... it’s the unpublished, unknown chapters of Fitzgerald’s life that make his new memoir resonate as a modern look at what it’s like to feel lost in America.

... introspective yet entertaining.

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.

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.

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.

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.

... thoughtful.

... tenderhearted.

... a raucous mosaic of a rough-and-ready New England rarely seen with a transfixing story of his path to finding himself.

Fitzgerald unearths inspiration from dirtbags of all shapes and sizes, sharing it with sincerity and generosity..