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Fast Times at Ridgemont High
This is a true story. In the fall of 1979 Cameron Crowe at 22 years of age walked into the office of Principal William Gray's office and asked permission to attend classes for the full length of the school year to research a book he was to write of his experiences inside the walls of Ridgemont High and Redondo Beach, California. This is the day-by-day journal of horny and wasted semi-blank adults who don't know a thing about their future.
253 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1981
About the author
Cameron Crowe
41 books88 followersCameron Bruce Crowe is an Academy Award winning American writer and film director. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, for which he still frequently writes.
Crowe has made his mark with character-driven, personal films that have been generally hailed as refreshingly original and void of cynicism. Michael Walker in the New York Times called Crowe "something of a cinematic spokesman for the post-baby boom generation" because his first few films focused on that specific age group, first as high schoolers and then as young adults making their way in the world.
Crowe's debut screenwriting effort, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, grew out of a novel he wrote while posing for one year undercover as a student at Clairemont High School in San Diego, California, USA. Later, he wrote and directed one more high school saga, Say Anything, and then Singles, a story of Seattle twentysomethings that was woven together by a soundtrack centering on that city's burgeoning grunge music scene. Crowe landed his biggest hit, though, with the feel-good Jerry Maguire. After this, he was given a green light to go ahead with a pet project, the autobiographical effort Almost Famous. Centering on a teenage music journalist on tour with an up-and-coming band, it gave insight to his life as a 15-year-old writer for Rolling Stone. Also, in late 1999, Crowe released his second book, Conversations with Billy Wilder, a question and answer session with the legendary director.
Crowe has made his mark with character-driven, personal films that have been generally hailed as refreshingly original and void of cynicism. Michael Walker in the New York Times called Crowe "something of a cinematic spokesman for the post-baby boom generation" because his first few films focused on that specific age group, first as high schoolers and then as young adults making their way in the world.
Crowe's debut screenwriting effort, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, grew out of a novel he wrote while posing for one year undercover as a student at Clairemont High School in San Diego, California, USA. Later, he wrote and directed one more high school saga, Say Anything, and then Singles, a story of Seattle twentysomethings that was woven together by a soundtrack centering on that city's burgeoning grunge music scene. Crowe landed his biggest hit, though, with the feel-good Jerry Maguire. After this, he was given a green light to go ahead with a pet project, the autobiographical effort Almost Famous. Centering on a teenage music journalist on tour with an up-and-coming band, it gave insight to his life as a 15-year-old writer for Rolling Stone. Also, in late 1999, Crowe released his second book, Conversations with Billy Wilder, a question and answer session with the legendary director.
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August 28, 2023
As a budding collector of rare books and a super fan of the movie it's based on, acquiring and reading a copy of Fast Times at Ridgemont High ranks as one of my highlights as a bibliophile. Published in 1981, this is the work of first time novelist/last time novelist Cameron Crowe, who at the age of 22--with seven years journalism experience contributing articles to Creem and Rolling Stone--moved back home with his parents in San Diego and received permission from Clairemont High School to enroll as a student. The time: September 1979. The assignment: gather material for a novel about the kids of the day.
Stacy Hamilton is a sophomore making the awkward push from child to adult as she enters high school. Her brother Brad is a senior who resides at the top of the fast food chain, a well-respected fry cook at Carl's Jr. Stacy's best friend Linda Barrett is a highly regarded sex expert engaged to a slightly older man, having sworn off dating high school boys. Mark Ratner is one of these, a painfully shy junior who falls in love with Stacy. The Rat's best friend is Mike Damone, a transfer student who schools Mark in romance using a surefire technique he calls The Attitude. The joker in the deck is Jeff Spicoli, a surfer who's been stoned since the third grade and walks to the beat of his own drum.
Working as a hostess at Swenson's Ice Cream Parlor in the prestigious Town Center Mall, Stacy has picked up some sex secrets from the twelfth-grade waitresses in the kitchen and pledges to herself that she will not enter high school a virgin. When a veterinarian in his early twenties struts into the diner and asks Stacy for her phone number, she seems on her way to womanhood. Brad devotes himself to Carl's Jr., staffing the restaurant with his buddies and even getting his girlfriend Lisa a job at the drive-thru intercom. Looking to explore his options as a senior and maybe even meet a girl willing to have sex, Brad considers breaking up. Linda has no such hangups.
Somehow all roads at Ridgemont High led to Linda Barrett. Everyone knew her. She left an indelible mark on most students who came into contact with her. She was chronically exuberant, usually in a relentlessly good mood. She knew how to dress, and she knew how to walk.
Even as far back as grade school, other girls came to Linda Barrett for counseling. Her mother was a nurse at University Hospital, and somehow Linda knew all the facts of life before any other kid her age in Ridgemont.
Linda's view of sex was, basically, that everyone had blown it way out of proportion. "A lot of girls use sex," she had told Stacy Hamilton long ago. "They use sex to get a guy closer. To really nail him down or something. To say, 'I had sex with you, you owe me something.' Well, that's terrible. They're not having sex to have sex. They're having sex to use it as something. I'd hate myself if I did that."
No doubt about it. Linda Barrett was an authority. While the other girls were just abandoning their tricycles, Linda was underlining and memorizing all the sex scenes from Shogun. Some had Seventeen magazine in their lockers; she had The Hite Report.
The Rat confides to Mike Damone that he's in love with a girl working in the A.S.B. office at school. Too awkward to introduce himself, Mark is schooled by his buddy on projecting a winning nonchalance Damone dubs The Attitude. Adopting a bare minimum of the rules, by Christmas break, The Rat works up the nerve to ask his dream girl for her phone number, which Stacy Hamilton easily provides him. Stacy has recently given up having her phone calls returned by The Vet after having sex with him in a baseball dugout. She finds The Rat sweet and funny, but his timidity stalls any romance. Stacy takes notice of Damone.
Brad suffers a setback when Carl's Jr. assistant manager Dennis Taylor conspires to force Brad from his lofty position. He takes a step down in prestige to the fryer at Jack In The Box. Working the morning shift, Brad is done in by the restaurant's 100% Guaranteed Breakfast and an irate businessman who Brad loses his cool with. Needing money, he suffers the indignity of taking work at the last restaurant in Ridgemont with a fryer: Captain Hook's Fish 'n Chips. School remains an inconvenience and the thought of college makes Brad nervous, weary of adults who seem to think he's having the time of his life and needs to get serious.
Unburdened by the pursuit of money or sex is Jeff Spicoli, whose simple goals are "to wake up to a decent buzz and six-to eight foot breakers in good shape." Spicoli lacks even the discipline for friends, playing pinball at the mall but mostly living in his own universe. He meets his match with another who seems to aspire to a higher calling, hard nosed U.S. history instructor Mr. Hand. Arnold Hand, who models himself on Steve McGarrett of Hawaii 5-o, refuses to prescribe to the contract system of grading or letting his pupils coast. Mr. Hand draws grudging admiration from students as a teacher who actually cares about his job. Mr. Hand lives to combat truancy.
Mr. Hand's other favorite activity was hailing the virtues of the three bell system. At Ridgemont, the short first bell meant a student had three minutes to prepare for the end of class. The long second bell dismissed the class. Then there were exactly seven minutes--and Mr. Hand claimed that he personally fought the Education Center for those seven minutes--before the third and last attendance bell. If you did not have the ability to obey the three bell system, Hand would say, then it was Aloha Time for you. You simply would not function in life.
"And functioning in life," Hand said grandly on that first morning, "is the hidden postulate of education."
Fast Times at Ridgemont High as a novel lives up to the legend of its remarkable backstory (due to security concerns, the days when an adult rock journalist could enroll in a U.S. public school as a student are probably over) and the classic movie that was released less than a year after its publication, adapted by Cameron Crowe and directed by Amy Heckerling in the first screen credit for either. The book bares no higher literary ambition, written plainly and tersely in what today would be labeled Young Adult prose but actually has more in common with unadorned, journalistic writing. Crowe seems to be taking notes.
"Okay," said Damone. "Pay attention."
The Rat nodded, always the student, as they passed Tower Records. Damone stopped in front of a life-sized cardboard cutout of Deborah Harry, the alluring singer from the group Blondie. She was just about his size.
Damone turned to The Rat. "First of all, Rat, you never let on how much you like a girl." He turned back to the cardboard cutout of Deborah Harry to demonstrate. "Oh," he said disinterestedly, "hi." He turned to The Rat.
"Two. You always call the shots." He looked back at Deborah Harry. "You and me are going to the Charthouse, and then you're coming with me to the movies."
"Three. Act like wherever you are, that's the place to be." He returned to Debbie. "Will you quit telling me this is the most fun you've ever had."
"Four. When ordering food, find out what she wants, and then order for both of you. It's a classy move." To Debbie. "The lady will have ..."
"Five. And this is most important. When you get down to making out, whenever possible put on the first side of Led Zeppelin IV." He turned to Deborah Harry one last time. "Why don't you put this tape on?" Damone put his arm around the cutout. "It sounds great in the back of my van ... why don't we listen from there?"
Through it all, Deborah Harry looked back with the same intrigued cardboard smile.
"See what I mean?" said Damone. "That is how you talk to a girl. Voila. You can't miss."
"Gee," said The Rat after a long while. "Why can't I just be myself?"
"Later you can be yourself," said Damone. "What you want is for her to decide she likes you, no matter what. You know what else is good if you're not a totally popular guy? This has worked for me. You just kind of mention to the girl that you don't have a lot of friends in high school, that most of the people are worthless, but you like her. That makes her feel special. And you still have The Attitude."
Along with rudimentary text, Fast Times at Ridgemont High shares another feature common to contemporary Young Adult fiction: challenging subject matter. Sex, drug use, abortion, racial identity, suicide and anxiety come to mind. Crowe finds a superb balance depicting both the frivolity of growing up--with pranks, school functions and part time jobs--and the dangerous side. The chapters dealing with Stacy having sex and later, having an abortion and dealing with its aftermath, are even more detailed and powerful than they are in the movie. Stacy's education was by far my favorite part of the novel.
Crowe, writer-director of Say Anything..., Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous, has always been eager to share his rock music collection with audiences and in his novel, programs a set list (strongly favoring arena rock over punk or New Wave.) The nostalgia drug may not have an affect on those who came before or after Generation X, or who don't remember passing (handwritten) notes between classes and how essential car ownership once was to teenagers, at least on the West Coast. For a trip to a world of adolescence before personal computers, this is one potent journey, if you can find it.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High has been out of print since the 1980s. I purchased a used paperback through a dealer on Amazon for $75 which came partially unglued from the spine as I was finishing this review. According to Crowe, who the rights have reverted back to, he's turned down offers to reprint it, preferring instead to keep the novel more of a premium experience for the fans as opposed to reissuing it to the masses. Whether true or not, rarity definitely added to my enjoyment of the novel, which feels like an old magazine or yearbook, something I opened up trunks in a dusty attic to acquire, coasting back through my fading memories with.
Stacy Hamilton is a sophomore making the awkward push from child to adult as she enters high school. Her brother Brad is a senior who resides at the top of the fast food chain, a well-respected fry cook at Carl's Jr. Stacy's best friend Linda Barrett is a highly regarded sex expert engaged to a slightly older man, having sworn off dating high school boys. Mark Ratner is one of these, a painfully shy junior who falls in love with Stacy. The Rat's best friend is Mike Damone, a transfer student who schools Mark in romance using a surefire technique he calls The Attitude. The joker in the deck is Jeff Spicoli, a surfer who's been stoned since the third grade and walks to the beat of his own drum.
Working as a hostess at Swenson's Ice Cream Parlor in the prestigious Town Center Mall, Stacy has picked up some sex secrets from the twelfth-grade waitresses in the kitchen and pledges to herself that she will not enter high school a virgin. When a veterinarian in his early twenties struts into the diner and asks Stacy for her phone number, she seems on her way to womanhood. Brad devotes himself to Carl's Jr., staffing the restaurant with his buddies and even getting his girlfriend Lisa a job at the drive-thru intercom. Looking to explore his options as a senior and maybe even meet a girl willing to have sex, Brad considers breaking up. Linda has no such hangups.
Somehow all roads at Ridgemont High led to Linda Barrett. Everyone knew her. She left an indelible mark on most students who came into contact with her. She was chronically exuberant, usually in a relentlessly good mood. She knew how to dress, and she knew how to walk.
Even as far back as grade school, other girls came to Linda Barrett for counseling. Her mother was a nurse at University Hospital, and somehow Linda knew all the facts of life before any other kid her age in Ridgemont.
Linda's view of sex was, basically, that everyone had blown it way out of proportion. "A lot of girls use sex," she had told Stacy Hamilton long ago. "They use sex to get a guy closer. To really nail him down or something. To say, 'I had sex with you, you owe me something.' Well, that's terrible. They're not having sex to have sex. They're having sex to use it as something. I'd hate myself if I did that."
No doubt about it. Linda Barrett was an authority. While the other girls were just abandoning their tricycles, Linda was underlining and memorizing all the sex scenes from Shogun. Some had Seventeen magazine in their lockers; she had The Hite Report.
The Rat confides to Mike Damone that he's in love with a girl working in the A.S.B. office at school. Too awkward to introduce himself, Mark is schooled by his buddy on projecting a winning nonchalance Damone dubs The Attitude. Adopting a bare minimum of the rules, by Christmas break, The Rat works up the nerve to ask his dream girl for her phone number, which Stacy Hamilton easily provides him. Stacy has recently given up having her phone calls returned by The Vet after having sex with him in a baseball dugout. She finds The Rat sweet and funny, but his timidity stalls any romance. Stacy takes notice of Damone.
Brad suffers a setback when Carl's Jr. assistant manager Dennis Taylor conspires to force Brad from his lofty position. He takes a step down in prestige to the fryer at Jack In The Box. Working the morning shift, Brad is done in by the restaurant's 100% Guaranteed Breakfast and an irate businessman who Brad loses his cool with. Needing money, he suffers the indignity of taking work at the last restaurant in Ridgemont with a fryer: Captain Hook's Fish 'n Chips. School remains an inconvenience and the thought of college makes Brad nervous, weary of adults who seem to think he's having the time of his life and needs to get serious.
Unburdened by the pursuit of money or sex is Jeff Spicoli, whose simple goals are "to wake up to a decent buzz and six-to eight foot breakers in good shape." Spicoli lacks even the discipline for friends, playing pinball at the mall but mostly living in his own universe. He meets his match with another who seems to aspire to a higher calling, hard nosed U.S. history instructor Mr. Hand. Arnold Hand, who models himself on Steve McGarrett of Hawaii 5-o, refuses to prescribe to the contract system of grading or letting his pupils coast. Mr. Hand draws grudging admiration from students as a teacher who actually cares about his job. Mr. Hand lives to combat truancy.
Mr. Hand's other favorite activity was hailing the virtues of the three bell system. At Ridgemont, the short first bell meant a student had three minutes to prepare for the end of class. The long second bell dismissed the class. Then there were exactly seven minutes--and Mr. Hand claimed that he personally fought the Education Center for those seven minutes--before the third and last attendance bell. If you did not have the ability to obey the three bell system, Hand would say, then it was Aloha Time for you. You simply would not function in life.
"And functioning in life," Hand said grandly on that first morning, "is the hidden postulate of education."
Fast Times at Ridgemont High as a novel lives up to the legend of its remarkable backstory (due to security concerns, the days when an adult rock journalist could enroll in a U.S. public school as a student are probably over) and the classic movie that was released less than a year after its publication, adapted by Cameron Crowe and directed by Amy Heckerling in the first screen credit for either. The book bares no higher literary ambition, written plainly and tersely in what today would be labeled Young Adult prose but actually has more in common with unadorned, journalistic writing. Crowe seems to be taking notes.
"Okay," said Damone. "Pay attention."
The Rat nodded, always the student, as they passed Tower Records. Damone stopped in front of a life-sized cardboard cutout of Deborah Harry, the alluring singer from the group Blondie. She was just about his size.
Damone turned to The Rat. "First of all, Rat, you never let on how much you like a girl." He turned back to the cardboard cutout of Deborah Harry to demonstrate. "Oh," he said disinterestedly, "hi." He turned to The Rat.
"Two. You always call the shots." He looked back at Deborah Harry. "You and me are going to the Charthouse, and then you're coming with me to the movies."
"Three. Act like wherever you are, that's the place to be." He returned to Debbie. "Will you quit telling me this is the most fun you've ever had."
"Four. When ordering food, find out what she wants, and then order for both of you. It's a classy move." To Debbie. "The lady will have ..."
"Five. And this is most important. When you get down to making out, whenever possible put on the first side of Led Zeppelin IV." He turned to Deborah Harry one last time. "Why don't you put this tape on?" Damone put his arm around the cutout. "It sounds great in the back of my van ... why don't we listen from there?"
Through it all, Deborah Harry looked back with the same intrigued cardboard smile.
"See what I mean?" said Damone. "That is how you talk to a girl. Voila. You can't miss."
"Gee," said The Rat after a long while. "Why can't I just be myself?"
"Later you can be yourself," said Damone. "What you want is for her to decide she likes you, no matter what. You know what else is good if you're not a totally popular guy? This has worked for me. You just kind of mention to the girl that you don't have a lot of friends in high school, that most of the people are worthless, but you like her. That makes her feel special. And you still have The Attitude."
Along with rudimentary text, Fast Times at Ridgemont High shares another feature common to contemporary Young Adult fiction: challenging subject matter. Sex, drug use, abortion, racial identity, suicide and anxiety come to mind. Crowe finds a superb balance depicting both the frivolity of growing up--with pranks, school functions and part time jobs--and the dangerous side. The chapters dealing with Stacy having sex and later, having an abortion and dealing with its aftermath, are even more detailed and powerful than they are in the movie. Stacy's education was by far my favorite part of the novel.
Crowe, writer-director of Say Anything..., Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous, has always been eager to share his rock music collection with audiences and in his novel, programs a set list (strongly favoring arena rock over punk or New Wave.) The nostalgia drug may not have an affect on those who came before or after Generation X, or who don't remember passing (handwritten) notes between classes and how essential car ownership once was to teenagers, at least on the West Coast. For a trip to a world of adolescence before personal computers, this is one potent journey, if you can find it.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High has been out of print since the 1980s. I purchased a used paperback through a dealer on Amazon for $75 which came partially unglued from the spine as I was finishing this review. According to Crowe, who the rights have reverted back to, he's turned down offers to reprint it, preferring instead to keep the novel more of a premium experience for the fans as opposed to reissuing it to the masses. Whether true or not, rarity definitely added to my enjoyment of the novel, which feels like an old magazine or yearbook, something I opened up trunks in a dusty attic to acquire, coasting back through my fading memories with.
March 31, 2009
I read this book when it first came on the shelves... oh so many years ago. One of the reasons I found "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" so appealing is that I had just moved from California to the midwest US. As I read through the pages of the book, I found that every character I read about could be a match to someone I went to school with back in Southern California. As crazy as some of the characters may seem in the book, don't be so fooled into thinking the author, Cameron Crowe, embellished to a great degree. I feel this pseudo-authenticity is why I particularly enjoyed the book so much, and why it has stuck with me over the years. I tend to drift more toward nonfiction books and while "Fast Times..." isn't billed as a true-to-life, tell all book, it is most definitely a reflection of life in (some) Southern California High Schools in the 80's (and maybe even now).
Aside from all of its similarities to true high school life, however, "Fast Times..." is an entertaining read. Crowe develops the characters well and builds a solid story around the interactions of the characters. If you are looking for a light, entertaining read, this is a good book to flip through.
Aside from all of its similarities to true high school life, however, "Fast Times..." is an entertaining read. Crowe develops the characters well and builds a solid story around the interactions of the characters. If you are looking for a light, entertaining read, this is a good book to flip through.
October 10, 2017
As a lover of the film I was curious to see if Crowe's book differed at all from his screenplay. Pleasantly surprised to say it does. All of the characters get a much richer backstory and have hilarious chapters which have either been somewhat shifted or completely erased from the film. All the main plot points are still there, but I definitely recommend giving it a read for anyone who wants a fuller experience. It's also quite amazing how even though my high school experience happened 20 years after this book came out, I still found it completely relatable and it brought back some long forgotten memories.
3.5/5
3.5/5
February 1, 2013
Originally posted here.
If you're me, you go into a book like Fast Times at Ridgemont High thinking "Awwww, yesssss. I can't wait to see THAT LINE in the original context!"
Because this is a book that (apparently, just like me) you've seen the movie, but have been UNABLE to find a copy to read.
[sidenote: What is up with everything I really want to read being out of print lately? I ONLY HAVE SO MUCH TO SPEND ON BOOKS AND RESELLERS ARE KILLING ME, MAN!]
When I was a senior in high school, I'd just moved from NW Montana to SoCal. Most of my friends at my new school were ALSO new there. That was how I knew J. and his little brother C. J. and I had photography together my second semester, but after going to his house a few times after school, I realized that C. and I had a lot more in common.
He showed up one day in a Beastie Boys tee shirt that made me laugh.
And then he thought I was laughing at him for liking the Beastie Boys! When I tried to explain that I was laughing at the back of the shirt, he gave a bit of a giggle himself and said he thought it was funny getting away with a masturbation joke at school.
It was then that I realized that he had no idea where that line had come from, or WHOSE VAN THAT WAS, so I made him watch Fast Times with me that same day.
He loved it. Of course he did. He was a 90s Spicoli (but with skating instead of surfing). I sat next to him and mouthed the words to the ENTIRE MOVIE because...when I love something unabashedly, I read/watch/listen to it over and over and over again - it's a thing I have, I don't know. Shut up.
Anyway.
At that point in my life, I'd already seen this movie more times than I could count, and had already been searching for the book for at least five years. This was one that I first saw at a very young age with my dad, and he and I were already quoting it at each other before I was 10. Don't judge, my dad's awesome.
The book was NOWHERE. I tried all kinds of interlibrary loans and searching every bookstore I EVER went to, but I couldn't manage to get my hands on it (younger readers, this was way before amazon and even THE INTERNET were household things).
So, when I started to read Cameron Crowe's 'true story' yesterday, it was after 20 years of looking for a copy of the damn thing. I hoped I wouldn't be disappointed. You know, like - the movie is this ICONIC piece of the 80s for me and I just didn't want to learn that it was SHIT compared to the book.
Luckily, that did not turn out to be the case.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (the film) is probably the most faithful book-to-film adaptation I've ever seen.
Yes, there's more.
Yes, there are characters that don't appear in the movie, and some characters have been condensed/compressed/combined into one, BUT the dialogue is effing SPOT ON.
Seriously, the only thing I was expecting to read (while the movie/soundtrack were playing in my head) that I didn't find is the title of today's post. The scene below is one of my favourite in the entire movie, and while it happened, the lines here weren't in the book at all.
(Relax, all right?)
BUT! It was kind of no big because I was having such a FANTASTIC time with the rest of it.
Is this a book I'd recommend to everyone? HELL, NO! Is it, however, a book I'd recommend to major fans of the movie? HELL, YES.
Let me tell you why.
There's an introduction by the author saying that he'd been an actual journalist from a young age (Seriously, he was young. See Almost Famous for more information.), and that when he was 22 he approached the principal of Ridgemont High with the idea of going to school for a year as a senior, and writing about the experience. This book was what came out of it. So, we're supposed to believe that it's all a true story, but it doesn't really come across as one. It reads like a FICTIONALIZED ACCOUNT of what happened that year, because without being psychic, there's no way that all of the details could have been filled in like they were.
[ahem]
Maybe this stuff is true, but if so, the details were filled in by Mr Crowe, because there's no way he could have known what SHIRT someone was wearing during a [ahem] private fantasy. I don't care WHO YOU ARE, no one is going to tell you that ish.
So. Here's how you go into reading Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
*You are already a fan of the movie.
*You do not expect a whole lot more than just a series of DVD extras.
*You pretend that this is a novel, and not a 'true story.'
*You try to pretend that Spicoli was never played by Sean Penn because the real Spicoli is much younger than that, and nowhere near as awesome.
*You (other than the scene mentioned above) are giddy with anticipation for reading MOAR INFORMATION about your favourite scenes that are coming up.
Finally - and this only has a bit to bear on the subject at hand, really, so feel free to skip to the comments section - I mentioned in an email to Amy today (and talked about it a little bit on Em's blog a few months ago) that it's kind of sad that we don't have more books and movies today that discussed abortion in as frank a manner as this one does. Today, we only get right or left-wing political bullshit. Maybe we haven't progressed as far as we've thought in the last 30 years? I don't know.
Then the conversation with Amy turned to her giving me messages from her dad about the next season of Survivor, so that has nothing to do with anything here.
TL;DR
Only read it if you already liked the movie. Otherwise it'll probably drive you crazy.
If you're me, you go into a book like Fast Times at Ridgemont High thinking "Awwww, yesssss. I can't wait to see THAT LINE in the original context!"
Because this is a book that (apparently, just like me) you've seen the movie, but have been UNABLE to find a copy to read.
[sidenote: What is up with everything I really want to read being out of print lately? I ONLY HAVE SO MUCH TO SPEND ON BOOKS AND RESELLERS ARE KILLING ME, MAN!]
When I was a senior in high school, I'd just moved from NW Montana to SoCal. Most of my friends at my new school were ALSO new there. That was how I knew J. and his little brother C. J. and I had photography together my second semester, but after going to his house a few times after school, I realized that C. and I had a lot more in common.
He showed up one day in a Beastie Boys tee shirt that made me laugh.
And then he thought I was laughing at him for liking the Beastie Boys! When I tried to explain that I was laughing at the back of the shirt, he gave a bit of a giggle himself and said he thought it was funny getting away with a masturbation joke at school.
It was then that I realized that he had no idea where that line had come from, or WHOSE VAN THAT WAS, so I made him watch Fast Times with me that same day.
He loved it. Of course he did. He was a 90s Spicoli (but with skating instead of surfing). I sat next to him and mouthed the words to the ENTIRE MOVIE because...when I love something unabashedly, I read/watch/listen to it over and over and over again - it's a thing I have, I don't know. Shut up.
Anyway.
At that point in my life, I'd already seen this movie more times than I could count, and had already been searching for the book for at least five years. This was one that I first saw at a very young age with my dad, and he and I were already quoting it at each other before I was 10. Don't judge, my dad's awesome.
The book was NOWHERE. I tried all kinds of interlibrary loans and searching every bookstore I EVER went to, but I couldn't manage to get my hands on it (younger readers, this was way before amazon and even THE INTERNET were household things).
So, when I started to read Cameron Crowe's 'true story' yesterday, it was after 20 years of looking for a copy of the damn thing. I hoped I wouldn't be disappointed. You know, like - the movie is this ICONIC piece of the 80s for me and I just didn't want to learn that it was SHIT compared to the book.
Luckily, that did not turn out to be the case.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (the film) is probably the most faithful book-to-film adaptation I've ever seen.
Yes, there's more.
Yes, there are characters that don't appear in the movie, and some characters have been condensed/compressed/combined into one, BUT the dialogue is effing SPOT ON.
Seriously, the only thing I was expecting to read (while the movie/soundtrack were playing in my head) that I didn't find is the title of today's post. The scene below is one of my favourite in the entire movie, and while it happened, the lines here weren't in the book at all.
(Relax, all right?)
BUT! It was kind of no big because I was having such a FANTASTIC time with the rest of it.
Is this a book I'd recommend to everyone? HELL, NO! Is it, however, a book I'd recommend to major fans of the movie? HELL, YES.
Let me tell you why.
There's an introduction by the author saying that he'd been an actual journalist from a young age (Seriously, he was young. See Almost Famous for more information.), and that when he was 22 he approached the principal of Ridgemont High with the idea of going to school for a year as a senior, and writing about the experience. This book was what came out of it. So, we're supposed to believe that it's all a true story, but it doesn't really come across as one. It reads like a FICTIONALIZED ACCOUNT of what happened that year, because without being psychic, there's no way that all of the details could have been filled in like they were.
[ahem]
Maybe this stuff is true, but if so, the details were filled in by Mr Crowe, because there's no way he could have known what SHIRT someone was wearing during a [ahem] private fantasy. I don't care WHO YOU ARE, no one is going to tell you that ish.
So. Here's how you go into reading Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
*You are already a fan of the movie.
*You do not expect a whole lot more than just a series of DVD extras.
*You pretend that this is a novel, and not a 'true story.'
*You try to pretend that Spicoli was never played by Sean Penn because the real Spicoli is much younger than that, and nowhere near as awesome.
*You (other than the scene mentioned above) are giddy with anticipation for reading MOAR INFORMATION about your favourite scenes that are coming up.
Finally - and this only has a bit to bear on the subject at hand, really, so feel free to skip to the comments section - I mentioned in an email to Amy today (and talked about it a little bit on Em's blog a few months ago) that it's kind of sad that we don't have more books and movies today that discussed abortion in as frank a manner as this one does. Today, we only get right or left-wing political bullshit. Maybe we haven't progressed as far as we've thought in the last 30 years? I don't know.
Then the conversation with Amy turned to her giving me messages from her dad about the next season of Survivor, so that has nothing to do with anything here.
TL;DR
Only read it if you already liked the movie. Otherwise it'll probably drive you crazy.
July 8, 2015
I think most of us know the iconic movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," it means something different for all of us. For me it was the eye-opening allure of kids just a few years older than me in age, but leagues above in sheer LIFE. Jobs and dating, sex and abortions, drugs and alcohol, California and a lot of darn fine music, nothing near my sheltered life in an Alaskan Christian school.
I had no idea this was a book (or technically, a very long Rolling Stone article) first, written by Cameron Crowe. I found out it existed through an article on rare books (this being hard to find) and got it within the week through my local library. The shtick is he went undercover for a year in a real high school, recording the dramas that took place around him, befriending the teens and getting into their inner circle.
I loved how close the movie was to the book, to think that maybe all those experiences and friendships and connections really happened. In retrospect, the writing is quite journalistic, not overly deep, no prose, a reporting of the facts. But the characters are so rich, they more than make up for it. Jeff Spicoli a real person? Yes, please.
Another reviewer said it was like a director's cut with deleted scenes, and I thought that was spot on. Best thing I learned? It took place in Redondo Beach, CA, a place I myself lived as a child (albeit briefly). These, quite possibly, could have been my peers (or at least their older siblings).
As an aside, the physical novel itself was priceless. Well over thirty years old, it felt so. This was a well-read copy held by countless others before me. It had a presence, a history. And at least three people with the naughty habit of writing in a library book, from the faint blue pen that put a notation at the beginning and ending of every sex scene, the strident pen that was SHOCKED at the perv who marked the sex scenes, and the scholar who underlined what he/she thought were the most powerful lines and was thrilled to finally get the book after a long, long hold wait. No E-reader is ever going to compare to the genealogy of readers that left their mark in one battered hardback book.
I had no idea this was a book (or technically, a very long Rolling Stone article) first, written by Cameron Crowe. I found out it existed through an article on rare books (this being hard to find) and got it within the week through my local library. The shtick is he went undercover for a year in a real high school, recording the dramas that took place around him, befriending the teens and getting into their inner circle.
I loved how close the movie was to the book, to think that maybe all those experiences and friendships and connections really happened. In retrospect, the writing is quite journalistic, not overly deep, no prose, a reporting of the facts. But the characters are so rich, they more than make up for it. Jeff Spicoli a real person? Yes, please.
Another reviewer said it was like a director's cut with deleted scenes, and I thought that was spot on. Best thing I learned? It took place in Redondo Beach, CA, a place I myself lived as a child (albeit briefly). These, quite possibly, could have been my peers (or at least their older siblings).
As an aside, the physical novel itself was priceless. Well over thirty years old, it felt so. This was a well-read copy held by countless others before me. It had a presence, a history. And at least three people with the naughty habit of writing in a library book, from the faint blue pen that put a notation at the beginning and ending of every sex scene, the strident pen that was SHOCKED at the perv who marked the sex scenes, and the scholar who underlined what he/she thought were the most powerful lines and was thrilled to finally get the book after a long, long hold wait. No E-reader is ever going to compare to the genealogy of readers that left their mark in one battered hardback book.
February 13, 2019
Naturally I wanted to read this book since it’s out-of-print. Was curious as to why that would be. If you’ve seen the movie then you’ll certainly recognize chapters turned directly into scenes in the movie. Some of it is very derivative; and of course as with any good book it contains more that is not included in the movie that makes the book better (usually). While I certainly enjoyed the book I’m not entirely convinced it’s worth the exorbitant fees it’s being sold for on various websites. If you’ve seen the movie you’ve experienced a good 87% of the book, and I wouldn’t say that extra 13% is worth several hundred dollars. An enjoyable read but don’t bother hunting down a copy unless you just like to do that kind of thing. You can stream the movie for free and get a very similar experience.
June 13, 2008
It's like watching the movie with lots of deleted scenes. Cameron Crowe, why won't you issue a new printing of this hilarious gem?!
April 21, 2009
So when I stumbled across this book, I didn't realize that it's pretty rare -- just knew that I had always wanted to read it. No idea why it's out of print, given that a) Cameron Crowe's only gotten more famous b) people have nostalgia for everything from the late 1970s/early 1980s and c) anything with teenagers in it seems to sell.
Anyway. I've always enjoyed this movie, but the book is a tremendous improvement. A few of the characters in the movie's parts are cut down considerably, and/or simplified, so they feel more real in the book (oh wait, and they ARE REAL, as the preface makes clear). Having more of the story also explains parts of the movie that make less sense (why would Linda be friends with Stacy in the first place?). A broad range of minor characters gives it more texture. One of the most interesting things is that the movie appears to contain virtually no dialogue that is not included in the book, and until it has to wrap up with a Hollywood ending, almost no scenes that are not from the book.
Another reason I liked the book better/was surprised it's out of print/am now worried they'll try to remake the movie/realize thinking about it more they definitely won't: The kids are a lot wilder in the book. Way more sex, and LOTS of drugs -- anyone who thinks today's thirteen-year-olds just discovered all this stuff and that kids were way more naive 30 years ago is in for a shock. What interested me though is that the girls are way more into this stuff than the boys -- they're light-years ahead of the male characters in terms of what they're up to, but also in terms of maturity and how they handle it all. This makes some aspects of the book more poignant, and others more surprising. Comparing it to the movie, it's interesting to see how they reverted to traditional gender roles (naive girls and manipulative boys) for the Hollywood version.
The last reason I really enjoyed this book is more personal -- I didn't realize it at the time, but it turns out when I first moved to San Diego I lived down the street from "Ridgemont High" (and even nearer to a couple of the fast-food establishments where Brad Hamilton worked). Though Crowe tries to throw readers off with his broader geography of California, his description of the area is extremely specific right down to the Del Taco nearest the school.
Though obviously he's a journalist and not an ethnographer, it would have been interesting to see a bit more of Crowe in the book -- he explains how he did what was more or less participant observation in the preface to the book, but then he doesn't appear anywhere else within the text. We never see characters react to him, so it's never clear what events he witnessed firsthand and which he heard about later (some are obvious, but for others who knows). In any event, that's not even a complaint, just would make the book even more interesting. As it is, it reads like a completely clear-eyed, virtually unembellished story of high school life. I wonder what the real people behind those characters think of it now.
Anyway. I've always enjoyed this movie, but the book is a tremendous improvement. A few of the characters in the movie's parts are cut down considerably, and/or simplified, so they feel more real in the book (oh wait, and they ARE REAL, as the preface makes clear). Having more of the story also explains parts of the movie that make less sense (why would Linda be friends with Stacy in the first place?). A broad range of minor characters gives it more texture. One of the most interesting things is that the movie appears to contain virtually no dialogue that is not included in the book, and until it has to wrap up with a Hollywood ending, almost no scenes that are not from the book.
Another reason I liked the book better/was surprised it's out of print/am now worried they'll try to remake the movie/realize thinking about it more they definitely won't: The kids are a lot wilder in the book. Way more sex, and LOTS of drugs -- anyone who thinks today's thirteen-year-olds just discovered all this stuff and that kids were way more naive 30 years ago is in for a shock. What interested me though is that the girls are way more into this stuff than the boys -- they're light-years ahead of the male characters in terms of what they're up to, but also in terms of maturity and how they handle it all. This makes some aspects of the book more poignant, and others more surprising. Comparing it to the movie, it's interesting to see how they reverted to traditional gender roles (naive girls and manipulative boys) for the Hollywood version.
The last reason I really enjoyed this book is more personal -- I didn't realize it at the time, but it turns out when I first moved to San Diego I lived down the street from "Ridgemont High" (and even nearer to a couple of the fast-food establishments where Brad Hamilton worked). Though Crowe tries to throw readers off with his broader geography of California, his description of the area is extremely specific right down to the Del Taco nearest the school.
Though obviously he's a journalist and not an ethnographer, it would have been interesting to see a bit more of Crowe in the book -- he explains how he did what was more or less participant observation in the preface to the book, but then he doesn't appear anywhere else within the text. We never see characters react to him, so it's never clear what events he witnessed firsthand and which he heard about later (some are obvious, but for others who knows). In any event, that's not even a complaint, just would make the book even more interesting. As it is, it reads like a completely clear-eyed, virtually unembellished story of high school life. I wonder what the real people behind those characters think of it now.
September 2, 2013
that part with the bj was funny. ah, high school.
September 19, 2015
Everything that you loved about the movie, along with the extra depth of character that film cannot capture. Most surprising is the retrospective look at how greatly the emphasis of education and societal standards have changed since the early 1980's. Whether the change is for the better or not...
June 12, 2020
This is one of my favorite all-time movies so I've been trying to find this out-of-print book for years. I finally discovered a free PDF online so I jumped at the chance to finally read it. Almost all of the movie dialogue was taken directly from the book, plus you get more character depth that you just can't capture on film. With the richer backstories, some of the movie scenes have been slightly altered or completely erased from the film, but all the main plot points are still there. Highly recommend.
June 4, 2021
Quick fun read. I remembered the movie, so when I found a copy of the book floating around, figured might as well read it.
March 17, 2017
Still my favorite coming-of-age novel after all these years.
I read this in 1981 at age 15 after reading an extended excerpt in Playboy magazine (yeah, I read Playboy at 15 for the interviews and the book extracts--wink wink). I'll never know exactly why my parents acquired the book--it wasn't a bestseller, to my knowledge, and it was kind of under the radar--but I loved the magazine excerpt, then co-opted the book and read it, and it's been a beloved part of my book collection ever since.
The movie that came of the book, of course, set off a wave of similar coming-of-age movies set in suburban southern California. Fast Times is still the best of that bunch.
In the late 70s, Cameron Crowe was already a veteran writer for Rolling Stone magazine and a music industry insider in his early 20s. He posed the idea of returning to high school--undercover--to observe some of the social circles and gather material for a writing project. He spent a full school year at Clairemont High School in San Diego and fit right in, gaining the confidence of his fellow students and making friendships.
The novel follows a core of characters between the ages of 15 and 18--sophomore Stacy Hamilton and her worldly best friend, Linda Barrett; Stacy's older brother Brad, a senior; sophomore Mark Ratner and his cocky friend Mike Damone. And then there are various supporting characters: the stoner-surfer Jeff Spicoli (brilliantly portrayed by Sean Penn in the film), and his nemesis, history teacher and Hawaii Five-O aficionado Mr. Hand.
I was lucky enough to read the book a year before the movie was made, so it gave me a background of these characters before they hit the silver screen. The novel digs a little deeper into the characters and you get a good sense of what kind of writer Cameron Crowe was, and why he's been so successful with his screenwriting and filmmaking.
One of Crowe's hallmarks is his compassionate handling of his characters. His characters are multi-dimensional and worth caring about. He depicts realistic relationships between parents and kids, especially--not the stilted, often-frictional relationships so often portrayed. One of my highlights of the novel is when Stacy Hamilton opens up and tells her father a big secret that most kids wouldn't tell their parents, and her dad listens and gives advice without lecturing--showing a level of trust and between her and her dad that is lacking in a lot of fiction. It's scenes like these that give Crowe's characters depth and sets him apart from his peers.
Crowe is also adept at weaving music into the narrative, so it's a very natural part of his storytelling--like Damone cutting school and playing Deep Purple and Rainbow records all day in honor of Ritchie Blackmore's birthday--a scene I wish had been in the movie.
By the end of the novel, the characters are going through the normal end-of-school-year angst--reminiscing about the year behind them, exchanging yearbooks to sign, knowing it's goodbye to one part of their lives together, and not knowing what will happen going forward. It's an exciting and bittersweet time in a teenager's life, and again Crowe captures these moments with the same sensitivity and authenticity he gives all his writing.
Being a teenager in southern California back in the early 80s, I loved this novel--it spoke to me far more deeply than a cynical novel like Catcher in the Rye ever could have. Fast Times at Ridgemont High was an accurate depiction of the kind of adolescence I had, because those characters were my direct peers. It's a shame the book has been out of print for so long, because I think it should be a classic--and it is, at least to me.
I read this in 1981 at age 15 after reading an extended excerpt in Playboy magazine (yeah, I read Playboy at 15 for the interviews and the book extracts--wink wink). I'll never know exactly why my parents acquired the book--it wasn't a bestseller, to my knowledge, and it was kind of under the radar--but I loved the magazine excerpt, then co-opted the book and read it, and it's been a beloved part of my book collection ever since.
The movie that came of the book, of course, set off a wave of similar coming-of-age movies set in suburban southern California. Fast Times is still the best of that bunch.
In the late 70s, Cameron Crowe was already a veteran writer for Rolling Stone magazine and a music industry insider in his early 20s. He posed the idea of returning to high school--undercover--to observe some of the social circles and gather material for a writing project. He spent a full school year at Clairemont High School in San Diego and fit right in, gaining the confidence of his fellow students and making friendships.
The novel follows a core of characters between the ages of 15 and 18--sophomore Stacy Hamilton and her worldly best friend, Linda Barrett; Stacy's older brother Brad, a senior; sophomore Mark Ratner and his cocky friend Mike Damone. And then there are various supporting characters: the stoner-surfer Jeff Spicoli (brilliantly portrayed by Sean Penn in the film), and his nemesis, history teacher and Hawaii Five-O aficionado Mr. Hand.
I was lucky enough to read the book a year before the movie was made, so it gave me a background of these characters before they hit the silver screen. The novel digs a little deeper into the characters and you get a good sense of what kind of writer Cameron Crowe was, and why he's been so successful with his screenwriting and filmmaking.
One of Crowe's hallmarks is his compassionate handling of his characters. His characters are multi-dimensional and worth caring about. He depicts realistic relationships between parents and kids, especially--not the stilted, often-frictional relationships so often portrayed. One of my highlights of the novel is when Stacy Hamilton opens up and tells her father a big secret that most kids wouldn't tell their parents, and her dad listens and gives advice without lecturing--showing a level of trust and between her and her dad that is lacking in a lot of fiction. It's scenes like these that give Crowe's characters depth and sets him apart from his peers.
Crowe is also adept at weaving music into the narrative, so it's a very natural part of his storytelling--like Damone cutting school and playing Deep Purple and Rainbow records all day in honor of Ritchie Blackmore's birthday--a scene I wish had been in the movie.
By the end of the novel, the characters are going through the normal end-of-school-year angst--reminiscing about the year behind them, exchanging yearbooks to sign, knowing it's goodbye to one part of their lives together, and not knowing what will happen going forward. It's an exciting and bittersweet time in a teenager's life, and again Crowe captures these moments with the same sensitivity and authenticity he gives all his writing.
Being a teenager in southern California back in the early 80s, I loved this novel--it spoke to me far more deeply than a cynical novel like Catcher in the Rye ever could have. Fast Times at Ridgemont High was an accurate depiction of the kind of adolescence I had, because those characters were my direct peers. It's a shame the book has been out of print for so long, because I think it should be a classic--and it is, at least to me.
September 20, 2022
I’m a bit surprised how much I loved this book. The movie was memorable and iconic, but Crowe’s ability to capture the essence of teenage years in this book – not just the authentic voice but the feeling of being a teenager in their own separate world from both children and adults – is simply unparalleled. In that sense, this novel (really just a lightly fictionalized collection of true stories) is also much like Crowe’s movie Almost Famous: it hits that sweet spot of nostalgia for the past that is equal parts joy, bitter-sweet sorrow for lost youth, humor, and mythos. If you are fan of either movie, you should track down this book. It is decades out-of-print and goes for hundreds of dollars online, but I found mine in the local Milwaukee County Library system, and this one would be well-worth tracking down via interlibrary loan if your library offers it.
As we learn from Crowe in the Preface, he went undercover in his early 20s at a local high school to draw material for the book. We know from Almost Famous, which was also highly autobiographical, that Crowe always looked far younger than his years, so needless to say he blended in quite well, spending a year taking voracious notes for his book. The characters are either real people or composites of real people. Fans of the film will be thrilled to know that all their favorites appear here: Brad, Stacy, Linda, Spicoli, Mike Damone, Charles Jefferson, and yes, even Mr. Hand. All the iconic scenes are here, often taken word-for-word from Crowe’s writing.
The reason why the film continues to resonate today is that it has the authenticity that can only come from universal truth. What struck me in the book was that for all the references to the late-70s (play the A-side of Led Zeppelin IV when making out! Hawaii Five-O rules! Billy Joel sucks!), this book did not seem at all dated. The reader gets the sense we know these characters personally. They don’t speak in clichés or in some adult-version of how we think teenagers speak. Crowe simply lets them speak in their own voices, which, as he mentions at the beginning of the book, often seem much like those of adults – as long as adults are not present. We also get the sense that Crowe wouldn’t have been able to record those genuine voices and moments if he hadn’t been undercover.
I am tempted to say this is more than a great novel; it’s one that could stand as a record of teenage culture in the late 20th century, at the end of the Boomer teenage era when young people were allowed unparalleled freedoms. In less than a decade, the more sullen, cynical, and, yes, sheltered Gen-X and Millennials would arrive on the scene. We can relate to the universal truths of Crowe’s book, even as we marvel at the brazen autonomy of the Boomers (the chapter where they have their run of Disneyland from 1o p.m. to 5 a.m., with the blessing of school administrators and Disney staff, is stunning if only for the insurance implications!), who experienced a blossoming of youth culture that didn’t merely buck the system, but came to define it – before imploding in the 80s.
The final page of the novel – in which Brad, freshly graduated from high school and now moving his way up at 7-Eleven, shouts "GET A JOB" to a bunch of younger teens – is a prescient, hilarious, and uncannily accurate image of Boomer hypocrisy that will cause all readers under the age of 55 to nod their heads in bemused understanding.
Highest recommendation.
As we learn from Crowe in the Preface, he went undercover in his early 20s at a local high school to draw material for the book. We know from Almost Famous, which was also highly autobiographical, that Crowe always looked far younger than his years, so needless to say he blended in quite well, spending a year taking voracious notes for his book. The characters are either real people or composites of real people. Fans of the film will be thrilled to know that all their favorites appear here: Brad, Stacy, Linda, Spicoli, Mike Damone, Charles Jefferson, and yes, even Mr. Hand. All the iconic scenes are here, often taken word-for-word from Crowe’s writing.
The reason why the film continues to resonate today is that it has the authenticity that can only come from universal truth. What struck me in the book was that for all the references to the late-70s (play the A-side of Led Zeppelin IV when making out! Hawaii Five-O rules! Billy Joel sucks!), this book did not seem at all dated. The reader gets the sense we know these characters personally. They don’t speak in clichés or in some adult-version of how we think teenagers speak. Crowe simply lets them speak in their own voices, which, as he mentions at the beginning of the book, often seem much like those of adults – as long as adults are not present. We also get the sense that Crowe wouldn’t have been able to record those genuine voices and moments if he hadn’t been undercover.
I am tempted to say this is more than a great novel; it’s one that could stand as a record of teenage culture in the late 20th century, at the end of the Boomer teenage era when young people were allowed unparalleled freedoms. In less than a decade, the more sullen, cynical, and, yes, sheltered Gen-X and Millennials would arrive on the scene. We can relate to the universal truths of Crowe’s book, even as we marvel at the brazen autonomy of the Boomers (the chapter where they have their run of Disneyland from 1o p.m. to 5 a.m., with the blessing of school administrators and Disney staff, is stunning if only for the insurance implications!), who experienced a blossoming of youth culture that didn’t merely buck the system, but came to define it – before imploding in the 80s.
The final page of the novel – in which Brad, freshly graduated from high school and now moving his way up at 7-Eleven, shouts "GET A JOB" to a bunch of younger teens – is a prescient, hilarious, and uncannily accurate image of Boomer hypocrisy that will cause all readers under the age of 55 to nod their heads in bemused understanding.
Highest recommendation.
May 5, 2019
Cameron Crowe's undercover investigative journalism resulted in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," a book transformed into one of the best films of the 80s; unfortunately, itself mostly forgotten. Crowe's report on Ridgemont Senior High School has been out of print for decades, which seems weird, considering the popularity of the Amy Heckerling movie (for which Crowe provided the screenplay).
The 250-page novel covers the same time period as the movie, a full school year, beginning with the final weeks of summer, continuing through till the next summer. It's fast-paced, with tons of characters and subplots. Some chapters are brief asides about minor players; these bits help give the novel a large scope. We're focused on the leads, but these reminders and small interactions with briefly seen students of Ridgemont add to the book's aim of summarizing one entire school year.
Crowe's main cast consists of Stacy and Brad Hamilton, Stacy's best friend Linda Barrett and possible romantic interests Mike Damone and Mark Ratner. And the memorable Jeff Spicoli gets many scenes to himself.
Many moments, such as Jeff's at-home meeting with Mr. Hand, are recognizable from the movie. Others were changed a bit (personally, I prefer to think of Brad Hamilton working at All American Burger, instead of Carl's Jr). Much of the dialogue was taken directly from the book. The template for possibly the greatest high school movie of all time is pretty much perfect in its own right.
I'm hoping "Ridgemont High" will someday see a return to print. I paid $33 for a poor-condition copy, a dozen years ago. I can't open it all the way without pages falling out. Obviously, this is a book I'll never loan out. So, whoever owns the rights, go on and re-publish this thing already, so I can put my beat-up copy in storage and obtain a version I won't be reluctant to loan out. More people should read this book.
The 250-page novel covers the same time period as the movie, a full school year, beginning with the final weeks of summer, continuing through till the next summer. It's fast-paced, with tons of characters and subplots. Some chapters are brief asides about minor players; these bits help give the novel a large scope. We're focused on the leads, but these reminders and small interactions with briefly seen students of Ridgemont add to the book's aim of summarizing one entire school year.
Crowe's main cast consists of Stacy and Brad Hamilton, Stacy's best friend Linda Barrett and possible romantic interests Mike Damone and Mark Ratner. And the memorable Jeff Spicoli gets many scenes to himself.
Many moments, such as Jeff's at-home meeting with Mr. Hand, are recognizable from the movie. Others were changed a bit (personally, I prefer to think of Brad Hamilton working at All American Burger, instead of Carl's Jr). Much of the dialogue was taken directly from the book. The template for possibly the greatest high school movie of all time is pretty much perfect in its own right.
I'm hoping "Ridgemont High" will someday see a return to print. I paid $33 for a poor-condition copy, a dozen years ago. I can't open it all the way without pages falling out. Obviously, this is a book I'll never loan out. So, whoever owns the rights, go on and re-publish this thing already, so I can put my beat-up copy in storage and obtain a version I won't be reluctant to loan out. More people should read this book.
December 14, 2018
Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story by Cameron Crowe (Simon & Shuster 1981) (813.54). Here's a book I've loved for years that I had never added to my Goodreads list. When did I read this? It had to have been 1981, for I had read the book before the movie premiered in 1982. I also never realized that this was published as nonfiction. Now I know better. The conceit here is that our author, Cameron Crowe, as a young looking twenty-two year old, received permission from a high school principal to “go undercover” for a year at a San Diego high school and to write about the experience. The result is an absolute hilarious sendup of high school as a social crucible, and every clique gets skewered. Crowe brilliantly renders one particularly memorable character, one Jeff Spicoli, who is the eponym of “Stoner Surfer Dude.” The following year, Sean Penn's movie portrayal of the character so successfully captured the target that the character has escaped the bounds of the book and movie and has entered the realm of common knowledge. What a great story! My rating: 7.25/10, first read 11/5/1981, finished 12/14/18. I purchased my PB copy at a bookstore at the mall 11/1/81. PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
June 1, 2014
Fast Times at Ridgemont High based on fact was written in 1981 about a stealth adult who infiltrated a notorious high school in the next town over and re-lived high school in the context of the more advanced drug and sex norms. Crowe focuses on the coming of age journeys of 18-year-old Brad and his 15-year-old sister Stacy Hamilton. Brad worked to pay off a car, taking increasingly demeaning jobs. Stacy worked to find validation that she is valuable through sex. There are many side characters who contribute to the notion that Ridgemont High students grow up fast: Spicolli is a stoner at constant odds with school, jocks and any establishment; Mike is trying to figure out how to be Stacy’s boyfriend, but lets her down regularly.
The heart of the story lies in two estranged siblings working together once they saw the humanity in the other. Stacy warmed to Brad when he helped her hide an abortion and fought guys who spread rumors. The story is comic and characters live large and speak to each other with disrespect and sarcasm, but without the emotional heart it would not be nearly as good.
I loved the adult infiltrating high school device.
The heart of the story lies in two estranged siblings working together once they saw the humanity in the other. Stacy warmed to Brad when he helped her hide an abortion and fought guys who spread rumors. The story is comic and characters live large and speak to each other with disrespect and sarcasm, but without the emotional heart it would not be nearly as good.
I loved the adult infiltrating high school device.
April 22, 2023
This is the novel by Cameron Crowe that was the basis for the Amy Heckerling movie.
A lot of what happens in the movie happens in the book. All the characters are there. Brad and Stacy Hamilton, Spicolli, Damone, Rat, and Linda Barrett. Mr Hand is there too. You also get a few characters that aren’t in the movie like the school’s soccer star Steve Shasta.
A lot more happens during the year including prom and Grad Nite at Disneyland. It’s really well done, you see the ups and downs of a year in high school. I really liked Stacy and Linda in the book. Her boyfriend Doug, who is only mentioned in the movie, is actually around for a lot of the novel. Then there is something that happens with Linda and Steve Shasta in the book that I didn't really like. Linda is a cool, self assured character, and I feel like she wouldn't have done what she did.
I enjoyed it and I’m glad I finally got a chance to read it.
A lot of what happens in the movie happens in the book. All the characters are there. Brad and Stacy Hamilton, Spicolli, Damone, Rat, and Linda Barrett. Mr Hand is there too. You also get a few characters that aren’t in the movie like the school’s soccer star Steve Shasta.
A lot more happens during the year including prom and Grad Nite at Disneyland. It’s really well done, you see the ups and downs of a year in high school. I really liked Stacy and Linda in the book. Her boyfriend Doug, who is only mentioned in the movie, is actually around for a lot of the novel. Then there is something that happens with Linda and Steve Shasta in the book that I didn't really like. Linda is a cool, self assured character, and I feel like she wouldn't have done what she did.
I enjoyed it and I’m glad I finally got a chance to read it.
May 23, 2022
I love the movie, so naturally I had to read the book. Like most movies based on books, there was a lot left out of the film that was originally in the book. The really cool thing about this book that blew my mind was that the author, Cameron Crowe actually got to spend a year at the real Ridgemont High school. Though names were changed, the drama that was displayed in the film was all very real, but like I said earlier there were some things that were left out of the final version of the movie that were just insane. I don't want to give anything away, just know that if you have seen the film, you only know half the story.
February 8, 2023
It's everything the movie is plus more.
In 1979, 7 years after he graduated high school, Cameron Crowe enrolled at Clairemont High School in San Diego, California and wrote this book after spending a year there researching. The book came out in 1981, the movie came out in 1982. Fast turnaround! He includes all the scenes and characters you know from the movie plus many more. Everyone gets a little deeper story or slight twist compared to the movie...something that happens to one character might have happened to someone else compared to the movie, etc. Natural considering the time limitations of the film.
If you're a fan of the movie, I can't see how you won't enjoy the book. 👍
In 1979, 7 years after he graduated high school, Cameron Crowe enrolled at Clairemont High School in San Diego, California and wrote this book after spending a year there researching. The book came out in 1981, the movie came out in 1982. Fast turnaround! He includes all the scenes and characters you know from the movie plus many more. Everyone gets a little deeper story or slight twist compared to the movie...something that happens to one character might have happened to someone else compared to the movie, etc. Natural considering the time limitations of the film.
If you're a fan of the movie, I can't see how you won't enjoy the book. 👍
December 12, 2023
I loved this book when I read it in high school and it’s still pretty great. I was a year behind Stacy Hamilton, and am so pleased to have this popular record of my high school years.
August 13, 2017
Might have been better if the movie wasn't a classic and I hadn't seen it a hundred times.
January 21, 2018
Fast Times at Ridgemont High, written by Cameron Crowe
This will be an attempt to look at Fast Times at Ridgemont High using a Positive Psychology lens…
Therefore, it should be a take…
Through a Glass…Brightly
Cameron Crowe has awed me with his Almost Famous, a motion picture for which he wrote the script and directed
He wrote the screenplay for Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Jerry Maguire and the less astounding…We Bought a Zoo
The stars of Fast Times contribute as well to the success of this comedy that has been included on some Best Humor lists…
Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Forest Whitaker, Ray Walston and the rest of the cast are very good in this film
Sean Penn is the main character, although he does not have much more screen time than the others do.
Jeff Spicoli is smoking marijuana or some other drug for most of the narrative and this makes him rather slow.
Humor is very important in Positive Psychology and in fact, it is a Character Strength, figured in
The Martin Seligman chart, available on the internet
Spicoli is one of the main funny elements in the story, with his confused apparitions and relaxed attitude…
Well, too relaxed approach.
In school, he is always late and this annoys his history teacher, Mr. Hand who insists that Spicoli is wasting his time…
- Well, we are here, you are here
- Yes…
- This means it is…our time!
Jeff Spicoli has a point there, although his Persistence is not one of the Character Strengths, not in the way he uses it.
This naughty student comes to history class without a shirt on and he pushes his Creativity to invent wrong events.
At one point, during the same history class, a man comes to the door of the room to knock and disturb…
- Who are you?
- I am the pizza guy
- Who ordered the salami with cheese
- It’s over here…says Spicoli
Only the history teacher also has Open Mindedness and Perspective in this occasion and invites the class to eat the slices.
Outside class, Jeff Spicoli gets involved in other incidents, one of which is dangerous as it involves driving.
The young man is driving recklessly, while under the influence of drugs, and at one turn he provokes an accident.
Stacy Hamilton is another one of the main personages and she in the process of discovering her sexuality.
As she has sex with an arrogant teenager, the girl becomes pregnant and decides to have an abortion.
The cost is $ 150, which was the equivalent of a few thousand dollars in today’s money…I guess.
Mike Damone, the pretentious, selfish male does not contribute to the sum and does not even show up.
Notwithstanding the fact that he promised both to pay half the cost and to drive Stacy, he does neither.
The comedy is good.
However, I would not include it among the very best.
This will be an attempt to look at Fast Times at Ridgemont High using a Positive Psychology lens…
Therefore, it should be a take…
Through a Glass…Brightly
Cameron Crowe has awed me with his Almost Famous, a motion picture for which he wrote the script and directed
He wrote the screenplay for Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Jerry Maguire and the less astounding…We Bought a Zoo
The stars of Fast Times contribute as well to the success of this comedy that has been included on some Best Humor lists…
Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Forest Whitaker, Ray Walston and the rest of the cast are very good in this film
Sean Penn is the main character, although he does not have much more screen time than the others do.
Jeff Spicoli is smoking marijuana or some other drug for most of the narrative and this makes him rather slow.
Humor is very important in Positive Psychology and in fact, it is a Character Strength, figured in
The Martin Seligman chart, available on the internet
Spicoli is one of the main funny elements in the story, with his confused apparitions and relaxed attitude…
Well, too relaxed approach.
In school, he is always late and this annoys his history teacher, Mr. Hand who insists that Spicoli is wasting his time…
- Well, we are here, you are here
- Yes…
- This means it is…our time!
Jeff Spicoli has a point there, although his Persistence is not one of the Character Strengths, not in the way he uses it.
This naughty student comes to history class without a shirt on and he pushes his Creativity to invent wrong events.
At one point, during the same history class, a man comes to the door of the room to knock and disturb…
- Who are you?
- I am the pizza guy
- Who ordered the salami with cheese
- It’s over here…says Spicoli
Only the history teacher also has Open Mindedness and Perspective in this occasion and invites the class to eat the slices.
Outside class, Jeff Spicoli gets involved in other incidents, one of which is dangerous as it involves driving.
The young man is driving recklessly, while under the influence of drugs, and at one turn he provokes an accident.
Stacy Hamilton is another one of the main personages and she in the process of discovering her sexuality.
As she has sex with an arrogant teenager, the girl becomes pregnant and decides to have an abortion.
The cost is $ 150, which was the equivalent of a few thousand dollars in today’s money…I guess.
Mike Damone, the pretentious, selfish male does not contribute to the sum and does not even show up.
Notwithstanding the fact that he promised both to pay half the cost and to drive Stacy, he does neither.
The comedy is good.
However, I would not include it among the very best.
August 9, 2017
I enjoyed this book. If I'm not mistaken, it is the first (and I think only) book written by Cameron Crowe. It was made into an iconic movie which is right now celebrating it's 35th anniversary. Crowe (at the time 22), spent a year posing as a high school student in California to write the book. He says by the end of the school year, even the school principal had forgotten he was doing a research project for a book and just treated him like any other student.
The movie closely followed the book, but there were several interesting differences (as there usually are between book and movie). I won't take the time to point those out here. I can't really say the differences made the movie better or more interesting. I always find it fascinating when I read a book after I've seen the movie to see what differs. One big difference is the movie is (I think) rated R (with nudity and lots of language) while the book is PG with not too much foul language and no really graphic depictions of sex.
The book is now out of print and when you find it, it's pricey. I found a used copy on Amazon which cost $70, but I only paid $20 as I used points from my credit card. Since this book is a collectible and out of print, I'll be holding on to this in my collection and passing it down to one of my sons.
The movie closely followed the book, but there were several interesting differences (as there usually are between book and movie). I won't take the time to point those out here. I can't really say the differences made the movie better or more interesting. I always find it fascinating when I read a book after I've seen the movie to see what differs. One big difference is the movie is (I think) rated R (with nudity and lots of language) while the book is PG with not too much foul language and no really graphic depictions of sex.
The book is now out of print and when you find it, it's pricey. I found a used copy on Amazon which cost $70, but I only paid $20 as I used points from my credit card. Since this book is a collectible and out of print, I'll be holding on to this in my collection and passing it down to one of my sons.
May 30, 2010
This was a great, quick read...and now I know what all my high school babysitters were doing in the early 80s. I think a Fast Times for each decade would be fascinating, but I wonder if any other author could capture Crowe's voice-- a perfect mix of sympathy, bemusement and wry understanding. This is very much ethnographic research; there are no tidy endings or even Crowe's opinions on any of the characters or their actions. This leaves a lot of room for speculation on the reader's part, which is one of my absolute favorite things to do. Where is Jeff Spicoli now, almost 30 years later? Are there teenagers somewhere in Redondo Beach watching Fast Times with their friends and pointing to Stacy saying, "That's totally my mom. And that guy in the swashbuckler's uniform is my uncle. Let's just fast forward through this part..." Regardless of who the kids really are, however, Cameron Crowe managed to write a book with which anyone who attended high school, in any decade, can identify. And that is something of a miracle.
This book is out of print. 1) Why? 2) Try the library. 3) Go watch Almost Famous if, after reading, you're frustrated by the lack of Crowe's character in Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Or even if you're not. It's a great movie.
This book is out of print. 1) Why? 2) Try the library. 3) Go watch Almost Famous if, after reading, you're frustrated by the lack of Crowe's character in Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Or even if you're not. It's a great movie.
August 29, 2018
Such a fun read, made all the better for being a somewhat exclusive experience, as it is out of print and hard to find for an affordable price. I savored the reading process, taking in little bits at a time, which worked well with the book's quickly digested segments that range from a paragraph to a few pages. There are no deep narrative threads to keep track of. The book reads like an extended magazine expose, fitting for a book written by a Rolling Stone journalist. Fans of the movie (as I am) will recognize all the major players (one character in the movie is actually a composite of two from the book), but there is naturally more space to round them out better in the book. The same can be said for the vignettes, and I found it really enjoyable to read the additional adventures and misadventures of this group of students and teachers. This is a fun world to inhabit for a while--with my actual high school years securely behind me--and I'm very happy to own a copy of this hard-to-find gem.
September 8, 2014
I'm of two minds about Cameron Crowe's supposedly 100% true memoir. First, only real life could be so boring. Second, either things didn't really occur as presented in the book or it's a complete fabrication, because there are many inconsistencies throughout the book. For instance, (SPOILER ALERT - although, trust me, I'm saving you several hours of your life you'll never get back) near the end of the book, Mike Damone and Mark Ratner attend the school-sanctioned Senior Night at Disneyland, which only seniors are allowed to attend. (I'm sure there are other passages in the book that confirm their senior-ness as well, but I don't remember them off the top of my head.) But then, in the last chapter, Ratner cleans out his locker and talks about getting the same locker next year. So how can both REALLY be true? If Crowe wants us to buy his story that everything happened exactly as presented, then he's still got some splainin' to do, even 30+ years later.
June 22, 2013
I am a big fan of the 1980s. Especially 80s movies. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) is one of my favorite movies. When I learned that it was based off of a book, I just had to read it. If I watch a movie that is based off of a book first, I always try to separate the two. The movie is fantastic, and the book is really good too. The thing I like about the book is that you get more information and more context out of it then the movie. However, I do think I like the product of the movie more. I guess I'm just more familiar with it. Anyways, the book gives you a taste in teen culture from the 1980s. It's really not so different from when I was in high school. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that is fan of the movie and is interested in learning more about what was really happening in the 80s.
January 2, 2018
It seems this book has been out of print for a while now, no surprise there, especially with the success of the movie which is basically the novel without the characters inner thoughts and dialog. I feel that gives a couple of them a lot more depth in the novel, but both are great. This is the sort of novel that would NEVER happen these days. Reason being, can you imagine a principal allowing a 22 year old writer to "become" a student for an entire year and only the principal and a couple teachers knowing about it? Can you imagine if a parent caught wind of it in the current school climate? Exactly, NO WAY, NO HOW. Anyways, it's sort of a time capsule for high school in the early 80's, it's an interesting read and it really shows the future promise for Cameron Crowe as a writer (Almost Famous).
August 31, 2022
An undercover account from author Cameron Crowe of the angst and awareness of the high-schoolers at Ridgemont High, delivers many cringe-worthy moments for those of us who have experienced the High School experience.
This roman à clef was well-researched as the author explains in the books introduction, and this makes it all the more palatable. The fiction rides on the fact of the situations and makes the humor all the more satisfying, and the heartbreak all the more devastating. Amid all the petty goals, and the vapid values of the boys and girls developing into men and women, the threat of truth hits.
Right in the center of this story of young people visualizing their futures is the single moment the main character Stacy receives an abortion, alone in an isolated and sterile medical clinic.
This roman à clef was well-researched as the author explains in the books introduction, and this makes it all the more palatable. The fiction rides on the fact of the situations and makes the humor all the more satisfying, and the heartbreak all the more devastating. Amid all the petty goals, and the vapid values of the boys and girls developing into men and women, the threat of truth hits.
Right in the center of this story of young people visualizing their futures is the single moment the main character Stacy receives an abortion, alone in an isolated and sterile medical clinic.
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