The Outcasts: A Novel

by Stephen Becker

An American engineer journeys to the tropics to build a bridge and reclaim his manhood in this brilliant tragicomedy written during the height of the Cold War Fleeing two bad marriages and the sneaking suspicion that failure is his destiny, Bernard Morrison boards a flight bound for a freshly liberated country in desperate need of infrastructure. When the plane finally touches down, the pilot has happy The airport and the capital are not under attack. So far, so good, thinks Morrison as he heads for the jungle.   The bridge he has been sent to build may be in the middle of nowhere, but the work requires discipline and fortitude—qualities long missing from Morrison’s routine—and his interactions with the native laborers and their bosses are refreshingly out of the ordinary. When he discovers a primitive tribe living near the construction site, Morrison revels in their freedom and lack of inhibition. He vows to protect the innocent tribespeople, not realizing that it’s too late—the bridge to the future has already been built.   Part farce, part tragedy, The Outcasts is a powerful morality tale in the tradition of Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene.

205 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 12, 2016

About the author

Stephen Becker (1927–1999) was an American author, translator, and teacher whose published works include eleven novels and the English translations of many works, including Elie Wiesel’s The Town Behind the Wall and The Forgotten and André Malraux’s The Conquerors.

He was born in Mount Vernon, New York in 1927, and after serving in World War II, he graduated from Harvard University and studied in Peking and Paris, where he was friends with the novelist Richard Wright and learned French in part by reading detective novels. The recipient of Paul Harris and Guggenheim Fellowships and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Becker taught at numerous schools throughout the United States, including the University of Iowa, Bennington College, and the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

His best-known works include A Covenant with Death (1965), which was adapted into a Warner Brothers film starring Gene Hackman and George Maharis; When the War Is Over (1969), a Civil War novel based on the true story of a teenage Confederate soldier executed more than a month after Lee’s surrender; and the Far East trilogy of literary adventure novels: The Chinese Bandit (1975), The Last Mandarin (1979), and The Blue-Eyed Shan (1982).

Equally distinguished as a translator, a biographer, a commentator on the popular arts, and a novelist, Stephen Becker brings to his fiction a breadth of experience with world culture and human behavior which yields moral complexity and psychological verity in his work. Two major themes intertwine through his novels—the problems of justice and the necessity for self-knowledge and self-fulfillment.

Becker's examination of society's structure and limitations and his portrayal of men seeking "grace under pressure" is a significant contribution to contemporary fiction. The existential premises of the works—individuals finding meaning inside the arbitrary bounds of social order—reflect our acceptance of the civilization we have built.

Read more: Stephen (David) Becker Biography - JRank Articles http://biography.jrank.org/pages/4144...

Reviews

[Pablo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A surprisingly excellent read! Much in the same vein as Graham Greene, a very well written tale of racial complexities in a newly independent, formerly colonialized third world country. This is quality stuff and this book should of found a wider audience! Solid 5 stars!!!