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 enlarge | Author: Sadie Jones
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £0.90
You Save: £7.09 (89%)
New (44) Used (33) Collectible (1) from £0.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  80 reviews
Sales Rank: 123
Media: Paperback
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0099513420
EAN: 9780099513421
ASIN: 0099513420
Publication Date: June 16, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A beautifully written novel about why love matters October 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As someone who works with hurt young people -kids that have not been parented well, have been abused or not heard or understood, this novel touched my heart. It has layers to it. It has pace and drama. It potrays the lack of emotional literacy of the 1950's, the appalling attitudes that many British middle class and upper middle class communities had towards thier children in a detailed and poignant manner. It shows us the brutality and tragedy that can follow such neglect. Yet it also allows us as readers to glimpse the winds that shaped the likes of Gilbert, Alice, Tamsin. The ending is wonderful; Lewis finds his redemption not just through love but through his fight to win justice for the person he loves. In doing so he uncovers the wider hypocrisy. His isolation ends when he understands that the entire world and everyone in it has shades of grey. A truly beautiful novel. One of the best I have ever read. And a definite cure for those who harp on about the good old days. Superb.
A beautiful gem October 15, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's been highly entertaining reading the one- and two-star reviews of this book - poor saps all, lacking the basic human empathy or imagination to "get" the story of Lewis. Sadie Jones deserves all the plaudits she's received, because not only is this a note-perfect evocation of the time that happiness forgot, it's also brave, funny and bursting with characters. With the single exception of "Atonement" Ian McEwan has been living on borrowed time for years - Sadie Jones beats him into a cocked hat here. I can't wait for her next book.
Where Was the Love? October 9, 2008
I read this novel with greater speed than usual, because I just so wanted something good to happen to Lewis - I was frightened for him! The novel starts by reminding us that in 1945 most young children hardly knew their fathers as they had been brought up by their mothers whilst the men were at war. Suddenly there's a man in the house and the dynamics of daily life changed dramatically for 7-year-old Lewis. Three years later, the centre of his life was gone and in the 1940/50's bereavemnt counsellors didn't exist, so how was this child expected to come to terms with his loss? Love from others, you would think, but his father shuts him out emotionally and five months later introduces him to his new 'mother'. This was middle-class life in the 50's - when keeping up appearances and a stiff upper lip were everything, and the rot was kept hidden. I wouldn't recommend reading this novel if you're at all depressed, because its content is quite terrible - the reader is spared nothing. Great writing though.
 Ghastly,melodramatic rubbish October 9, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Talk about over egging the pudding.Tradgedy upon tradgedy befalls our hapless hero Lewis...and he thoroughly deserves it!.He's an unsympathetic character who creates his own misery and then keeps wallowing in it.I just wanted to keep yelling 'lighten up you self pitying idiot'!.
Theres no light and shade with the remaining characters in this tedious tale and the 'baddies' are hilariously awful in a 'Snidely Whiplash' kind of a way.By the end,I fully expected someone to end up tied to a railway track with an express train approaching.
The author seems to have mistaken a gripping and suspenseful plotline and engaging characterisation with unremitting and ridiculous histronics.A tawdry,badly written melodrama.
read it October 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Dear Amazon, last time I wrote this review it appeared under the name of George! Please could you publish it under the name of J.Crow. South Wales, thanks.
Sadie Jones has written an authentic , moving and original novel that evokes the 50's with eery accuracy.
I grew up in the 50's and 'The Outcast,' is a vivid and moving reminder of the secrets and lies of that battle-weary decade.
Also, why this knee jerk reaction that compares any good new young novelist who writes crisp , readable, unadorned prose with Ian Mc Ewan. Both Sadie Jones and Ian Mc Ewan are fine writers, but very different.
J. Crow. South Wales
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