Customer Reviews

Straight from the Fridge, Dad: A Dictionary of Hipster Slang

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is such a fun book. The best part are the footnotes. They explain where the terms originate from (movies, novels...)I got Straight from the Fridge, because I wanted to look up "normal" words and find what the slang might be so I could jazz up the speech in a short story. However, the book is not set up that way. It is organized in alphabetical order for the slang term only. Despite this drawback, it is a great source and well worth the read.

Subtitled "A Dictionary of Hipster Slang," this is a broad overview of mostly noirish/beat slang that will be enjoyed mostly be devotees of those genres. As mentioned by another reviewer, the organization is alphabetical only (as opposed to thematic, chronological, or source), so this lacks efficiency as a resource book--it's better for browsing. On the other hand, the somewhat narrower focus makes this more a heck of a lot more fun than the big and dry "Dictionary of Modern Slang," which is more complete but, akin to reading a dictionary. The slang expression is in a greyed margin on the left; brief explanations and examples are to the right.

The book has flaws: The etymology of the slang is sparing; there are some examples of works in which it was used (but we don't know if that was the first use) for some but not all of the words. Most disappointing? Not a single picture except the book cover. To some extent, that may limit its "gift appeal," and, more importantly, and presents the words without much context. Perhaps copyright issues were at play; still, even scene-setting period photos would have evoked the slang's cultural and historical referents. There's also no index, although that's somewhat expected given the paltry organization. Given all this, the book (at around $15.00) is currently overpriced. Still, since there aren't many competitors, it has merit as browsing material (especially), and somewhat as a reference for "hipster" language.

This book is a great reference for writers looking for great dialogue, it has a ton of obscure and well known phrases with, in some cases, references to where the phrase got popularized.

I did however find one big problem with the book. When I get a book for reference, no matter the subject, I never peruse the pages for what I need; I go to the index. This book does not have an index. Reference book fail. Also, to make using it as a reference book even worse, it organizes the words by the slang not by the word the slang replaces There are a lot of words for alcohol, but instead of finding them in one place, I have to search through the book.

Another little thing that bugged me was that the book talked about gathering slang from most of the first half of the 20th century but does not put dates of use for most of its content.

So I like it, but if another book comes along that makes the reference process easier, I'll be going with that one.

This book is available in both paperback and hard cover. My paperback is 190 pages. The primary advantage of this book over more formal (and better documented) slang dictionaries is that this publication includes slang phrases - "togged to the bricks", for example - that are bypassed by simple listings of slang words.

This book is a "reference" guide for slang phrases used in jazz, rockabilly music, and pulp fiction/noir until about the early sixties. The phrases/terms used in the aforementioned mediums are displayed in alphabetical order, but this guide does not offer a reverse look-up; for instance, "bottle baby" means drunk but you can't look up drunk and find all the phrases/words in this book that mean drunk (and there are ALOT of phrases/words that mean drunk.) So for a reference guide, it sucks.
Also, I would've enjoyed more of an explanation on the origins of the terms/phrases. He often references where he found the terms, but he doesn't tell you their historical or generational siginificance (although some are obvious.)
Plus, this book would've gotten definite thumbs up if there were pics, but sadly, not one pic.
All in all, it's a pretty unique and interesting book to pick up.

Do not buy the Kindle versión. None of the images from the paperback are in this edition and the formatting makes it impossible to read. It is very difficult to tell the term or phrase being defined from the definition, some dashes between the terms and definition would have been helpful. Also because of the format one term and definition runs into the next one. Reads like a stream of conscience dictionary. Get the paperback much better. Kindle versión waste of money.

Great party coffee table, or bathroom book. Everyone (all ages) gets curious about colloquial expressions sooner or later. I got a copy a few years ago and just bought one for a musician friend who likes pop culture and folklore, as a college graduation gift.

... so far, no. I purchased this via Kindle to help me with _Naked Lunch_ by Burroughs. I even searched «beat generation» and this was the only beat-to-English dictionary I could find. So far, not a single word or phrase I've needed help with was in this book (except 'croaker' and I don't think it's right). I searched the book for "burroughs", because this author does cite (hooray!), but there were no references found... searched "naked lunch": zip. So far, not useful. I am very disappointed that it does not serve my needs. It is a neat read and I will keep it, but I was hoping for more.