109 books
—
1 voter
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “I Was a Teen-Age Dwarf” as Want to Read:
I Was a Teen-Age Dwarf
by
I'M DOBIE GILLIS. All my life I have spun in a wild tarantella of unappeased longing--from girl to girl to girl. Yet due to an excessive lack of height (often mistaken for lack of manliness or sex-drive), I have always had what some people (also mistaken) call perfect love--all despair and no fulfillment. Still I go on trying...
Now this cat is hip. A typical Shulman charac ...more
Now this cat is hip. A typical Shulman charac ...more
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
I Was a Teen-Age Dwarf,
please sign up.
Be the first to ask a question about I Was a Teen-Age Dwarf
Community Reviews
Showing 1-49
Start your review of I Was a Teen-Age Dwarf
Dobie Gillis' opinions on and experiences with girls and women from his boyhood to his manhood. Will he ever find the right one? Or just have fun searching?
"Pa used to be a boy so he knows how things are with me. As for my knowing how things are with him, I'd frankly rather not." (Location 292)
"Well, he's not smiling now. Last I heard, he was drinking himself to death in Honduras or Tahiti or someplace that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the U.S." (Discussing the architect of the house ...more
"Pa used to be a boy so he knows how things are with me. As for my knowing how things are with him, I'd frankly rather not." (Location 292)
"Well, he's not smiling now. Last I heard, he was drinking himself to death in Honduras or Tahiti or someplace that doesn't have an extradition treaty with the U.S." (Discussing the architect of the house ...more
The language is a bit dated, but the humor is timeless, and the relationships portrayed are still honest, heartfelt, and real.
Much better than THE MANY LOVES OF DOBIE GILLIS. In that book Dobie was an inconsistent character changing looks, age, parents, majors, in each story. Here we get one character progressing through life from 13 to 30. All of the stories are amusing. Plus we get some dry and understated humor that is actually funny -- as opposed to the label of "dry" and "understated" often used as a coded way of saying a book isn't funny at all. It's all situational, no action to speak of, and not a profanity to
...more
After reading The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis by Schulman I picked up this set of Dobie stories. We hear Dobie review his entire love life starting at age 13 and ending at age 30.
If you watched the television program based on his stories, or have read any Dobie stories, you know what you will find in this collection. Dobie recounts his love of the ladies, his idealizing of beauty and willingness to submit to any demand for love. Yes, this is pre-feminism humor, with looks trumping intelligence. I ...more
If you watched the television program based on his stories, or have read any Dobie stories, you know what you will find in this collection. Dobie recounts his love of the ladies, his idealizing of beauty and willingness to submit to any demand for love. Yes, this is pre-feminism humor, with looks trumping intelligence. I ...more
It has been so long since I first read this book and it's mate. They are classics for me and I read them as a set almost every year or two. They are the literary equivalent of really good macaroni and cheese - comforting, favorful, and total pleasure.
...more
FUNNY! VERY RARE BOOK!
Just as funny now as it was when I read it as a teenager in 1959! The wordplay and the situations are wonderful. The TV series on Dobie Gillis was nothing compared to this, the original.
Hilarious book about girl-obsessed boy.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I read this in high school.
Dobie Gillis is NOT “literature.” But, if you are looking for something light and frivolous to give yourself a break, these are the perfect palate cleansers.
This is even funnier than The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. I'd highly recommend, esp. if you're down.
...more
Funny in a 1950's kind of way. Another great writer from St Paul who attended the U of M.
...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers also enjoyed
Related Articles
Kazuo Ishiguro insists he’s an optimist about technology.
“I'm not one of these people who thinks it's going to come and destroy us,” he...
244 likes · 26 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
