Augusta, Gone: A True Story

From Barnes & Noble

How does a parent deal with a rebellious adolescent? Is it better to clamp down or loosen up, set more ground rules or allow more flexibility? Those are the questions that faced Martha Tod Dudman, a single mother whose daughter, Augusta, became increasingly incommunicative and began to show signs of drug abuse around age 15. The more Dudman tried to reach out to her daughter, the more Augusta shrank back. Dudman now relates her distressing story in Augusta, Gone, a dark but hopeful memoir for parents and children to read, discuss, and learn from together

People Magazine

"Dudman's searing honesty speaks eloquently to our most fragile selves, whether wounded child or frantic parent, in a stunner book,"

Ann Hood

"Augusta, Gone is a devastating, powerful, frightening, lovely book that explores the enormous and mysterious bond between mother and daughters."

The New York Times Book Review

"...compelling...."

PeopleMagazine

"Dudman's searing honesty speaks eloquently to our most fragile selves, whether wounded child or frantic parent, in a stunner book,

San Francisco Chronicle

"Dudman’s writing is brutally honest and painfully immediate."

Atlanta Journal & Constitution

"Dudman's writing is clear and powerful...."

U.S.News & World Report

"...Painful close-up of a horrible time, this memoir is still a story of salvation."

GlamourMagazine

"This manic, wrenching memoir is a staggeringly honest and compelling portrayal of the highs and hells of motherhood."

Book Magazine

"Dudman's fluid, simple prose makes this memoir, with its difficult subject matter, an easy, compelling read."

U.S. News & World Report

"Painful close-up of a horrible time, this memoir is still a story of salvation."

Martha Beck

The frankness of Augusta, Gone will help other parents in similar circumstances, if only by facilitating open discussion of problems they may be ashamed to admit. At one point, Dudman describes how she scoured ''parenting'' books for answers: ''They only talked about little problems. When your child begins to show different patterns -- changes in eating patterns, changes in sleeping patterns, depression, mood swings, schoolwork slipping -- choose one. . . . How about when the whole child collapses? How about when everything is wrong all the time and she is screaming at you and threatening you with a knife and you are crying and she is crying and it feels like the end of your life? Where's the book for that?''

This is the book for that.
— New York Times Book Review

Janet Maslin

Ms. Dudman delivers a wrenching mother's-eye view of the kind of family crisis seen in Traffic, in MSNBC's recent tough documentary on heroin addiction and in countless households where teenagers find chemical means of amplifying the rebelliousness they already feel.
— New York Times

From The Critics

Dudman, a divorced mother living in Maine, tried to give her two beloved children, Augusta and Jack, the perfect childhood. Like many mothers, she worried that she was working too much, that her kids were on their own too often. At the age of eleven, the formerly trustworthy Augusta started to change. Increasingly angry, she began staying in her room for long periods of time. Dudman's memoir recounts the author's struggles with her increasingly despondent daughter. Eventually Augusta began smoking pot and her rebellious behavior escalated to lying, stealing and skipping school. Dudman's life started falling apart; Not knowing what else to do, she sent Augusta to a wilderness camp and later a school for troubled kids. Dudman's fluid, simple prose makes this memoir, with its difficult subject matter, an easy, compelling read. While the reader wonders how Augusta would respond to her mother's book, there's no way of knowing her side of the story—not until Augusta decides to write her own book. Thanks to her mother's "tough love," this former wild child is in a position to do so.
—Ann Collette

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's 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.

Library Journal

"Normal was gone," writes divorced boomer Dudman in her powerful account of her daughter Augusta's stormy adolescence. Drugs, smoking, truancy, lies, sex, stealing Augusta, 15, did it all in a household that was soft on rules and heavy on permissiveness and love. Finally, Dudman sent Augusta from their Maine home out to an Idaho school where rebellious teens can begin to get their lives in order. Yet even there, nothing works. Dudman is an exceptionally skilled writer, drawing readers into her emotional turmoil and transforming an ugly story into a bold, redemptive tale. When Augusta continues to run away, to defy even the strictest authorities in other programs, in other states, Dudman comes to realize she can't really "fix" anything in her child's life, though her daughter comes home at the end. "You don't get to give up on your kids," she writes. "We were all just thrashing through the woods in darkness." Like Dudman, Lara is a mother with a not-so-innocent past, and in raising her daughter Morgan, 13, there were also no rules, no discipline, no restraints. A San Francisco Chronicle columnist, Lara offers a less poignant story, peppered with more day-by-day "we did this/we did that" vignettes. Morgan's dad, Jim (Lara's ex), lives upstairs, and, like many children of divorced parents, Morgan is skilled at playing one parent against the other. Complicating the mix is Lara's father, who abandoned the family years ago and reappears to demand the family's attention. Finally, Lara says "no" to Morgan and demands that she attend school, quit using drugs, go to counseling, and consider an abortion if she wants to come home. These are stories of battles and love. Lara's is good; Dudman's is unforgettable. [Dudman was previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/00, and Lara in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/00.] Linda Beck, Indian Valley P.L., Telford, PA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.