Fugitive Days: A Memoir by Bill Ayers
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Book Reviews of Fugitive Days: A Memoir
Book Review: A Horrible Book on All Levels
Summary: 1 Stars
First, Fugitive Days is poorly written and confused. It seems to have been written only when the author was really stoned.I can forgive poor writing. I can't forgive the extreme self-rightiousness and lame justifications for Ayers life as an American terrorist. He tries to refute that label. The hard facts are that he participated in bombing the Pentagon, the Capitol, police stations and who knows what else. He appears to have no real remorse. I honestly don't think this guy should be walking the streets. Ayers genuinely scares me, which is why I'm not signing my name to this review. Another wierd thing about this book is the constant bragging about his sexual conquests -- page after page.
I was against the Vietnam war also. Ayers, however, seems to have learned nothing since the war ended. His world is still black and white: bad guys include cops (whom he STILL calls pigs), capitalitsts, frat guys and the country that has been so merciful with Ayers. He would have been executed if he terrorized China, Cuba, Vietnam or most of the other countries he still sees through rose colored glasses. The good guys are still Karl Marx, the North Vietnamese, the working class, people who hurt cops, Che, Fidel and violent "activists." For Ayers, time has stood still. He justifies himself but honest reflection is rare.
The only value in this book is that it does provide insight into the strange and twisted mind of a terrorist. Reading it, I can better understand what happened on September 11.
Book Review: Then happy is the land that needs no heroes.
Summary: 1 Stars
If Billy and Bernardine are "American heroes," then I would next like to nominate Charles Manson for canonization too. Ayers doesn't mention it in his weasel-worded, supremely evasive pseudo-memoir, but back in the day all the Weatherpeople thought very highly of Manson, embracing him as a fellow revolutionary. And in fact, the Weather cult and the Family had quite a bit in common, ideologically speaking. They both were banking on the idea that American blacks were about to rise up and slaughter their white oppressors in an apocalyptic race war. (Tom Hayden famously paraphrased this doctrine thus: "Get a ______ to pull the trigger.")This belief underlay the famous Manson murders: Charles hoped that "the Establishment" would blame black people and come down hard on their community, thus igniting the event he called "Helter Skelter." A key difference between Ayers/Dohrn and Manson, however, is that Manson came by his insanity honestly. He was born at the very bottom of the social scale, grew up in penal institutions, was sexually and physically abused in every manner imaginable. The poor slob wasn't even given a name at birth.
Bill Ayers, on the other hand, grew up with silver spoons up every orifice of his body. He went to the best prep schools; was given every privilege and perk imaginable. And that makes him something less than Manson.
Book Review: An Obscene Self-Justification
Summary: 1 Stars
Everything that is destructive to the civic culture of this country is exemplified by this morally obtuse piece of self-indulgence. Here is a man born to privilege who in his youth advocated terrorism as a means of achieving social change (for what ends does not seem to have been clear even to him)and who wrote of the radical anti-American Weather Underground: "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." Well, has enough been done for him now, with the murder of the more than six thousand innocent men and women on September 11? "Bring the revolution home," he advised the young. "Kill your parents, that's where it's really at." The man is beneath contempt, but even worse is the stupidity of the publishers and media reviewers who take him seriously and still worse is the mindlessly corrupt "education" system that makes him a "distinguished professor" in a position to influence others too young to have learned history or experienced life. The book is sickening in its hypocrisy and should be read only as an example of the kind of arrogant fanaticism that undertakes to bring the world into alignment with one's own utopian ideas by any means no matter how violent and how destructive. The man who wrote it should have the grace to be embarrassed and to keep quiet.Book Review: Here's an idea... Try telling the truth next time.
Summary: 1 Stars
Ayers admits that this book relies heavily on imagination, but he doesn't really provide much of an explanation (one assumes that it is tied to self-interest). The book was published right on the eve of 9-11, but far enough after Oklahoma City to lull the media (in New York, at least) into a false perception that it might still be possible to package the anti-establishment terrorism of the 60's and 70's as tastefully chic.What is most troubling about this book isn't that Ayers or Bernadine Dohrn (his Charles Manson admiring partner) are unrepentant about the violence and property destruction, but that the academic community has been so accepting of both these arguably socio-pathic individuals. It is difficult to imagine an abortion clinic bomber being invited to join the faculty of any university, yet the same principle applies.
Just as Ayers concedes, this book does not provide an honest and complete account of events. Other than the failure to mention the BLA and the killing of the parents of nine children, the most conspicuous omission is how these two fugitives against the bourgeois system shamelessly used their parent's money and influence to avoid serving time for their crimes after turning themselves in to law enforcement.
Book Review: Days of Rage for the reader
Summary: 1 Stars
This book is not worth a read. It serves more as a publishing oddity than an honest account of an interesting and complex time. The main problem is the key character, Ayers himself, who is not a leader, thinker, or dreamer. He is instead a user of everything (drugs) and everyone (lovers, friends, ideals). Just because this book is well written doesn't make it true or valuable. Content may not mean much to Ayers but it does and should count with respect to books and political movements. This book is a contradition throughout--historically, politically and dramatically. It is an attempt to cash in on a cool persona Ayers has tried his whole life to create and "live" as well as take credit for actions Ayers did not think through or seem to believe like Oughton, Gold, Robbins, and the rest of the people who gave their lives to the cause. [. . ..] He is not a warrior or a true believer. He is an opportunist. He asks the reader to suspend their knowledge of history and common sense in order to feel sympathy and/or understanding for his actions. In the end, the book falls very short. The only question that is not clear is how and why did Bernardine Dohrn who is the real deal end up with him?