S.E. (Susan Eloise) Hinton's The Outsiders first appeared in 1967 when there was no such thing as a YA category. Yet the book was and continues to be a huge seller among teens. I was fortunate enough to purchase a signed copy (not a first edition, however) of the book a few months ago, although I did not get to meet Hinton. I wish I had. I would have asked her how in the world she managed to write The Outsiders at the incredible age of sixteen.
I saw the 1983 film version of the book when it first came out and thought it was pretty good. I was 21 in 1983, about the same age as the character Darry. The movie made a connection with me and probably would have made more of a connection had I been fourteen or fifteen or maybe even seventeen. To be honest, I didn't really think about the film all that much after walking out of the theater.
Now, after reading the book at age 46, I'm even further removed from the ages of the kids in the book. It's not really like I'm standing outside the window looking in, but remembering, trying to put myself in Hinton's mindset as a sixteen-year-old, all the while reading as a 46-year-old.
It really is remarkable that a 16-year-old wrote the book. The passion in it, the conflicting emotion, the characterization - all are quite good. But you can tell it was written by a 16-year-old. The tone is uneven and some of the plot devices are a bit clunky, but still - a book this good from a 16-year-old? I'll take it. When it was over, I knew that Hinton had captured something at 16 that none of us will ever have again. I don't mean that to sound pretentious or grandiose, but honest. We can't go back. But we can go back to how she felt about what was happening around her at 16. Don't get me wrong: I'm glad we can't go back. But it's nice to see a glimmer every now and then of what was.
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