Title: The Hipster’s Legacy
Subtitle: A memoir of dreams, jazz and family in 1960s California
Author: Lorraine Gibson Cohen
Publisher: Plum Tree Tales
ISBN: 978-1-961250-72-7
Genre: Non-Fiction / Memoir
Pages: 596
Reviewer: Margie Przybylski

Read Book Review

What started as a gray spiral bound notebook shuffled around from place to place over the course of her life, Lorraine Gibson Cohen turned into a monumental legacy to her family in her memoir The Hipster’s Legacy: A memoir of dreams, jazz and family in 1960s California, a charming tell-all of a close-knit family of artists and musicians. Lorraine opens the book with her decision she made to return home after making her way to Hollywood and venturing out on her own. She joins the crowded nest containing her sister Arlene and her three children, as well as her little brother Jeff. Rather than unearthing the warmth of nostalgia, Lorraine paints the broken pieces left behind in her father’s wake, the great jazz entertainer – Harry the Hipster Gibson.

While he is cast with carrying the title of the book, Harry leaves the family behind after a run-in with the law and drugs while jazz starts to lose favor to the up and coming rock and roll artists of the new era. This completely uproots the family, Lorraine’s mother must sell their home and begin life as a single working mother with four teenagers. What started off as a glamorous and charming tale of a family of musically abled children that got to meet Betty White, led by a talented and famous entertainer father, crumbles. Lorraine’s work divulges that Harry the Hipster’s legacy is what he left behind – his family.

What makes Lorraine’s memoir different from others is her carefully planned narrative structure. Nearly 600 pages long, every section, chapter, preface is planned and meticulously placed. The book is broken down into seasons over the course of two parts. These seasons contain varying anecdotes seemingly in chronological order. While it is not a fast read, it is certainly entertaining. Every time I picked up the book, it felt as if I was checking on how Lorraine and her siblings are doing, especially her three nieces and nephews. Somehow it is quite humorous even through the heartbreak. Lorraine and her siblings struggled as they knit together a family without a set of married parents.

Lorraine, as an author, is quite funny. As difficult as her adolescence must have been, it is easy to laugh along with her tales. I especially enjoyed the story of when her sister demanded they get the house treated by an exterminator. Her sister handled hiring the man for the job, talking him down to a reasonable price – all Lorraine had to do was get the money to the house as fast as possible. The lines at the bank proved impossible to navigate. She returned to a scene out of the twilight zone – half alive bugs circling the kitchen still smokey from the few moments of work the impatient exterminator left behind.

What comes out on the other end is a Lorraine of immeasurable strength. A Lorraine that can go out into the world and face what is nearly impossible. The book begins with Lorraine’s feelings of failure as a writer for returning home to her mother’s and it ends with her walking back out the door ready for what the world has to offer.   I would recommend this book for music lovers, history buffs, and anyone who appreciates a beautifully told memoir.