drown when he is 10, and then lives under his father's silent blame and near-hatred. As he enters his teens, he starts

cutting himself, drinking, and acting out violently. Nothing much changes when he is released from prison, and his only solace comes from his relationship with two girls next door, one of whom is routinely abused by her father.

Nice, right? This book was very readable, but so dark and depressing that even I started disliking it, and I usually love dark and depressing. The somewhat hopeful ending redeemed it a little, so I won't say I disliked the book in its entirety. One of the blurbs evoked Atonement. It's an easy comparison because of the setting, but while Atonement is complex and breathtakingly realistic in depicting the psychology of its characters, The Outcast is a little too pat and by-the-numbers. Still, a bleakly interesting read.

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LibraryThing member Carl_Hayes

This novel definitely falls in the category of Suburban Secrets Stripped Bare! Interesting story but overall the writing was weak and uneven. Specifically found her shifting of POV ineffective and, at times, downright clumsy. It seemed somehow rushed. It was pretty ambitious (ala McCarthy,

Ishiguro, McEwan), so I stuck with it. But by the end the characters had become flat and colorless.

This is a first novel, so I may check her out later down the road.

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LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl

This is Sadie Jones's debut novel and I came to it after reading her other books and enjoying them enormously. Set in the stifling world of an English village in the 1950s, the story follows Lewis Aldridge from when he first encounters his father after the war and his troubled life after the death

of his mother. Being motherless and then having a young stepmother unprepared to deal with a grieving boy, sets him apart from the rest of his peers and his increasingly destructive behavior get him sent to prison for a few years, but it's his unwelcome return that sets in motion events that change the accepted order of the village.

Jones knows what she's doing, and even her first novel feels self-assured. Her characters are fully developed and the story is well-plotted. It's a melodramatic tale, full of the intense and immediate feelings of adolescence and young adulthood.

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LibraryThing member chrystal

A very quick read and good character study about a boy who loses his mother and is treated very poorly after (different parenting beliefs in the 40's/50's and old school society etiquette) Lewis hates himself for many reasons and struggles with depression, self mutilation and eventually winds up in

jail for arson. He fights and fights against his father and society but in the end, we hope, finds a way out. I liked this book, good clear prose.

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LibraryThing member kylenapoli

Gripping and heartbreaking and lovely all at the same time.

LibraryThing member nocto

This book got off to a bad start with me. It hooks you into the story by showing what happens way later on. In this case we see nineteen year old Lewis Aldridge being released from prison in the 1950s. Then we go right back in time to see the events of his childhood starting with when his dad

returns from fighting the second world war. I don't like the 'flash forward' device in fiction and rarely think it adds to the story, and I didn't feel it was needed here. This tale is all about how an ordinary kid gets bashed about by events and ends up living a not quite so ordinary life. I think the title gives enough knowledge to the reader that everything isn't going to go swimmingly for Lewis and the prologue is unneccesary. I was pleased that the story went on past the events of the prologue.

Apart from that I really enjoyed the story and found the characters very well drawn. Children turn into adults in a realistic coherent manner and the class boundaries of village life ring true. There are people in the story guilty of much worse crimes than Lewis and I found all the family interactions, both within families and between families completely believable. On the whole it was a good book, I think it's Sadie Jones' first novel, and I'll be looking out for more.

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LibraryThing member jennyinskegness

This book is interesting as it makes you realise everybody has so many miles of history behind them, that the way they behave isn't an abstract concept and is attached to experiences from the past that shapes the way they behave today. It makes want to have patience with others, and not judge. And

shows how a person can spiral downwards when they are misunderstood. Also, I remember sobbing at the end of this.

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LibraryThing member Eliz12

This is a good book, but not a great one - and I was hoping for a great one.
Jones is a talented writer, and I found myself going back to reread some of her lovely phrases. But every character here is ridiculously dysfunctional, and many times I felt I had already heard this story (misunderstood,

struggling, brooding young man) - and I did not believe the budding romance that comes near the end of the story. I don't feel I wasted my time reading this book, but I would not keep it in my library.

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LibraryThing member Citizenjoyce

I finished The Outcast by Sadie Jones, shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2008. It is a very good book, a very perceptive study of a boy rejected by one self centered member of his village after another, ganged up on by bullies thinking everything that is wrong in life is his fault, and being

assured that that is true. His counterpart is a young girl from a wealthy family but with the same familial, though not societal rejection. The results of evil are demonstrated but not the cause. Why should Lewis's father reject him from the age of 7 onward, did war deaden his feelings or does the man have none? Why does Dicky Carmichael abuse only part of his family, and why does the family condone it? Why do people get so much more enjoyment from expressing hatred and conformity than love, individuality and humanity? Is it original sin? Can only religion answer these questions? Not in this book, religion comes off as equally self absorbed with the rest of the village. Sadie Jones doesn't discuss cause just effects. She does that well, but it's a mighty oppressive book.

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