Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional

(Hardback)

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A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Memoir of the Season A BookPage Most Anticipated Book of 2022 Any fool can confess. Its the rare writer who reveals, and Dirtbag, Massachusetts is a heart on the sleeve, demons in check, eyes unblinking, unbearably sad, laugh-out-loud funny revelation.MARLON JAMES, author of Moon Witch, Spider King 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 livesor 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. Fitzgeralds 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.

Reviews

Vulnerable, revealing, and tender, Fitzgeralds Dirtbag, Massachusetts has it allfaith, sex, fear, resilience, and love. His is a story of a real American family and a beautiful and creative American son. * Min Jin Lee, author of the National Book Award Finalist PACHINKO *
Any fool can confess. Its the rare writer who reveals, and Dirtbag, Massachusetts is a heart on the sleeve, demons in check, eyes unblinking, unbearably sad, laugh-out-loud funny revelation. * Marlon James, Booker Prize-winning author of MOON WITCH, SPIDER KING *
Isaac Fitzgerald lays himself bare in this stunning memoir, stripping off all the things that no long serve him. Raw, vulnerable, and powerful, this book will be a key in the lock of many hearts and minds. * Emma Straub *
Dirtbag, Massachusetts is a wondrously crafted confessional in every sense of the word, one of the finest, and really sneakiest narrative boasts I've read in decades. Isaac Fitzgerald will remind you of the wobbly majesty possible when fears of tomorrow and yesterday are innovatively confronted and masculinity is shredded. Goodness gracious. * Kiese Laymon, author of HEAVY *
This book, this beautiful, sprawling, chaotic memoir in essays, is indeed a confessional. It is a man peeling back the layers of himself, revealing the white of his bones, the depth of his soul, the truth of his flaws, and the power of the best parts of him, of which there are so many. Isaac Fitzgerald will make you feel absolutely everything as he recounts a childhood no one should have to endure, and how he has tried to rebuild the parts of himself that other people broke. He is charming and vulnerable, curious and candid, full of dirtbag swagger. I loved this book. When I turned the last page, I wanted more but was so grateful to have spent this time with a man who is on the complicated but joyful journey of becoming and being himself. * Roxane Gay *
Ebullient, irreverent, tender, Dirtbag, Massachusetts is a record of a love for the world in all its messy fullness that you just cant fake, and how that came to be. I felt more alive after reading these essays, and whatever I thought I knew, Isaac Fitzgerald taught me something new. Hes a ringleader for the Circus in the House of Love. * Alexander Chee, author of HOW TO WRITE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL *
Dirtbag, Massachusetts is a diamond of a memoir. Fitzgeralds sentences are so clean and true that you'll never realize you're cut until you're bleeding. Or you know, crying. * Mira Jacob, author of THE SLEEPWALKER'S GUIDE TO DANCING *
Dirtbag, Massachusetts is glimmering, dirty, and humble. A masterful blend of humor, intelligence, and craft. This book is the antidote to toxic masculinity. * Chloe Caldwell, author of The Red Zone: A Love Story *
Fitzgerald weaves a raucous mosaic of a rough-and-ready New England rarely seen with a transfixing story of his path to finding himself. . . The result is a marvelous coming-of-age story thats as wily and raunchy as it is heartfelt. * Publishers Weekly, starred review *
There will be tough stops along this journeyincluding discussions of violence, homelessness and traumabut we suspect Fitzgeralds signature tenderness, humor and generosity will carry readers gently the whole way. * BookPage, "13 Writers to Watch in 2022" *
As an essayist and editor, Fitzgerald had long served as a kind of genial barkeep of the literary internet an avuncular, boozy presence with killer taste in books. * Robert Moor, New York Magazine *
Sharp, fresh and needed. * San Francisco Chronicle on KNIVES & INK *
To marvel. * New York Times on KNIVES & INK *
Poignant, charming, heartbreaking, and honest. Like tattoos, these stories leave an impression that will linger. * Roxane Gay on PEN & INK *
Absolutely delightful from cover to cover. * Maria Popova, Brainpickings on PEN & INK *

Author Bio

Isaac Fitzgerald appears frequently on The Today Show and is the author of the bestselling childrens 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.