Fugitive Days: A Memoir by Bill Ayers Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Fugitive Days: A Memoir
Book Review: brave and straight-forward
Summary: 5 Stars
Thank you to Bill Ayers for providing compelling and accessible context for history that's basically impossible for my generation (not yet born in the 60's) to navigate. 1960s stories and reflections slip easily into hype and hind-sight-heavy moral lore; Ayers' book avoids both beautifully. Fugitive Days is a brave and straight-foward story of a war/time so violent and crazy that it inspired acts of rage and protest in the least likely (and most American) suspects. In the articulation of his own journey from a pampered suburb to the FBI's most wanted list, Ayers reflects honestly, warmly, and with the tremendous dual forces of irony and dignity -- on why he did the things he did. And even though the story is an unusual and intensely specific, Ayers makes it (for us) a universal coming of age. He serves up the 60s in a smart and empathetic voice. Neither self-congratulatory nor tortured with regret, Ayers is simply the clear, focused narrator of a hard and complicated story to tell. Finally, he seems to want less to set the record straight than to create a personal record of one of the most important and difficult times in American memory. Brave of Ayers to use personal genre to take personal responsbility, and brilliant that he provided this stark inside story and steered clear of rants, confessions and apologies.Book Review: fight the real enemy
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the few books to tell the story of the Weathermen, some of whom are still serving jail time while Nixon got an easy pardon for Watergate (and after planting quite a few bombs in the Vietnamese countryside), while dr Kissinger is the seminal American war-criminal and general Westmoreland should have been sent to the Hague later on. My point is: these guys had a mission, they were the true Americans, they risked their lives fighting the war machine that sent young Americans to die in a futile war. And what did they get - not a pardon, that's for ure. OK, so they could have run away to Canada (or Sweden...), but they chose to stand up to their beliefs. I mean, give these guys some credit!I like to read these one star - reviews that show how little some people understand about those time. There was a war going on, these guys took the trenchlines inside the United States of America where they really belonged. But some Americans are so happy with throwing bombs everywhere else, and supporting Fascist governments like the one in Chile after the 1973 coup.
The book by mr. Ayers is a strange book to come out of America where most books are written in political ignorance.
I think these one-star reviewers should be sent to the Vietnamese countryside on a holiday trip to see what their government did to a small, brave nation that fought an impossible fight and survived.
Book Review: wow
Summary: 5 Stars
I burned through this book -- couldn't put it down. It's an amazing and fast-paced story - it's hard to believe it really happened. The fact that it's a history text and I learned tons seems like a bonus! Thanks for the great read! When's the movie coming out???