"My parents were married when they had me, just to different people" sets the tone for Isaac Fitzgerald's gritty and humorous memoir about his escape from the town that gives his book its name, Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional, and his hardscrabble search for his place in the world.
In 10 essays, the author exposes the realities of his childhood while coming to terms with who he is and why he is. Fitzgerald's opinion of the world was fomented early on by his parents' love of literature, their Catholic faith, and an apathetic view of worldly possessions. Whenever they had to move, their book collection took priority over furniture. Fitzgerald's parents met in divinity school and abruptly found themselves with no home and zero support from either set of parents. Bouncing around South Boston, from a teacher's cramped apartment to a homeless shelter and eventually to low-income housing, sounds like a nightmare for a child, but Fitzgerald remembers these residences fondly: "I was poor but cared for... my parents were good to each other and me, nobody told me I was supposed to be miserable."
After he was mugged at gunpoint at age eight, his parents decided city life was no longer a good thing. His father remained in Boston for work, but Fitzgerald and his mother relocated to a small town in North Central Massachusetts, next door to his disapproving grandmother. Rumors of his father's infidelities back in Boston and witnessing his mother's botched attempts at suicide led eighth-grader Isaac to smash a fellow student's nose with a math book. But instead of seeing a typical delinquent, Fitzgerald's teachers saw an intelligent student with a troubled home life. They pushed him toward boarding school, with a full scholarship. His peers were posh; the drugs were generously shared--but more importantly, Fitzgerald's mind was finally allowed to bloom.
Fitzgerald's adventurous life has not been the typical path to self-discovery; perhaps recounting it will encourage others to find their own trail. --Paul Dinh-McCrillis