[ STUFFS ]
Gidget, by Frederick Kohner (Berkley, $13) Isle Pages
BOOKSHELF
New releases from Hawaii authors
Reviewed by Burl Burlingame
bburlingame@starbulletin.comIt all started here, with screenwriter Kohner's thinly fictionalized tale of daughter Kathy's infatuation with surfing - and surfer boys -- in the days before respectable suburban white girls did such a thing. The boys called her "girl midget," or Gidget, and other characters were based on real people, like Moondoggie and Scooterboy, now icons of surf culture. The book literally launched surfing as a core piece of American popular culture. There was substance to it, however. When first published in the late '50s, the novel struck an immediate chord with teenage girls on the cusp of adulthood, and still rings true today, a suburban girl's version of "The Catcher in the Rye." This republished edition, the first in many years, is illustrated with unbearably cute snapshots of the real Gidget.
An interview with Gidget can be found on the Internet: https://archives.starbulletin.com/2001/01/22/features/story1.html
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