Riding in Cars With Boys : Confessions of a Bad Girl Who Makes Good - Softcover

Beverly Donofrio

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1860499473 ISBN 13: 9781860499470

Publisher: Virago, 1990

Synopsis

'Trouble began in 1963. I'm not blaming it on President Kennedy's assassination or its being the beginning of the sixties or the Vietnam War or The Beatles...The trouble I'm talking about was my first real trouble, the age-old trouble. The getting in trouble as in ' Is she in trouble?' trouble. As in pregnant. As in the girl who got pregnant in high school.' Beverly Ann Donofrio wasn't bad because she hung out with hoods - she was bad because she was a hood. Unable to attend college, she lost interest in everything but riding around in cars, drinking, smoking, and rebelling against authority. After her teenage marriage failed, Bev found herself at an elite New England university, books in one arm, child on the other. Then, furnished with ambition, dreams and five hundred dollars, she took herself and her son to New York to begin a career and a life. An outrageous and touching memoir, this is the story of a teenage mother who, as her son grows up, becomes an adult herself.

About this title

About the Author

Beverly Donofrio studied at Wesleyan University, then went on to receive an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. Her work has appeared in The Village Voice and New York magazine. She is also the author of Looking for Mary.

From Library Journal

Donofrio's poignant 1960s memoir features the silent majority of teenagers and young people who didn't protest or go to Vietnam or attend the Summer of Love, but who did what teens do no matter how turbulent the times: they have sex, rebel, hang out, drink, smoke, and just generally try to have as good a time as possible. That's what Donofrio did, at least until she got pregnant before graduating from high school, was married (briefly) and divorced, and ended up rearing a small son alone and on welfare. Today she has a master's degree, lives in New York City, has raised a son without visible scars, and is a writer. Donofrio's funny, heartwarming story will especially appeal to every similar child of the 1960s who, despite barriers and a lack of encouragement, safely made the passage to adulthood. Reminiscent in style and content (though covering different eras) of Betsy Israel's Grown-up Fast: A True Story of Teenage Life in Suburban America (Poseidon, 1988). Highly recommended.
- Rosellen Brewer, Monterey Cty. Free Lib., Seaside, Cal.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Virago
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 1860499473
• ISBN 13: 9781860499470
• Binding: Paperback