I have this annoying thing I do when I read something that I love. I put it down before finishing it as sort of a pause to hold it over so that I can have more time with it because I don’t want it to end. I did that here as well except this time 3/4 of the way through I started over from the beginning and read it though once again before finally reaching the conclusion.
This memoir is everything a memoir should be — incredibly honest and absolutely insightful.
What I love most about Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional is that it offers the most valuable lesson in the fervent reminder that what made us isn’t all that we’re meant to be. We don’t forget and don’t not deal with our beginnings, and we hopefully take part in life as we allow it to further change and shape us. We don’t get so caught up that we become stuck because truly the only way through is forward.

Thanks to Isaac Fitzgerald for writing and sharing this personal collection of essays. Further thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for allowing me a copy to read.

I can't tell you the last time I read a book by a straight white man, but this memoir was worth breaking that streak. It's a profound meditation on identity, family, and mistakes, told with honesty and humor. I much prefer these memoirs-in-essay compared to a purely chronological structure, and DIRTBAG, MASSACHUSETTS is one of the best.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in exchange for this review.

I had never heard of this author before reading this book, but the title intrigued me, having myself grown up in a part of Massachusetts that was past its heyday. This memoir is told in a series of essays discussing a variety of topics. Usually in an essay collection, I find myself enjoying a handful of the essays with the rest being forgettable.

However, in this collection, I enjoyed almost every chapter. The author examines subjects such as family, religion, violence, volunteerism abroad, sexual consent, and more. The common thread that I found throughout the book is a sense of hope. The author is able to reflect and grow from his experiences, however difficult they may be.

The author writes in a relatable and easy to read style. I would recommend this book to any readers who enjoy memoirs.

These essays tell an incredible story of a life so varied and textured. The abuse, trauma and joy expressed is palpable and moving.

Issac Fitzgerald’s memoir really puts life in perspective for you. His memories of growing up poor and eventually turned to alcohol. Reading memoirs like this always helps me to put my life into perspective and realize all my blessings. I truly appreciated hearing his viewpoints on life, on religion and on hardships. This was a great and interesting memoir

DIGITAL ARC REVIEW

Quick Take:

Dirtbag, Massachusetts by Isaac Fitzgerald is a memoir and reflection on his life growing up poor and catholic. Fitzgerald was born to two parents who were married to different people at the time. They both split up with their partners and married each other before he was born.

He grew up both poor and immersed in the catholic faith. Here are a few Quotes I found noteworthy on Catholic Church: “The kind of fault that never, ever, ever, ever should fall to a victim, wherein the Church’s denial of their reality forces the victims to fight to tell the truth that nothing was actually something. It forces the victims to be the ones to make it real.” and “In one way, the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal could be seen as the dictum “Forgiveness above all else” being taken to an opportunistic, self-serving, evil extreme. And anyway, that is not real forgiveness. Real forgiveness requires taking responsibility, because real forgiveness is not complete in and of itself — it’s a first step.”

Growing up, Fitzgerald learned to be two different people. He was able to get in at a local boarding school on a scholarship. He’d talk and behave one way with his boarding school friends and completely different back home.

He also explained why alcohol and bars can be so comforting. From the first drink alcohol was a way of feeling happy in an unhappy world. While working at a bar, the bar became his family. Unlike his family back home, the people he worked with took him as he was. Unfortunately, drinking can only make you happy for so long and Fitzgerald had to find this out the hard way. In many ways these are stories of coming of age but with the knowledge of your grown self.

What I liked: I liked the realness of it, how I felt I could relate even though his life was different than mine. I felt like he made a lot of wise and insightful points about religion and life. While it was the story of his life, it made me think.

What I didn’t like: I wished that he had gone into more of the details of why his relationship with his parents was so strained. He talked around it and said how bad it was, but I wish I could have “seen” why.

Rating: 5/5
Genre: Essays/Memoir

I loved this book. I wish more memoirs felt this natural, like a friend telling you a story, going back and forth through time and threading the pieces together.

I am a longtime Isaac Fitzgerald fan and was excited to read this book. It was a slow start for me, the beginning felt like it lacked both the author's characteristic humor and heart, and also like he was dancing around issues (his father's anger, his mean grandmother) that he didn't want to write about. It picked up at the half-way mark, in San Francisco. Isaac begins to make a life of is own that is smart and literary and peppered with "dirtbag" characters and hair-raising adventures. People love Isaac and I bet they will love this book :)

This memoir has many interesting sections, but for me it felt like the narrator was watching the events of his life, standing apart from it, and wrote in a manner I found dry and detached.

He describes growing up with a mentally unstable mother and an angry, violent father in a devoutly Catholic community, devoted to working in the church. They moved around a lot through his childhood. He never felt safe, and gravitated toward a rough crowd. He describes his life as a bartender in San Francisco, his travels in Burma bringing medical supplies to injured citizens, and his short stint in porn. These scenarios are described sparsely, and I never felt emotionally engaged with his plight.

Saying "I grew up in an abusive household" doesn't engage the reader as much as describing the situation and allowing us to feel the abuse and despair would.

There are no other characters who are fleshed out. He describes them, but they don't take on vivid presences in the book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.