Girls on the Verge

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.)