... it’s the unpublished, unknown chapters of Fitzgerald’s life that make his new memoir resonate as a modern look at what it’s like to feel lost in America ... Painfully honest but sincerely funny ... [Fitzgerald] manages to handle these indisputably heavy subjects with clear-eyed, darkly humorous care ... Whether writing about his struggles with body dysmorphia, his limited stint as an adult-film actor at San Francisco’s historic Armory building or how the two overlap on the Venn diagram of his life, Fitzgerald’s willingness to strip himself bare, both on the page and off, offers apt insight into why he chose to subtitle his memoir a 'confessional.' Connoting both religious overtones and Fitzgerald’s direct, heart-tattooed-on-his-sleeve brand of raw candor, Dirtbag, Massachusetts is a confession in all the best senses of the word ... Fitzgerald is also more than willing to second-guess his younger self with ruthless accuracy ... it is in celebration, not trauma, that Dirtbag, Massachusetts finds Fitzgerald tapping into his most vulnerable self ... Fitzgerald shows again and again that there is beauty to be found amid the pain, as hard as it can be to look.
... introspective yet entertaining ... The writing is heartbreaking in its simple and straightforward description of the world in which he was trapped ... a memoir composed of essays, some initially published (in somewhat different forms) almost 10 years ago. Perhaps because of this, the book’s most wrenching scenes only come after 200 pages, while in the opening essays about his childhood, Fitzgerald skims over the surface of what he endured. Vital information is scattered throughout and the book’s haphazardness somewhat dilutes our understanding of adolescent Isaac’s emotional turmoil, as well as the self-destructive tendencies of his 20s ... That said, this essayistic approach frees up Fitzgerald to tell long stories, unhampered by the demands of chronology ... Like every story in Dirtbag, Massachusetts, it’s one worth hearing and thinking about, even if, like life, it’s sometimes messy and out of order.
Fitzgerald nestles comfortably on a bar stool beside writers like Kerouac, Bukowski, Richard Price and Pete Hamill. Dirtbag, Massachusetts is a book by and for hard-drinking but softhearted men like these, and for those who take voyeuristic pleasure in their ne’er-do-well ways ... He writes about the bar with an affection that surpasses any he has for his former lovers, most of whom go nameless in the book ... aside from his mother and a porn producer and actress named Princess Donna, women are hardly mentioned in Dirtbag, Massachusetts; the action is nearly all centered on the doings of men. That’s not necessarily a criticism. The book’s charm is in its telling of male misbehavior and, occasionally, the things we men get right. The fights nearly all come with forgiveness. 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. If you’re looking for a book about what’s wrong and right with American men, you could do a lot worse than Dirtbag, Massachusetts ... There is much sin in Fitzgerald’s confessional, although none of it mortal. Instead, it is an endearing and tattered catalog of one man’s transgressions and the ways in which it is our sins, far more than our virtues, that make us who we are.
This negotiation between received 'truths' and capital-T Truth is the work of every memoir, one could argue, but Fitzgerald’s project of openhearted self-interrogation still feels refreshing in a culture where men are socialized to bury their pain, or worse, turn it back on the world as misplaced resentment ... Amidst the pain, Fitzgerald is entertaining and often funny as he reveals how his anger and hunger for validation found risky outlets ... At times, the essays in Dirtbag, Massachusetts fold back on themselves in ways that can feel recursive. But this is what trauma does: it refuses to go away; it demands revisiting. In their casual, looping trajectories, some of Fitzgerald’s essays seem to mimic active processing, like a heart-to-heart over beers. It takes a great deal of trust to commit one’s shames — and more than that, the shames of others — to the page with honesty. Messily, lovingly, Fitzgerald lays it bare.
Darkly funny and brutally honest, this memoir about surviving a chaotic childhood is a page-turner. The author is a natural storyteller who also offers insight into his motivations and those of his parents. (And I can attest to the accuracy of his descriptions of high school, since we attended the same one, though at different times!)
There is much to marvel about in Isaac Fitzgerald’s marvelous memoir-in-essays...But among its most noteworthy aspects is the fact that its author survived some of the events he describes long enough to write about them ... That he’s chosen to write about these experiences in such a revealing and compassionate way will make the many readers this book deserves happy that he’s still here ... itzgerald’s style marries candor and eloquence. He never minimizes his own transgressions; he is as open about his failings as he is unsparing in assigning blame to the parents who, for all their dedication to the Catholic Church and their shared commitment to a life of good works, set their own child’s life on its rocky course ... If the second half of his life is even half as interesting as the first, there should be many more absorbing stories to come.
Isaac Fitzgerald grabs readers' attention with the title of his memoir...and never lets go. He's a mesmerizing storyteller who deploys unexpected delights from his very first line ... He fills the 12 essays in Dirtbag, Massachusetts with heaping helpings of humor, joy, pain, sorrow, grace and insight. Throughout, Fitzgerald writes in carefully chosen prose ... Fitzgerald joins the ranks of some of the very best memoirists, including Tobias Wolff, Tara Westover and Dani Shapiro. This entertaining and thoughtful book reveals Fitzgerald's talents as a master craftsman of unusual insight and will leave readers eager for more.
... thoughtful ... a fine and compelling writer, as these vivid essay evidence. All that’s missing is a piece about his becoming a writer. Maybe next time?
... 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 that’s as wily and raunchy as it is heartfelt.
