Augusta, Gone : A True Story [Hardcover]

Martha Tod Dudman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 8, 2001

As a single parent Martha was sure she was giving her two children the perfect life. When daughter Augusta turned 15 things started to happen; first the cigarette, then the blue pipe and the little bag Augusta says are aspirin. Martha can't seem to get through to Augusta, and Augusta it appears is intent of doing everything to hurt herself. Martha doesn't know if she's confronting teenage adolescence, craziness, her own failure as a parent, or all three.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Parents are advised to approach this wrenching memoir with caution--it will evoke all their worst fears. It'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

From Publishers Weekly

"It's like sticking my hand into the garbage disposal," writes Dudman in this poetic, painfully frank memoir about being a mom to a teenage daughter who lies, runs away and uses drugs. Her story of Augusta's descent into teen hell, and her own attempts to keep her safe, will be welcomed by parents unnerved by the current media focus on risky teen behavior and the sudden deluge of books on the topic, including Adair Lara's similar mother-daughter tale, Hold Me Close, Let Me Go (Forecasts, Dec. 11, 2000), and therapist Ron Taffel and Melinda Blau's The Second Family (see review above). Like Lara, Dudman refuses to give up on her daughter despite tears that "jump out of my face like gravel" and her daughter's stealing from her, screaming at her and lying. In her attempt to describe everything that happened, Dudman acknowledges "this is how it was and it was nothing like this," as she captures the desperation that led her to call the cops on her daughter, and then with her ex-husband to send Augusta to a wilderness camp in Idaho--where Augusta attempted to kill herself--and to a clean-teen school in Oregon. Through it all, Dudman kept working at a high-powered job, cared for her teenage son, Jack, 16 months younger than Augusta, and walked to maintain her own sanity. Dudman, who was also wild when she was young, has no idea looking back how either she or her daughter found their way home, but her story proves that even the most difficult childhoods may end safely. Agent, Betsy Lerner. (Mar. 8) Forecast: Supported by a 10-city tour that will be crowned by an appearance on the Today Show, Dudman's memoir will strike a chord with readers who may not relate to the more unconventional family arrangement in San Francisco Chronicle columnist Adair Lara's Hold Me Close, Let Me Go.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Printing edition (March 8, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743204093
• ISBN-13: 978-0743204095
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,119,659 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Augusta, Gone, February 27, 2001

By 

Jean M. Deighan (Bangor,, ME USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Augusta, Gone : A True Story (Hardcover)

I don't usually read memoirs, but I recently decided to take in a few written by the locals, specifically Stephen King's On Writing, as well as Martha Dudman's Augusta, Gone. I can only conclude that there is something about the air up here in Maine that promotes excellent writing. I expected something special from Mr. King and he delivered. (Thank you Mr. King. You're terrific!) However, I have to tell you, Dudman's book takes the crown. Augusta, Gone is a riveting book about the stamina of true love. In the book, Dudman is physically and spiritually revived by her daily walks, but she runs an endless marathon to save her daughter. As the Publisher's Weekly review attests, Dudman's book will be "welcomed by, parents unnerved by the current media focus on risky teen behavior." Read it with interest if this compelling and all too timely topic interests you. However, if you simply love good writing, run, don't walk to your nearest bookstore (or computer terminal) and order this book! For those who like to read to escape, this is not a depressing book. It is a sit on the edge of your seat thriller. Moreover, Dudman uses compelling imagery throughout that had me thinking I was sitting in her skin. I kept waiting for the point when I would lose my wind, when I would begin to say "Yeah, yeah, yeah." but it never happened. How did she keep the pacing of the book so brisk and yet sustainable? Was it all that practice walking? She is brilliant, but she is touchable, embracable. She is one of us. I will watch the trajectory of this book with interest. Oprah, please tune in. It is time for a memoir.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Writing, Good Parenting, March 16, 2001

By 

Kate Fredericks "Kate" (Maine, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Augusta, Gone : A True Story (Hardcover)

As a mother of a teenager, I am amazed that anyone can judge another person's ability to parent! In the courageous tale of her journey into teenage hell, Martha bares her innermost soul. She shares with us a look into the heart of a mother who suspects she has somehow failed her daughter and will do anything to get her precious child back. But how does one do that? I defy anyone to answer this question in a definitive way. She makes no apologies for her behavior or the behavior of her daughter - it is what it is. And therein lies the exquisite beauty of this book. What parent of a teenager hasn't felt the dumbfounded fury at the secretive/suspicious/quarrelsome/flippant attitude of their 12 - 15 year old child? Martha manages to put into words that which defies description. All the feelings of frustration, anger, insecurity, self-blame, helplessness the average parent feels when trying to deal with this difficult time of life. This book was not meant to be an example of parenthood, but simply one woman's experience. In so doing, she manages to convey the spectrum of the experience, including and most importantly, hope.

I truly loved this book. I loved it for its honesty, for its emotion, for its message that those of us who are experiencing a teenager's angst and confusion are not alone. I loved it for its tremendous courage. I'm not sure I would have had the guts to send my child away as Martha did. But I'm convinced that had she not, the ending would have been different. Martha Tod Dudman was not a bad parent. She was (and is) a human parent. Aren't we all?

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars honest, thought-provoking, June 19, 2001

By 

Arnold Kling (Silver Spring, Md USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Augusta, Gone : A True Story (Hardcover)

We can be thankful that Martha Tod Dudman is honest and articulate. The result is a book that you want to think about and discuss.

However, compared to other readers, I have a very different take on this book. Maybe it's because I have been much luckier with my daughters, or because I'm a guy. But whatever the reason, I wanted to shake the author and say, "Wake up! You are in an abusive relationship. Defend yourself!"

One of the most poignant anecdotes is where she describes how she makes lunches for her daughter, but her daughter does not eat them. And yet her daughter insists that "you have to make my lunch. You have to."

I want the mother to say, "No, I don't have to make your lunch if you're not going to eat it. Lunch is food. It is not something I make for you just because I crave your approval."

Instead, the mother goes on making lunches. I am not suggesting that by changing her behavior the mother could have made one iota of difference in how her daughter turned out. But I am disturbed that neither the author nor many of the other readers of this book recognize the distinction that I see between loving your daughter and giving her total power over you.

If we are going to celebrate this as an exemplary mother-daughter relationship, then we should celebrate women who tolerate and submit to abusive husbands as exemplary, also. Instead, I would hope that we could encourage parents to be more assertive with their children.