Isaac Fitzgerald
DIRTBAG, MASSACHUSETTS: A CONFESSIONAL
ABOUT THE BOOK
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.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Isaac Fitzgerald appears frequently on "The Today Show" and is the author of the bestselling children's book "How to Be a Pirate" as well as the co-author of "Pen & Ink" and "Knives & Ink" (winner of an IACP Award). His writing has appeared in the "New York Times", the "Guardian" , the "Best American Nonrequired Reading" , and numerous other publications. He lives in Brooklyn.
