Portland Public Library

Dirtbag, Massachusetts, a confessional, Isaac Fitzgerald

eng

autobiography

illustrations

no index present

non fiction

Dirtbag, Massachusetts

1184234826

Isaac Fitzgerald

a confessional

"Isaac Fitzgerald has lived many lives. He's been an altar boy, a bartender, a fat kid, a smuggler, a biker, a prince of New England. But before all that, he was a bomb that exploded his parents' lives--or so he was told. In Dirtbag, Massachusetts, Fitzgerald, with warmth and humor, recounts his ongoing search for forgiveness, a more far-reaching vision of masculinity, and a more expansive definition of family and self. Fitzgerald's memoir-in-essays begins with a childhood that moves at breakneck speed from safety to violence, recounting an extraordinary pilgrimage through trauma to self-understanding and, ultimately, acceptance. From growing up in a Boston homeless shelter to bartending in San Francisco, from smuggling medical supplies into Burma to his lifelong struggle to make peace with his body, Fitzgerald strives to take control of his own story: one that aims to put aside anger, isolation, and entitlement to embrace the idea that one can be generous to oneself by being generous to others. Gritty and clear-eyed, loud-hearted and beautiful, Dirtbag, Massachusetts is a rollicking book that might also be a lifeline."--Book jacket

Family stories -- Forgive me -- Confessions of a former former fat kid -- The true story of my teenage fight club -- Dirtbag, Massachusetts -- Hold steady -- Home -- Maybe I could die this way -- The armory -- High for the holidays -- When your barber assumes you're a racist, too -- My story

adult