Girls on the Verge: Debutante Dips, Drive-bys, and Other Initiations [Paperback]

Vendela Vida (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312263287 | ISBN-13: 978-0312263287 | Publication Date: June 12, 2000 | Edition: First Edition

In a fascinating look at how young women are coming of age in America, Vendela Vida explores a variety of rituals that girls have adapted or created in order to leave their childhoods behind. Vida doesn't just observe the rituals, she actively participates in them, going as far as spending a week at UCLA to experience rush—she emerges a Tri-Delt. She also goes to Miami to learn about the "quince" (the Latin American celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday), to Houston to take part in a debutante ball, to Los Angeles and San Francisco to talk to female gang members, to Salem, Massachusetts, to interview a coven of witches, and to Las Vegas to watch young brides take the plunge—some of them in drive-through wedding chapels. With humor, insight, and illuminating detail, she explores girls' struggles to forge an identity and secure a sense of belonging through various rituals—rituals that they embrace without necessarily understanding the comforts they seek or the repercussions of their often all-too-adult choices.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In an attempt to investigate the rituals that help American girls develop their adult identities, Vida, a graduate of the Columbia University M.F.A. program, infiltrates a sorority, attends a Wiccan Sabbath and observes Las Vegas drive-through weddings, among other events. Unfortunately, the terms of her study are loosely defined (how does each ritual lead to adulthood? What distinguishes the child from the woman?), and, despite the vast body of work on adolescent behavior and the author's interviews with hundreds of girls, the book lacks sociological rigor. For example, Vida compares debutantes, young brides and gang girls without carefully considering their differences in class and race, presenting them as similar because they all yearn for a stronger sense of community. Given her subjects' age range (13 to 18) and how widely their personal circumstances vary, it is difficult to believe that they are all trying to make a dramatic leap into adulthood. Although the young women she interviews make many surprising and self-aware remarks, Vida tries too hard to portray her subjects as searching for meaning. After describing the significance of a girl's 15th birthday (quinceanera) in Cuban culture, she writes of a teenager who had photos taken but couldn't afford the large traditional party: "This is, after all, a place and an environment where pictures mean more than the truth, where a day in a young woman's life is special because photographs are taken of her various poses." While the segments on each group of girls might work as magazine pieces, taken as a whole, they don't quite coalesce. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

It's been proposed that one of the reasons young people in this country have difficulty making the transition to responsible adulthood is that there are no well-defined rites of passage. But, as nature abhors a vacuum, groups of teenage girls have created their own rituals to signify leaving their childhoods behind. Vida, 27, traveled across the country and spoke with hundreds of young women age 15 and up about identity and initiation rituals. She participated "undercover" in a sorority rush at UCLA and took part in a Latin American quincenera celebration in Miami. With a "you-are-there" approach, Vida allows the reader to experience the majesty of a debutante ball, the pride of a gang initiation, the solemnity of a Wiccan ceremony, and the high hopes of a Las Vegas drive-through bride. While the book is interesting solely as a travel piece, it also offers a sociological perspective on an individual's need for affiliation, connection, and community. Recommended for all libraries, particularly YA sections.ADeborah Bigelow, Leonia P.L., NJ
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (June 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312263287
• ISBN-13: 978-0312263287
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,379,553 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Eh..., August 2, 2004

By 

Andrea McNeely (Indianapolis) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Girls on the Verge: Debutante Dips, Drive-bys, and Other Initiations (Paperback)

Though this book reads like a series of feature articles in Seventeen magazine, no theories are explored or conclusions drawn, and the author makes a few gag-inducing statements in the beginning--In an attempt to distinguish herself from the typically silly girls in the sorority rush piece, she compares the surfboard-swinging boys of L.A. to the intellectual Manhattan boys she'd chatted with the night before who "jousted over interpretations of Joyce. "-- it does have some merit. It is often informative and brings awareness to some rites of passage that are not widely experienced. The pieces about the debutante ball and Burning Man festival were particularly enlightening to this somewhat typical, Midwestern, working class girl.

I can't recommend this book as anything more than a light afternoon-at-the-pool read or as filler for a bathroom magazine rack, but I do still recommend the author. Don't let this lackluster effort scare you away from reading anything else by her. I'm halfway through her novel, "And Now You Can Go" and it is wonderful...

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amusing view, August 1, 2006

By 

Alyssa Whidden Kendall (Severn, Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Girls on the Verge: Debutante Dips, Drive-bys, and Other Initiations (Hardcover)

I picked this book up because unlike Alexandra Robbins "Pledged," Ms. Vida actually decided to experience a sorority rush as one of the "rites of initiation" she covered. For her other topics, she interviewed young women in the situations and did her best to observe some of the activities (e.g. a debutante ball). I especially enjoyed her epilogue where she attended the Burning Man festival in Nevada. I found it to be an amusing point of view and an enjoyable light read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting reading...could have been more insightful, April 16, 2001

By 

Cathy A Belben - See all my reviews

This review is from: Girls on the Verge: Debutante Dips, Drive-bys, and Other Initiations (Hardcover)

Vida covers some of the major American rituals young women complete on their path maturity, such as sorority rush, debuting, quincinera, and marriage, and some more obscure ones that fewer women participate, such as Wicca and the Burning Man festival in Nevada.

Her anecdotes are often well-written and insightful and worth the read--especially the opening chapter about sorority rush, but the analysis of the events and what they mean in terms of coming-of-age for women in America is not as fully developed as it could be. The chapter on quincinera could have focused on more areas of the country for a broader view of how this ritual affects Hispanic girls, and the chapter on Wicca seems out of place without any comparison/contrast to other, more "traditional" coming-of-age events. Finally, the chapter on Burning Man, while entertaining, seems completely out of place.

Ultimately, each of these topics could have been developed into individual books, and perhaps should have been. As a whole, they provide an introduction--albeit an unsatisfying one--to what seem, on the surface, to be fascinating events.