Books

Timothy Fitzgerald. Wawona Brotherhood. New York: Strategic Book Publishing, 2009. 306pp.

This, the first of Tim Fitzgerald's three-volume autobiography, is a fine introduction into a turbulent period of history with which not all who lived or "survived" it have quite come to terms. Looking back, we tend to glorify it and long for its return, or we just belittle it. Tim wasn't just anybody back then; he was a central player in the student movement at San Jose, and masterfully tells it like it was.

This is a complex work, not in an academic sense (although historians are certain to value its contribution), but because even intellectual ideas are suffused with the emotional intensities, tones, colors...and insights he recollects about them. His account may be about a past long dead, but it is a living account. His fluid, purposeful style of writing has that rare quality of allowing the reader to step inside expectantly for the long journey. But Tim is far more than just a writer. In this book, he is foremost a witness of others and of himself, thinker, and keen political analyst all rolled in one.

Before I go on, I should point out that I was his first (not last) editor, the one who undertook at least to put his early draft into good enough shape for submission. It required a lot of work, and more work needed to be done after I was through. Lacking funds, Tim worked on it some more and then took up my suggestion to submit the manuscript, as is, to an agent. I was delighted, but I later learned to my horror that his manuscript stayed in limbo for a number of years. I felt guilty for not having done more...

I had nothing to do with the final edit, and don't like every change done there. However, I am especially glad Tim kept the mountaineering chapters. It must have been a struggle with his publisher, but they constitute some of the best writing I have read on the subject. I wish there had been a way to keep the rest of it, though admittedly the original length of these these chapters caused the manuscript to be a little disjointed when I first worked on them.

This said, the rock-climbing and several early chapters about beginnings seem fine just the way they are. They help you ease into his life and the times. A stroke here, another there...until barely a few pages in and you've gained a broader view of what follows than you would have through a linear progression. Not everybody will feel the same, and it probably won't work with the remaining two volumes, yet to be published. There may be room for improvement come the next edition of this volume.

That's all minor. You will enjoy this book. Tim's life story reminds me of "A Tragic Honesty," Blake Bailey's biography of Richard Yates. But whereas Yates, a "mere" writer, sacrificed and suffered for the sake of artistic honesty, Tim has sacrificed and suffered for political honesty. He dared live his convictions. His whole life is the art piece!

I like his writing style, but I was enthralled by the world that subsists between the lines: its hopes, relationships, disappointments, dreams, betrayals, downfalls, redemptions, faith. Like every engaging writer, he lets the writing disappear and the image take shape. What comes out is a portrayal drawn with meticulous and visceral realism. It will at once uplift and disturb you.

I mentioned faith. I don't know if or to what extent he's religious, but you can't miss the stubborn faith he has in our ability to create a better world for ourselves. And, boy, did he suffer for it! Still, Tim is not a tragic figure like Yates was, despite the crushing political disillusionment of the late 1960s, which threw up the Weathermen and their likes. Yates abused his body and mind, drinking himself to oblivion and squandering his rare talent. It's a hefty price that artists are sometimes willingly to pay for the sake of "honest" expression.

Rather, Tim has been abused and railroaded by others, and very early on. The USSR wasn't the only place where dissidents were condemned as mental cases and hauled off to psychiatric wards. It happened right here in the Land of the Free. He was briefly institutionalized and drugged; he was lied to and manipulated. But he fought his way out. He pursued his studies, earning several university degrees. He later became a college teacher of history, political science and economics. Lucky for all of us (whatever our political persuasion), he hasn't lost faith. He's still active.

Tim has indeed risen high. The difference between him and many of his generation is that he has done, and is doing, what most of us desire and fear at the same time. We're fearful above all of personal consequences. But then, what is honesty without a tinge of personal tragedy? What is meaningful change without some sacrifice?

Life is like climbing mountains. I'm so glad he kept that part of his manuscript. It symbolizes the life of an uncommon man truly worth reading and learning from.

Anthony F. Shaker, PhD, has been writing, ghostwriting, editing and reviewing books for 25 years. He is fluent in several languages, has traveled widely around the world and writes in both fiction and nonfiction. His clients include individuals and businesses.

Anthony F. Shaker, PhD

afshaker@aol.com