Augusta, Gone: A True Story by Martha Tod Dudman Paperback Book

Details

Rent Augusta, Gone: A True Story

Author: Martha Tod Dudman

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Harpercollins

Published: Apr 2002

Genre: Biography & Autobiography - Women

Retail Price: $14.99

Pages: 256

Synopsis

Parents are advised to approach this wrenching memoir with caution--it will evoke all their worst fears. IIt's not just that Martha Tod Dudman frankly delineates her daughter Augusta's descent into drinking, smoking, drug use, and truancy, as well as casually lying about all of it. Dudman also acknowledges her own feelings of isolation, despair, and incredible guilt. Has she caused Augusta's behavior? Is it because she divorced Augusta's father? Did she spend too many hours working at her family-owned radio network? Is Augusta mimicking Dudman's own troubled teen years, when she got thrown out of high school for smoking pot? There aren't any easy answers, merely an agonizing litany of fears realized as Augusta comes and goes in her mother's house, vanishing for days at a time, moods ranging from manipulative to sullen to openly defiant, until things get so bad that Dudman enrolls her first in a wilderness program, then in a school program for troubled kids. Nothing miraculous happens, only more ugly confrontations, until Augusta finally runs away. Through the turmoil, however, we can see the troubled girl slowly and painfully turning a corner. Dudman's plain, punchy prose perfectly conveys the terror of a parent watching her child's life, along with her own, careen off the tracks, yet she also captures the charm and vitality of her 'impossible, enraging, engaging, infuriating' daughter. As upsetting as this narrative often gets, there's always a trace of hope that Augusta and her family will pull through. --Wendy Smith

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Reviews

BookLender review by Sara on 2007-06-02 17:06:07

This is a great read - very realistic. It will scare all young parents!