Gigolo

by Edna Ferber

From the pulitzer prize-winning American novelist, Edna Ferber. Who was heralded as the greatest female author of the 1920s and 1930s and among the best-read authors of her nation.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Classics

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Edna Ferber was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels were popular in her lifetime and included the Pulitzer Prize-winning So Big (1924), Show Boat (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), Cimarron (1929; made into the 1931 film which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), and Giant (1952; made into the 1956 Hollywood movie).

Ferber was born August 15, 1885, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to a Hungarian-born Jewish storekeeper, Jacob Charles Ferber, and his Milwaukee, Wisconsin-born wife, Julia (Neumann) Ferber. At the age of 12, after living in Chicago, Illinois and Ottumwa, Iowa, Ferber and her family moved to Appleton, Wisconsin, where she graduated from high school and briefly attended Lawrence University. She took newspaper jobs at the Appleton Daily Crescent and the Milwaukee Journal before publishing her first novel. She covered the 1920 Republican National Convention and 1920 Democratic National Convention for the United Press Association.

Ferber's novels generally featured strong female protagonists, along with a rich and diverse collection of supporting characters. She usually highlighted at least one strong secondary character who faced discrimination ethnically or for other reasons; through this technique, Ferber demonstrated her belief that people are people and that the not-so-pretty people have the best character.

Ferber was a member of the Algonquin Round Table, a group of wits who met for lunch every day at the Algonquin Hotel in New York.

Reviews

[Pascale · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's always something wise and warm-hearted about the way Ferber tells a story, often gently mocking her characters but only ever censorious of the mean-spirited and the hypocrites. This collection is comprised of 8 stories dealing with 1/ a handsome mechanic who hates being pursued by adoring females, but falls for an educated girl who seems hard to please, until she starts behaving just like all his other flirts; 2/ a widower who moves out of his son's apartment when he realizes that his daughter-in-law uses his presence to justify not wanting to have a child; 3/ a young man from Wisconsin who finds himself penniless on the Riviera after losing his fortune and fighting in WWI. Reduced to being a partner for hire in dance halls, he is saved by a former neighbor who had given him up for lost; 4/ a 37-year old stage actress who tries her luck in Hollywood, only to realize that in the film industry her age is even more of a handicap than in the New York theatre world; 5/ a selfish and snobbish woman who forces her naive husband to live in ever more expensive and smaller apartments instead of giving him the family life he craves; 6/ a New York salesman who fancies himself a rugged outdoors man just because he works in a sports emporium. A trip to the Rockies with his boss's daughter disabuses him and he proposes to a sweet colleague with no tendency to self-deception; 7/ a 60-year old widow who's worked hard all her life to provide for her 2 children, and would dearly love to take it easy in retirement, but answers the call of duty every time her spoilt daughter calls on her; 8/ a girl from Oklahoma who longs to see the world but realizes when finally free to do so that there are as many interesting people in her small town as there are on cruise ships. Story #7, "The Sudden Sixties" is my favorite but all these miniature tales are beautifully crafted.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I suspect Ferber is an author you either love or hate. If you buy in to her way of seeing the world, and can lose yourself in the little lives of her characters, then this collection of short stories is quintessential Ferber. I loved it.

[Robert Keigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn't disappoint....

Huge fan of Edna Ferber. Always a surprising ending. Thought-provoking. Find myself thinking about the twists she makes. Good reads. 1925 Pulitzer. Well deserved.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reader unfamiliar with Edna Ferber's literary output might finish this book with the impression that her tone was always downbeat. (It wasn't: some stories in other collections and portions of her novels are joyous; others are laugh-out-loud funny.) The tales in Gigolo delve deep into the minds of a widower whose son and daughter-in-law consider him a burden, a handsome young brute to whom women are irresistibly drawn, a Broadway comedienne considering her career options after forty, a would-be inventor held down by his wife's social pretensions, a wounded aviator who takes on a new identity as a paid dance partner, a camping supply clerk who has never set foot beyond Manhattan, and mother-and-daughter restaurateurs in an Oklahoma town where seemingly every other resident has benefited from an oil boom. Are the stories downbeat? Some of them, yes, though all are satisfying and a number end on a satirical or hopeful note. Does their tone matter? Not at all. Edna Ferber created some of the most believable character portraits of her generation. The novels that would make her famous—Cimarron, Show Boat, So Big, Giant—were still years in the future, but the potential she displays in Gigolo is so obvious that there is no way she could not have become a success.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with all of Ferber's short stories you never want them to end. I find that her short stories are very different than many in that they read as though they could easily be made into full-length novels. Ferber is a lost gem!

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories are wonderful....I am so glad that I discovered Ferber at last.....she is witty, funny, and always has a punch of an ending.

[LobsterQuadrille · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

This eight-story collection is now one of my new favorite works by the fabulous Edna Ferber! All of the stories are well-crafted and original, although I didn't enjoy "The Afternoon of a Faun" and "The Sudden Sixties" nearly as much as the rest. But the other six tales are clever, original, and sometimes quite funny. Here's a quick breakdown of my favorites:

Old Man Minick: This is one of the less energetic stories, but I love how Ferber explored the themes of our preconceptions of the elderly.

Gigolo: The story of a disillusioned young war veteran, combined with an endearing and wholesome conclusion.

Not a Day Over Twenty-One: A straightforward but effective use of some of Ferber's favored themes. I love the unique character dynamic of the housekeeper going from working for Harrieta to showing her the ropes in Hollywood.

Home Girl: A story of a marriage that hasn't lived up to the husband's assumptions.

Ain't Nature Wonderful!: One of the most light-hearted stories of the collection, a slightly humorous take on our tendency to idealize the rugged, outdoorsy life.

If I Should Ever Travel!: A wonderfully written story about home, and familiarity breeding contempt. Especially memorable for a brilliant twist at the end.

[Sterlingcindysu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick free read from Amazon for Kindle. Ferber's a master of short stories (and won a Pulitzer for "So Big", and wrote the books Show Boat and Giant). As you read these (written in 1922) you realize the more things change, the more they ...

The title story is about a man who's fallen on hard times after WWI and works in a "dime a dance" hall (although since it's in France, I guess it's a franc a dance). It makes sense because of all the men who died in the war, who's around to dance with the women? I'd rather do that than wash dishes or clean the streets. And really, don't they still do that now with cruise lines hiring men to dance with women? (Out of curiosity I looked it up and didn't see any openings online, and one place just said they paid $30 per day? No free cruise? What's the point?)

A heads up, this book only has 160 pages, not the number advertised.

[Reet · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF.
Too boring.
I did like that story "Old Man MiNick."
I thought this was a novel about a Gigolo. Maybe that would have been interesting; I've known of a couple in my time. They're usually pendejos.
Well the story "Gigolo" in here was about a pendejo, but a very nice young woman likes him, so he was saved from himself.
That's it for me for Edna ferber, because looking back, I see that every book I've read of hers, I rated it two stars.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a collection of Ferber’s short stories—all great.

[Deedee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eight short stories. Some better than others, with the camping salesman my favorite.

[Kathy Nealen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved meeting the many characters in this set of short stories.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

My actual rating for this collection is 3.5 stars. There are some moments where the judgmental outlook of the author comes across, a couple plot constructions I disagree with, and a few incidents of unanticipated 4th wall breaking, otherwise I could give it 4. For short stories, these have a remarkable amount of character development, and the settings (mostly in Wisconsin's paper valley, Chicago and New York) are integral. I wish there were more story writers who paid attention to those elements. In fact, these stories are really all about character. Some of the themes get quite repetitive, but if you want to read about the joys and challenges of aging and hard-won self-knowledge, this is your book.

[Tocotin · Rating 2 out of 5]

How to say it?... Good technique, pedestrian conclusions. Lots of obscure brand names too. The stories are interestingly told, the people in them are good, honest, everyday people, but you know, they sometimes get ideas above their station in life and sometimes even above the author's powers of insight. It goes like this: theatre is better than cinema, women should be compassionate, there is no place like home. Oh, and races don't mingle, and foreigners are evil. Didn't you know? No?... Then you won't feel good about this collection, and it shouldn't find itself in your hands. (I had it on my Stanza. Ohai Amazon.)

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first taste of Edna Ferber, and it was a completely enjoyable one. The title appropriately sets the tone for this collection of funny stories that in one way or another touch on the themes of illusions & delusions, carapace, obligation, belonging and being "kept." Even 90 years after it's publication, the characters ring true, and Ferber's winking take on love & romance, domesticity and the value of creature comforts remains relevant. I would have been happy to have each story stretch into a full-blown novel, but better left wanting more, I suppose.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather dark, about the awful hopelessness of ordinary lives (in 1910s Chicago) - actually there's much more to Ferber than just misery-with-a-side-of-amusement but this bunch of stories is particularly painful, despite the obfuscation of heel heights, skirt lengths and which colour fur is modish this season. The title story is very strong but most of them seem very pertinent... nothing has changed, other than the hemlines and headlines.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edna Ferber is one of the great, undersung writers of the 20th century. Her finely wrought stories concentrate on the lives of working people, especially women, amid urban landscapes, notably Chicago, drawn with lyrical detail. Every one of the stories in this collection is worthwhile.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

3-3.5
A little uneven, but I really enjoyed AIN'T NATURE WONDERFUL!, OLD MAN MINICK and If I Should Ever Travel!

[Linda]

Loved all the stories.