Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen, Viking, 2009.
ISBN: 978-0670011940
Plot Summary
Cursed with egotistical, competitive parents, Auden’s missed out on a normal childhood. She’s never been to prom or even learned how to ride a bike. Now, the summer before her first year in college, Auden is determined to change that. Moving to the beach town of Colby to spend time with her absent father, ditzy stepmother, and brand new stepsister, Thisbe, Auden hopes that this summer will be a memorable one. However, Auden soon learns that people are not always who they appear to be and that sometimes the person who has to change the most is yourself.
Critical Evaluation
Dessen’s ninth book, Along for the Ride contains all the detailed characterization and beautiful writing present in her previous novels. She is clearly a master in her craft as she delicately shapes not only the plot but her characters. While Auden is certainly a sympathetic, likable character, Dessen’s true talent lies in her creation of Auden’s family, particularly her mother, father, and stepmother. Named after her father’s favorite poet, Auden grew up in a hostile household where her scholarly father envied her mother’s academic success. Eventually, her father leaves them and marries a younger woman. Much of Auden’s growth throughout the novel centers on her relationship with her narcissistic parents.
Growing up in the shadow of a self-centered academic is not easy. Auden spends the entirety of her youth seeking her mother’s approval. As she later explains, “I’d always had to work so hard to keep my mother’s interest, wresting it away from her work, her colleagues, her students, my brother…her attention was not only hard come by, but entirely too easy to lose.” (Dessen, 2009, p. 125-26). While her mother doted on her older, irresponsible brother Auden is left with the breadcrumbs of her mother’s time—a woman who is often absent as she writes prestigious books and attends academic parties. Even when Auden ventures outside her everyday world to spend the summer with her equally egotistical father, initially all she can think about is her mother’s approval. For example, when she volunteers to help her stepmother, Heidi, at the shop Auden claims that she couldn’t recognize herself: “My mother would be disgusted, I thought. I knew I was.” (Dessen, 2009, p. 50). In fact, when Auden does almost anything that involves helping others she always assumes she is disappointing her mother.
Fortunately, the longer Auden spends in Colby, the more she realizes that her mother’s opinions are often erroneous. For example, when Auden’s mother, Dr. Victoria West, visits Heidi’s shop her every utterance drips with distain and sarcasm. In her world, she cannot fathom that Maggie, the shop girl clad in all pink, could possibly be bright and knowledgeable. Nor can Auden’s mother imagine Heidi to be anything but ditsy. Fortunately, Auden can. Auden knows both she and Maggie are attending the same prestigious university and that Heidi is a brilliant business woman. Slowly Auden separates herself from her mother’s poisonous, self-centered opinions.
Auden’s father, Robert West, is equally, if not more, narcissistic than Auden’s mother. Jealous of his first wife’s success, he fought with her constantly only to divorce her and quickly remarry. Just as he refused to help Victoria with the upbringing of their children, so he refuses to involve himself in little Thisbe’s life. However, whereas Auden’s mother had sarcasm and a high powered career to turn to, Heidi has little. It is clear that Heidi is desperately trying to make her relationship with Robert work as she capitulates to him in the naming of their child. When Auden discovers Heidi’s list of beloved baby names (none of which include Thisbe) she writes, “I thought back to the day she’d [Heidi] admitted her dislike of the name Thisbe, and how I—and my mother—had judged her for giving in to it anyway. My father was selfish. He got what he wanted, and even then, it wasn’t enough” (Dessen, 2009, p. 281). Not only does her father treat his new wife like gum on the bottom of his shoe, he neglects Auden as well. Always promising to spend time with her, he does little except write the same book he has been working on for years. Even when Heidi confronts him he does not defend his actions, instead accusing her that she only wants Auden to visit for her babysitting skills (Dessen, 2009, p. 69).He’s a truly despicable character. In fact, Dessen’s creation of Victoria and Robert West is so well done that the reader spends much of the book hoping that Auden, Heidi, and little Thisbe will run away together and leave the Wests to their miserable, self-centered lives.
Fortunately, just is Auden is aware of her mother’s flaws, so too is she cognizant of her father’s. “You couldn’t just pick and choose at will when someone depended on you, or loved you,” she writes, “It wasn’t like a light switch, easy to shut on or off. If you were in, you were in. Out, you were out” (Dessen, 2009, p. 367). And so, just as Auden comes to terms with her mother’s poisonous beliefs so she recognizes her father’s neglect and self absorption. Upon recognition, she must decide whether to follow in the footsteps of her academic parents or to make her own way in life. And while Auden’s parents are extreme examples of neglect, isn’t Auden’s decision something that every teen faces?
Overall, Along for the Ride is a simply magnificent novel filled with complex characters and relevant overarching themes. In fact, it is the quintessential modern coming-of-age story and I would recommend it to all readers.
Reader’s Annotation
When Auden decides to spend her last summer before college in the small town of Colby with her father, stepmother, and new baby stepsister she doesn’t plan on it changing her life. Suddenly, Auden must confront her own fears as she learns how to ride a bike, go to prom, and be the normal teenager she’s always wanted to be.
About the Author
“Sarah Dessen grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and attended UNC-Chapel Hill, graduating with highest honors in Creative Writing. She is the author of several novels, including Someone Like You, Just Listen and Along for the Ride. A motion picture based on her first two books, entitled How to Deal, was released in 2003. Her tenth novel, What Happened to Goodbye,…[was just] published in May 2011. She lives in North Carolina.”
When she is not writing Sarah Dessen enjoys spoiling her two dogs, gardening, and shopping. She particularly likes The Gap and Starbucks. Two of her favorite books from her teenage years are A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume.
Dessen, S. (2011). Bio/Press kit. Retrieved from: http://sarahdessen.com/press-kit/
Genre
Bibliotherapy--neglectful parents, Coming-of-Age, Realistic fiction, Summertime novel,
Tags
Male identity, female identity, bikes, college, academia, single parent household, manipulative, passive-aggressive
Curriculum Ties
This is a wonderful book to pair with discussions on identity, particularly gendered identity. It can also be used for discussions about stereotypes, the class system, and academic elitism.
Booktalk Ideas
--If possible, ride in on a bike and pop a wheelie. That would not only be awesome but it would be highly relevant.
--List off activities and have the audience help you put them in “male” or “female” categories. Discuss why certain activities went into such categories and explain how Along for the Ride helps us challenge our gendered stereotypes.
Reading Level/Interest Age
Reading Level: 6th grade
Interest Age: 6th-12th grade (11-18 yrs.)
Reading level information from http://bookwizard.scholastic.com
Challenge Issues
Auden’s family situation is rocky at best. I suppose some parents might object to the fact that Auden’s father left her mother only to soon after marry and impregnate a woman much younger than himself. Both parents are manipulative and selfish. Additionally, it is implied that some characters have premarital sex. If challenged, librarians should point to statistics of young adults living in single parent households. Librarians should also show parents that while the novel contains out-of-wedlock sex, it does not glorify it.
Favorite Quotes
“My little sister,” he said, shaking his head. “Staying out all night with a boy. Seems like just yesterday you were playing Barbies and skipping rope.”
“Hollis, please,” I said. “Mom considered Barbies weapons of chauvinism, and nobody’s skipped rope since 1950.” (p. 246-47)
Why Was This Included?
I knew from working in a children’s bookstore that Sarah Dessen was one of the go-to names for realistic young adult fiction featuring older girls so I knew I wanted to include one of her titles in the project. Along for the Ride was one of the ones that sounded the most intriguing due to Auden's romance with Eli and her late night adventures. I’m so glad I included it as it is, so far, one the best novels I have read for the project. In fact, when this class is over I’m hoping to have time to read the rest of her books.
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