Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young:
Mother knows best. I mean bombs.
Quick synopsis:
A memoir about the author growing up on the run with his fugitive parents who were the leaders of the Weather Underground.
Fact for Non-History People:
Between 1970 and 1975, the WUO carried out roughly 25 bombings targeting sites of U.S. power, including the Pentagon, the U.S. State Department, and the U.S. Capitol building.
Fact for History Nerds:
Three members were killed when a bomb they were making detonated prematurely.
My Take on Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: Author Zayd Ayers Dohrn gets to do something so many children around the U.S. would love to do – psychoanalyze his parents in a public way! Granted, Dohrn’s parents were part of the radical group the Weather Underground and committed various crimes so his study would be more interesting than most. But still. Who couldn’t have fun (and catharsis) with this kind of premise?
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young follows Dohrn as he tells the story of both his parents’ radical youth and then their days as a family on the run. Dohrn grew up with parents who taught him how to spot FBI agents, change his own name regularly, and leave everything behind in a split second. Basically, Dohrn got all the worst parts of being on the run while being totally innocent of everything.
This type of narrative is ripe for an author to lionize or villainize his parents while losing sight of the bigger picture. Dohrn masterfully makes this feel like history even when he makes it personal. He asks the hard questions, very often of his parents directly, but also their radical friends. This is not a man who looks at his parents as infallible beings. In fact, he challenges them regularly, asking how they can be parents and still do the things they did. What if he and his brother were left without parents because they were jailed? How healthy is it to make a child grow up on the run? How can you live with yourself when people are killed because of your actions?
However, Dohrn doesn’t discount his parents zeal, either. He certainly doesn’t think the federal government is the hero. As you would expect, his politics lean more towards his parents’ slant just without the need to blow things up and put innocent people in danger. This book also could have turned into a diatribe on present day politics. While Dohrn will make a comment or two here or there, it is not pervasive. He keeps this story about his parents and their radical groups. The book is that much better for it.
Besides the actual content, Dohrn is a masterful writer. I knew I would love this one from the first few pages. His descriptions and anecdotes are descriptive, but never overwrought. When he needs to challenge a viewpoint, he does so in simple language so that no one can misunderstand his point. I will warn readers that this book is not linear. There is some jumping around in time and between people. I know for some readers this is a huge turnoff. However, I think this was the right choice for this story. Dohrn has to juggle so much that it’s necessary in my opinion.
Candidly, I intensely disliked the actions of Dohrn’s parents. Not for their politics necessarily, but because I can’t ever condone the actions of a parent who would willingly put their children in danger (and Dohrn has similar reservations while obviously giving them way more grace than me, for the record). The fact that I could feel so strongly about them while still enjoying the overall narrative is a testament to how well Dohrn threads the needle. This is a writer who effortlessly knows how to serve the story and the reader simultaneously. I can’t recommend this one enough.
(This book was provided as a review copy by W.W. Norton.)
Verdict:
Absolutely fantastic. Buy it here!
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