The Runaway's Diary

by Marilyn Harris

YA novel about a young girl trying to make it on her own after running away from home.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Teen

Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Harris was born on June 4, 1931, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the daughter of John P., an oil executive, and Dora (nee Veal) Harris. Harris was educated in her home state, attending Cottey College from 1945 to 1951, then transferring to the University of Oklahoma, from which she received a bachelor of arts degree in 1953 and a master of arts degree in 1955.

Harris's first collection of short stories, King's Ex, was published by Doubleday in 1967. After that Harris proved a prolific author, publishing seventeen books, including novels, short stories, romance/ historical fiction and children's fiction in a twenty-year period from 1970 to 1989. These works, in addition to those listed above, include In the Midst of Earth (1969), The Peppersalt Land (1970), The Runaway's Diary (1971), The Conjurers (1974), Bledding Sorrow (1976), The Portent (1980), The Last Great Love (1981), Warrick (1985), Night Games (1987), and Lost and Found (1991). Harris's work has received a wide readership; in 1983, nine million of her books were in print, and her work has been translated into many languages, including French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and Japanese. She has also been an author in residence at Oklahoma's Central State University.

She died January 18, 2002.

Reviews

[John Conrad · Rating 3 out of 5]

My older brother ran away from home several times and I often had a bag packed myself as a young boy. This book was initially read more for information than for entertainment, but I re-read it several times along with "My Side of the Mountan" by Jean George and "Runaways" by Victor Canning. Kids need to escape into fantasy stories like these in order to cope with the emotional ups and downs of the teenage years. I think this was a pretty honest portrayal of a runaway. I still pick it up now and then to skim after 39 years. (I almost never throw a book away)

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cat Toven, 15, runs away from a tense family situation. She is a very introspective girl who reads and romanticizes Henry David Thoreau. She writes poetry. On her journey, Cat makes some important discoveries about herself and some answers about facing fears. "When you really know you're alive, you can make your life exactly everything you want to." That is her conclusion.

A bit dated, now, but I loved it when I was in high school.

[David Torres · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Los días no son más que días, a no ser que ocurra algo que los convierta en recuerdos".

Es una historia interesante sobre una chica que decide escapar y buscar el sentido que necesita su vida, similar a Siddharta de Hesse.
La protagonista está hecha para que cualquier adolescente se identifique con ella.
Las situaciones están bien, aunque tampoco es un libro que se destaque por sus inolvidables momentos.
Contiene algunas reflexiones que me han gustado mucho, y nunca pretende "evangelizar" al lector como típico libro de autoayuda. Por el contrario, es una historia bien narrada sobre la conexión con la naturaleza y con uno mismo.
Está bien, aunque es prescindible.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was obsessed with this book as a fourth-grader; I kept renewing it from my elementary school library, re-reading it and copying out passages into a private notebook. In part my fascination was fed because I believed that it was an actual "diary" by an actual "runaway", which helped me feel close to the protagonist. Re-read as an adult, it's a weird book, and I was a little surprised to see all the Zen references and themes of searching, but I definitely enjoyed it, and it helped me feel closer to some of the things I was struggling with at that point in my life.

[Stephanie A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The worst thing about being on the road is that you don't belong anywhere. The place you've come from is just as strange as the place you think you're going to.

This is definitely a 70s book, in both content and tone -- a lot of introspection on the meaning of life, questioning the establishment, and contemplating the deep words of Thoreau, leading to sometimes dense text that I'm not sure I'd have appreciated as much when I was a teen vs. now. There are also lines like "the straights will buy anything," which I definitely read in the tone of a Tumblr user at first glance, and made myself laugh when I realized what I'd done.

But overall, I really enjoyed it. Despite setting out under the misguided advice that "lots of kids are traveling now" and "people are nice on the road, they'll do anything for you; no one really does anything to you anymore -- that's all in that past" (oh boy does the upcoming rest of the decade have news for you!), she does indeed manage to have extremely good luck with the kindness of strangers, encountering only one creepy-vibes man, whose ride offer she declines.

I can't even imagine people of today seeing an obvious high schooler and having no fear of prosecution for transporting a minor across state (if not country!) lines, even if they didn't have a moral issue with it, but it's a lot more fun to visit this kind of culture and see how much Cat is able to do with her independence. Plus, she has a puppy! Mike is such a good, loyal, protective pup.

Which reminds me, I liked this a lot more than the similarly-themed Hitchhike, by Isabelle Holland. Cat has a way more engaging personality and a lot less attitude and bitterness. Plus this one isn't just about the hitchhiking aspect. For her, it's a means to get to a hypothetical "green place" where she dreams of being alone and at peace in nature, and when she finds it, she camps out and stays a while. I can't tell you how much this made me look forward to warm weather and spending some time in the woods myself.

I also really liked the diary format, which at times felt so real it was annoying -- like when she would repeat or only slightly rephrase a thought, as if forgetting she'd already written it down (I have done this). I can't dock it for that, though, because I kept imagining what the notebook would look like with real handwriting and getting as absorbed in it as the author purported to be*.

*Almost forgot to mention -- through a foreword and afterword, the author posits that this is a real diary she happened to pick up from the scattered belongings of an unknown girl who was struck by a car on the highway in front of her (this is in the foreword, no spoilers), later published with permission. Obviously it isn't real, nor are we truly meant to think so, but it really helped me suspend my disbelief.

It also got me thinking about all the cold cases of missing runaways or nameless bodies from this era, that are either still open cases or took decades to solve, and how easily I could imagine Cat being one of them with just the slightest tweak here and there. Like that kid who rode in the hippies' van with her -- we never find out if he ended up dying, or even his name. Did they? Maybe he ended up among the Does. This made it feel even more real. I got invested. I didn't cry, but I got a little choked up at times.

Before I die, I hope everything happens to me.

Knowing that Harris wrote predominantly for adults, I'd be lying if I said I hadn't eagerly browsed through her back catalog, vaguely hoping she'd written a companion novel about Cat's parents. I probably wouldn't like it as much, but I have so many questions about what they were doing throughout all of this and what their reactions were like. Alas, this appears to stand alone.

P.S. For all the good, there is a mathematical error that really bugs me. Cat describes herself as "15, almost 16," but the timestamps given don't match up -- her birthday is February 15, 1954, and the diary starts in June of 1970. I'll assume her birth year is meant to be '55, given that she references Woodstock as a past event, but even so, I'm not sure I'd call myself "almost" the next age 8 months beforehand! Not in my diary, anyway.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recently discovered that this author is an alumnae of my school. Did not know that when picking this up, but deffo pretty cool.

This book was definitely interesting. I haven't picked up a book formatted like a journal in a hot minute that I can recall, and it's the perfect storytelling choice here. This book is sad in a good way. Sad-introspective. I might have to get my own copy.

Kind of disappointed Cat Toven isn't really real though. Even more disappointed I won't ever get to hitchhike to Canada to live in the woods with my dog and get nice and tan and skinny.

[Cindy Nutter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was in high school in the 70's. I loved this book even through it is a sad story. Everything Cat went through to have it all end the way it did. It's a beautiful story of how she survived on her journey to find herself. She met many good people along the way and she found a friend in the german shepherd she takes in.

[Anna]

I also read this as a teen and remember much of this book. Wish they would release again as well... Great escape book.

[Glire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dos estrellas solo porque lo terminé. Aunque desearía no haberlo hecho... Que final tan tremendamente horrible.

[Luna Lovegood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fue de los primeros libros que leí y de los que me introdujeron a este mundo maravilloso, lo he releído varias veces y me sigue encantando.
Este libro es muy especial para mí.

[Karla Arroyo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed my life. It's simple yet complex, really worth the ride :)

[Wickedpen]

Sad ending. Very realistic.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this as a teen, probably back in the 70's. I was not that fond of reading back then, even though my father took us to the local library often. This was one of the books that I pulled off the shelf at random and started reading it. It was one of the few page-turners for me. I could not put it down. I saw in my mind everything that happened to this girl, and those 'visions' still stay with me today, even decades later.

This is the mark of a great book. So much so, that I want to read it again.

5 stars