So, my wonderful eleven year old student is reading S.E. Hinton's, The Outsiders. This is my second recent go round with this novel as one of my wonderful students last year also read it. Ponyboy Curtis. What a name. Brother of Sodapop Curtis. The three brothers are orphaned when novel opens but these names tell us so much about the kind of parents they had. It is a genius stroke of doing so much with so little.
I remember reading it the first time as a seventh grader and totally revising the list of names I wanted to name my future pets and children. You know how we keep those lists of names we like? For me it has expanded to pets, children and characters. I read The Outsiders and wanted wonderfully quirky names on the list. I am not sure that sense ever left me as I still have truly quirky names on the list.
Rereading it, it is a far more spare book than I remember from middle school. The language is just enough and the balance never tips. The reader wants to know these people. The story is utterly compelling but secondary to these brilliant characters. It is a deceptively difficult way to write. To conjure complicated, likable people out of empty air using very few words is a tricky business. And she was sixteen when she wrote it! Wonderful.
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My daughter forced this book on me several months ago. I am so glad she did.
ReplyDeleteit is marvelous isn't it?
ReplyDeleteThe character's names always make me smile. I loved The Outsiders in seventh grade and if I recall correctly, the book has a "West Side Story" vibe to it.
ReplyDeleteit definitely does have a west side story feeling to it!
ReplyDeleteoh, i have never read the book. now i want to. i remember the movie well, though, as my first "real" movie i got to go see with some friends (also in 7th grade!) with emilio estevez! and tom waits had a role in it as well! ok, ok, this is not about the movie...
ReplyDeletepriya, do you speak other languages? i can not recall. if so, does it at all inform your writing? i am reading a wonderful book right now called "a suitable boy" by vikram seth. a monstrous undertaking, but so full of vibrant characters and rich detail it draws you right in! but i feel like i need a cultural dictionary next to me as i read. there are words for dress, people's titles, common beverages, political parties... all in the native languages of the characters (since to put them in English would obviously take away from the richness and authentic feel of the place - and some things are not translatable in a word!).
ReplyDeleteif this were an annotated book, there would be footnotes, but since it is just the novel, you must only gather the general meaning from the actions and relationships of the characters. it's wonderful in that you discover these things slowly, much like moving to a new country, but it does make things confusing for many chapters and i can't help but wonder what writers like seth battle with, when writing from within a different language for an English-speaking audience. not to mention a different time-period. i'd be curious to know how or if you deal with similar issues.
i love a suitable boy! i also love an equal music (a book that will make you want a music dictionary next to you--i phoned my mother a lot). his writing is just splendid.
ReplyDeletei am familiar with many of the terms (and hindi and punjabi were spoken in our house--not by me--i am totally confident with the words for milk, elephant and cat) as my family is from india but some of the words are particular to that region and i had to ask my dad.
i think authors can get more versatility out of words when they write in a language not their own. his book two lives would interest you as well i think. it deals with his family history. you are making me want to read a suitable boy again!
Stay gold, Ponyboy!
ReplyDeletemy student is memorizing the frost poem! that bit always makes me cry!
ReplyDeletei can see how the dual (or multiple) languages make a story more rich, even if i personally find it more challenging since i need a dictionary! it's still worth keeping the writing as it is. thank you for the other suggestions! those books sound interesting and i will check them out (my mom probably has them).
ReplyDeletedoesn't he have a glossary in the back? there should be?
ReplyDeleteOh, I absolutely LOVED The Outsiders as a kid. And I was desperately *in* love with Ponyboy Curtis, too!
ReplyDelete