The Last of the California Girls

by Pamela Jekel

He was a New Yorker transported to an alien land of suntans and surfboards in the middle of his senior year. She was the quintessential California Girl grooving on beach music and convertibles. No two people could have been so different. And no two people could have fallen so blindly, so deeply, and so totally in love. Jekel is the award-winning author of Columbia and Sea Star.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0821727257
• ISBN13: 9780821727256
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Zebra Books
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A bittersweet coming of age

This is a book which entertains and enriches. The time and place are infused with moody adolescent indulgence, the fruits of which are often bittersweet. Thus the protagonist and the reader comes to terms with the reality of the differences between the sexes, as they manifest themselves in the sexual politics of 60s high-school culture. However the story subtly but certainly emerges above disillusionment to develop into an optimistic moral tale where maturity, sincirity and happiness trump starry eyed infatuation and thrill. All is portrayed against the backdrop of wistful 60s pop culture and counterculture of Southern California, even as it burns out of control into the scary 70s scene, complete with accounts of historically relevant events and even a soundtrack index. All in all it is book I fondly remember reading.

Bittersweet coming-of-age tale

I read this book a few years ago and despite the rather "airport novel" front cover, found that it had real depth and a definite emotional edge. I enjoyed it despite being born years after the era covered in the book and growing up in Scotland. A good, entertaining read which I'd recommend. It had a similar feel as the film "Big Wednesday".

A True Look At Life In Woodland Hills, California-Circa 1966

I grew up and graduated from Taft High School along with the author, Pamela Jekel. She did an outstanding job of capturing that incredible era in California when everything was just perfect. Surfing, the Beach Boys, sex, drugs and rock n' roll.Although Woodland Hills was not on the beach, it was the premier mecca for the whole sun, surf & sex during the mid to late 60's. If you want to know what it was like growing up during that era, California Girls completely captures the magic.You know in Peter Pan, when Tinker Bell lays out all that magic pixie dust? Well Woodland Hills was just full of that stuff.A great book for any age.