Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story

True story! An essay I wrote about this book won me a 4-year full tuition scholarship to Boston University! This was in 1981 when Fast Times first came out. I think it was truly divine intervention that brought the book my way. I had somehow managed to talk my way out of accompanying my family on a trip to the West. While home alone, a Playboy magazine was misdelivered to our house. It happened to contain a chapter of this book, and it had me hooked, so I went directly to the nearest book store where I found the newly-printed book (in the Sociology section, because it is non-fiction.) The thing that fascinated me the most was that Cameron Crowe actually went back to high school for an entire year undercover in order to research the story. As a high school student just itching to get away from home and all the same old people, I could just not fathom how anyone could do that willingly AND actually stay undercover for a whole year! I would love to go back and read this book again, as I am on a high school literature kick (perhaps its my mid-life crisis?) But, sadly, I can't find it in my collection! And it really galls me that used copies sell for nearly $200!! I think my husband (who I met at BU, thanks to Mr. Crowe and Fast Times) tossed it years ago. You see, he never read the book, only saw the movie, and I think was a little embarrassed that I actually won the scholarship. [He actually had the same scholarship, but wrote about some lofty Hemingway novel.] Only time will tell which author -- Hemingway or Crowe -- captures the true story of the 20th century...

Crowe's book captures the essence of public high school life in the early 80's; Crowe's point of view is unlike any other you will see, for he graduated from a Catholic High School (University High School, San Diego) two years early at age 16 in order to tour with Led Zeppelin and friends. He then came home, missing his life in San Diego, where he had lived almost his entire life, and decided to pick Ridgemont (Clairemont High School, San Diego--NOT REDONDO in Los Angeles) because that was the school he and his Catholic friends had always dreamed about attending. That is his story in a nutshell, and he still remains very supportive to our beautiful city, as his mother still lives in San Diego to this day.

Hilarious story about high school from a student perspective. Better than the movie. For a funny book on public education from a teacher's point of view, though, try "No One's Even Bleeding".

If you want a good read, that will make you laugh, read THIS BOOK! If you have seen the movie the book is better, and FAST TIMES is my Fav movie.

For as long as people have been coming-of-age in our society, authors have tried to capture the extraordinarily diverse array of feelings associated with adolescence. Many have successfully captured some aspect, some portion of those feelings, but usually through a specific lens or promoting a specific agenda. Nobody has succeeded in simply describing, with little embellishment and no judgmentalism, how it really feels to be a teenager in America. Nobody, that is, except Cameron Crowe. Nearly 20 years ago, Crowe went undercover to spend a year inside a high school in southern California. Going in, Crowe was already a seasoned reporter on music and pop culture, but was youthful enough to appear legitimate as a high school student. He forged relationships with students that were just close enough to learn all the details of their lives, but not too close to interfere with what he was trying to observe. As fans of the entertaining movie (The first effort of "Clueless" director Amy Heckerling) are well aware, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" is filled with enough teenage sex, drug use, rivalry, and relationship angst to be amusing on a purely visceral level. The book, however, is able to examine the real people behind the images. We learn that Linda is not quite as sexually confident as she first appears, that Damone is frightened and lonely behind the tough-guy swagger. We see that Brad and Stacy share a complicated sibling love, not just the rivalry. We understand what it was really like to be ad Ridgemont High in the late 1970's. What continues to set this book apart twenty years later is the timlessness and diversity of its characters. There is no one single character who stands out; instead Crowe focuses on a range of people who between them reflect the full range of American youth. Time has not diminished the power or the universality of the characters' emotions. Twenty years later, Crowe's work remains an American masterpiece.