Gidget

Gidget
by Frederick Kohner

Gidget
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Book Summary Information

Author: Frederick Kohner
Foreword: Kathy Kohner Zuckerman
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-06-01
ISBN: 0425179621
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Berkley Trade

Book Reviews of Gidget

Book Review: One of the great American Novels
Summary: 5 Stars

Frederick Kohner, a naturalized American has written one of the great American novels--no kidding--this puts Kohner in a class with James Fenimore Cooper and Herman Melville. It is the seminal story of how little Franzie Hofer (based on his daughter Kathy, the first member of his family born in the U.S.) stood up to the big boys and earned their respect--and in one case, his love. Gidget meets the gang, nearly drowns, learns to surf and learns to love. But this novel is not about plot; it's about language; consider the opening sentence: "I'm writing this down because I once heard that that when you're getting older you're liable to forget things and I'd sure be the most miserable woman in this world if I ever forgot what what happened this summer." The language is purposefully unbeautiful and painfully self conscious--it sets the tone for the entire novel; we love Gidget, not for her virtues, but for her faults. And love her we do--her pipsqueak philosophy, her 50's counter-culture vocabulary, her flaws, her faults--and of course her strange and disorienting use of language--If there's anything it's about, second after language, that would be what it's like to be fifteen years old. So here's to little Franzie--with the height of a garden gnome and the heart of a green beret, she towers over us all.

Summary of Gidget

My English comp teacher Mr. Glicksberg says if you want to be a writer you have to?quote?sit on a window sill and get all pensive and stuff and jot down descriptions. Unquote Glicksberg! I don't know what kind of things he writes but I found my inspiration in Malibu with a radio, my best girlfriends, and absolutely zillions of boys for miles. I absolutely had to write everything down because I heard that when you get older you forget things, and I'd be the most miserable woman in the world if I forgot all about Moondoggie and what happened this summer. I absolutely owe the world my story. (And every word is true. I swear.)

This is Franzie, part Holden Caulfield, part Lolita. The guys call her Gidget?short for girl midget?and she?s a girl coming of age in the summer of 1957. Based on the experiences of his own daughter, Frederick Kohner's trend-setting novel became an international sensation and turned its irrepressible heroine into an American pop culture icon whose voice still echoes every thrill, every fear, and every hope that every teenager ever had about growing up.


If all American literature comes from Huckleberry Finn, all American surf culture comes from Gidget, the ostensible diary of Kathy Kohner, a teensy, gutsy teenage girl who crashed the all-male scene at Malibu Beach north of L.A. in 1957 and earned, from Moondoggie and others, the nickname Gidget, which meant "Girl Midget." Her father, the German immigrant screenwriter Frederick Kohner, fascinated by the beach-shack counterculture, interviewed his perky daughter at length, eavesdropped with permission on her phone calls, fictionalized her adventures, and batted out this influential bestseller. He nailed a tiny subculture's new form of speech ("If you want to know what goes on in Loveville ... Dig Number One: being gone on a boy is more important than having a boy gone on you.") and made it a pop-culture staple. Newly reissued with the real Gidget's picture on the cover (as on the original hardback), the book is very slim (appropriately enough) and historically beguiling. You'll like her--you'll really like her! --Tim Appelo

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