It is about the ways men struggle to make sense of themselves and the romance men too often find in the bottom of a bottle of whiskey. The fights nearly all come with forgiveness. “Fitzgerald nestles comfortably on a bar stool beside writers like Kerouac, Bukowski, Richard Price and Pete Hamill…The book’s charm is in its telling of male misbehavior and, occasionally, the things we men get right. Gritty and clear-eyed, loud-hearted and beautiful, Dirtbag, Massachusetts is a rollicking book that might also be a lifeline.

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.

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.įitzgerald’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. But before all that, he was a bomb that exploded his parents’ lives-or so he was told. He's been an altar boy, a bartender, a fat kid, a smuggler, a biker, a prince of New England. pulling no punches on the path to truth, but it always finds the capacity for grace and joy.” – Esquire, 'Best Memoirs of the Year'Ī TIME Must-Read Book of the Year * A Rolling Stone Top Culture Pick * A Publishers Weekly Best Memoir of the Season * A Buzzfeed Book Pick * A Goodreads Readers' Most Anticipated Book * A Chicago Tribune Book Pick * A Book You Should Read * A Los Angeles Times Book to Add to Your Reading List * An Entertainment Weekly Best Book of the Month Winner of the New England Book Award for Nonfiction

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