NEW YORK — Immersing oneself in the pages of Lorraine Gibson Cohen’s captivating memoir, The Hipster’s Legacy: A Memoir of Dreams, Jazz and Family in 1960s California, would be akin to reading Betty Smith’s coming-of-age A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Gerald Durrell’s endearing My Family and Other Animals at the same time.
Cohen is the daughter of 1940s jazz pianist Harry the Hipster Gibson, who claims to have coined the term “hipster,” and in her book, she recalls her years in a funky, red-shingled cottage next to a landfill in Southern California where her life was rife with eccentric characters and absurdly humorous situations.
“When I was 22 years old, I started writing in an old gray loose-leaf notebook while I was living temporarily with my older sister, her three little children and my younger brother in a small beach town in Southern California,” Cohen recalled. “I wrote down things as they happened. All the funny things and the not-so-funny. There were short stories, character studies of people and things, even a song or two. Sixty years later, I found the notebook and started writing again. Before I knew it, I was writing a book.”
A memoir that reads like a novel, The Hipster’s Legacy includes 15 illustrations (by Cohen herself) and 35 family photos to help bring to vivid life the coming-of-age story of a late bloomer and quiet dreamer.
Born into a musical family and raised on dreams of fame and glory, 22-year-old Cohen finds it tough going on her own when she moves to Hollywood. Accepting defeat, she takes the 20-mile ride back home. But home isn’t quite the same at 230 Culper Court. In her absence, her mother has moved out to live “in sin” with a used car salesman named Bob. Replacing her at the cottage is Cohen’s older sister, Arlene, her three kids, and Cohen’s younger brother, Jeff.
Cohen’s life takes a different turn as she learns to fit in with her newly re-arranged family and their quirky friends, exotic oddballs, hapless misfits, and the flotsam and jetsam of strange and talented people who pass through the little red cottage by the sea.
The Hipster’s Legacy is an intriguing and often humorous memoir of a unique family influenced by a hard-working mother who just missed being a saint and a father, the wild jazz pianist and entertainer known as Harry the Hipster, whose amazing abilities and crazy style influenced the evolution of Rock and Roll.
The US Review of Books calls The Hipster’s Legacy “A vibrant, decadent work … whimsical … a delight and a pleasure … a resounding masterpiece.”
The Hipster’s Legacy: A Memoir of Dreams, Jazz and Family in 1960s California