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vendela chooses various initiations and ritualistic groups to determine how women form bonds or community. she covers deubante balls in houston and girl gangs in los angeles. i think any one of these chapters would make a compelling novel on its own (except for the burning man chapter, which held little appeal for me).
I initially liked the concept of this book -- examining transition/initiation rituals for girls. Each chapter dealt with a different rite of passage -- sorority rushes, debutante balls, gang initiations, wicca ceremonies, etc. The problem is that the author was not at all objective about the girls she was studying. As the chapters crept on, she became more and more condescending in her observations. I got so tired of her describing young girls as naive and desperate without acknowledging the pro...
This is a pretty topical investigation of a really interesting idea. Female coming of age rites are very interesting (to me) but she sort of skims the surface of all of them instead of really discussing in depth any of them. It is pretty obvious that she has her feelings about each set up prior to her immersion into the celebration, which also weakens her argument, at least from an ethnographic stand point. And, um, Burning Man? Really?
Eh. Since the topic is so interesting, I was disappointed by her surface level analysis and condescending tone. Plus, an inexplicable, unrelated Burning Man epilogue that would totally offend me if I were a die-hard burner: "I get the sense that a lot of people at Burning Man don't go to parties at home, and so a lot of them act the way they think people do at parties."
fun
I had this book on the shelf for years and didn't read it through until last month, when I was looking for nonfiction to recommend to my creative writing students. At first I thought it was an academic treatment of girl culture, but it's really more relaxed than that, more like undercover reportage. It's very readable and well-written. The first chapter, in which Vida, at 26, prentends to rush at UCLA, is very fun. She is actually quite fair to sorority culture, and you can really see her strugg...
When I first read this, I loved it. I felt like it was an interesting idea, to go "undercover" and try to understand what different initiations into womenhood really meant. But I agree with one poster here who said it was like she tried too hard to find some deep meaning but came up short. In theory it's neat, not so amazing in the delivery. But I still really liked it and would recommend forward.
What bug got up Vida's butt when she was writing this book? I had high expectations based on the summary: an exploration into modern day "rites of passage" for young women. Sororities, quinces, debutante balls! The author makes the point that many of these rituals fail to provide empowerment and meaning to women, and then she highlights how this is so. I stayed on board until midway through the second chapter when it occurred to me that Vida is a sour grape of a person and thus likely a poor can...
I really enjoyed this book! It is a piece of non-fiction that operates under the basic thesis that many young (18-21 year old), North American women feel the need for some rite of initiation and belonging to a group other than their family unit. It examines the rites of initiation to a major US sorority (at UCLA - where Greek life is serious business), Texas debutante balls, girl gangs, Wicca covens, and Vegas wedding with the under 20 crowd. It is eye-opening and at times a bit sad.I thoroughly...
I liked the premise of the book, modern female initiation rites, but I often found the writer's tone to be super condescending. She goes from sorority rushes, gangs, quinceañeras, debutante balls, witches, young brides, and for some weird reason Burning Man. (I just don't think of that as a female initiation.) It's kinda trite and glosses over real reasons for rituals and tends to make fun of the participants. I thought that was rude.
I thought I would enjoy this book. i am very interested in the subject matter Vida addresses. I am not so interested in her banal and unsurprising insights into the communities she visits. At first, I hoped it was just a slow start. But halfway through her study of quinces, I knew we were in trouble. Still I trekked on, and by the last chapter on Burning Man I had to resist the urge to throw the slim volume against the wall and stomp on it with my tiger print slippered feet. No wonder she belong...
I read this book mainly from curiosity about the author as opposed to the subject matter. Vida is the wife of Dave Eggers, though they married significantly after she wrote this book. I liked the book in a "glad it's only 180pgs" way. The tone felt inconsistent. The book isn't journalism, nor memoir; instead almost a travel journal investigating situations. Vida does little to disagree with or challenge her preconceived notions of what she will find. Still, the book interested me by describing s...
Decent idea executed in a mediocre manner. Vida often seems to be mocking the subjects of her interviews/investigations. This wouldn't be too awful if: 1) she actually did it to their faces; and 2) she used her observations to make a point greater than common sense. (The section on young brides is probably the worst offender on both of these counts, as she gets in easy jabs at the physical appearance of the brides- and grooms-to-be, and informs the reader that these teenagers getting married aft...
I didn't realize when I requested this from our local library that it was non-fiction (not that I have a problem with that, I was just surprised). I wasn't sure it was what I wanted to read at the moment. However, once I began, I was delighted with the way the research done by Vendela Vida was presented. Very interesting.
Maybe 2 1/2 stars. A bit superficial, more reportage than anything else. As such it was interesting if uneven. Occasionally very funny, even tragic. I much prefer her novels.
Really, I think the concept of this book is an interesting one--taking a look at rites of passage initiations for adolescent girls and young women. There's a lot to talk about there. But that's the problem: Vida doesn't. While disgusing herself as a sororiety rushee, Vida goes through the entire rush process and, when it is done, walks away from it so ambivilantly as though to say, "well, that was okay." And that is my opinion on this book: well, it was okay. It was not groundbreaking in the lea...
A collection of essays/anecdotes about various modern rituals that mark girls' transition to womanhood, from sorority rush week to female gang initiations to debutante balls. I thought it was an interesting idea to try and tie together such varied events, but it really didn't work well - she had to work way too hard to try to try and string it all together into some sort of cohesive narrative. Also still not sure how her trip to burning man fit into this, or the chapter on wicca - very random......
Hm. I can now tease my Southern friends about debutante rituals.11/2 Update:I met the author's husband the other night and, unlike everyone else in my generation, haven't read any of his books. Also, didn't know Vendela Vida was his wife. We did bond over Swedish speaking family members. Apparently, according to Husband, this book is not that easy to find. Thanks, Oakland Public Library.
I read this at work while our computers were down. The author analyzes coming-of-age rituals for U.S. girls, usually after having visited or participated in one of them. In the first and strongest chapter, she infiltrates sorority rush at UCLA. The writing is engaging in part because of her self-consciously sophisticated perspective on the experience. But I think the insertion of her perspective actually winds up weakening the other chapters. I don't care what she, personally, thinks of teen bri...
I love vendela's topic and some of the encounters are fascinating and beautifully told... but this just didn't quite hang together enough for me. Particularly the Burning Man chapter stuck out as not fitting with the rest of her theme -- an amazing, weird trippy thing but just didn't flow with the rest of the book.