S. E. Hinton article in NYTimes

[Julia99]

The author of Hawkes Harbor.  .The Article is entited ""An Outsider, Out of the Shadows" with a photo.  .she wrote The Outsiders at 17?!!

An Outsider, Out of the Shadows

[*starshine*]

I have always loved her writing...the Outsiders, Rumble Fish and That was then and this is now.  The latter movie was filmed in my home town....with Emilio Estevez as one of the lead characters...just recently rewatched it...and saw lots of local locations and friends that I have not seen in many years.

S.E. was one of my first favorite writers- at least during my teen years....along with Astrid Lindgren (Pippi Longstocking) who was my favorite as a child

[D_Friedlander]

I have always loved her writing...the Outsiders, Rumble Fish and That was then and this is now.  The latter movie was filmed in my home town....with Emilio Estevez as one of the lead characters...just recently rewatched it...and saw lots of local locations and friends that I have not seen in many years.
S.E. was one of my first favorite writers- at least during my teen years....along with Astrid Lindgren (Pippi Longstocking) who was my favorite as a child

Did you read "Hawkes Harbor which was originally intended as the story of Willie, Barnabas, and Jason?  Many DS fans who read it (including myself) and quite a few of her other fans didn't care for it either.  Mainly because of it's truncated form, due to the hasty removal of most DS references [which, ironically, made it a literary version of the truncated DS films.   ] Also, a very embarrassing sex scene and raw language which, it seems, were the main reasons it was rejected as a DS novel in the first place.  Plus, not to nit-pick, but I have to mention the awkward sentence construction and over-use of ellipses which sometimes made it hard to read.  Too bad, because, if it had been completely sanitized of ANY DS and supernatural references, and re-edited to clean up the grammar, there were SOME good parts, like the relationship between the Willie-character Jamie and the Jason-clone Kell.  I'll grant that Ms. Hinton was always good at depicting male friendships.

[ClaudeNorth]

I enjoyed the book, although I wonder if I would have enjoyed it as much if I weren't a DS fan.  I think that being able to place the events of the book within the context of DS made the book seem much richer than it actually was...for me, at least.

The one thing that really amazes me is the name of the main character:  Jamie Sommers.  Didn't anyone connected with the book ever see an episode of THE BIONIC WOMAN?  I kept picturing Lindsay Wagner as the male protagonist! 

[D_Friedlander]

I enjoyed the book, although I wonder if I would have enjoyed it as much if I weren't a DS fan.  I think that being able to place the events of the book within the context of DS made the book seem much richer than it actually was...for me, at least.
The one thing that really amazes me is the name of the main character:  Jamie Sommers.  Didn't anyone connected with the book ever see an episode of THE BIONIC WOMAN?  I kept picturing Lindsay Wagner as the male protagonist! 

I didn't completely dislike the book, for the reasons I mentioned.  It could be called an interesting failure--- an effort that, judging by many of the reviews on Amazon, even had Hinton's life-long fans scratching their heads.  I would have liked to have seen the very specific DS content that must have been expunged, as it seemed like a lot, which contributed to the plot holes.  But I'm glad I was able to get it from the library--- the only way I'd buy it was if it turned up in a discount bin, and I mean a BIG discount.

As for the Bionic Woman tie-in, my thoughts were the same.  After all, this was once supposed to be Willie Loomis; the name should have been Jimmie Sommers.  Most people now think of Jamie as a girl's name, for pete's sake.  In any case, perhaps this suggests a really clever Photoshop opportunity for someone.

[*starshine*]

Did you read "Hawkes Harbor which was originally intended as the story of Willie, Barnabas, and Jason?

No, I had not read this book.  I lost touch with S.E. Hinton's work in the mid 80's or something and was not aware of the DS references.  Learn something new every day!  I guess I will have to look at this - thanks for the heads up.