Fugitive Days

Rating:
Summary: A little thin
Review: I picked up "Fugitive Days" hoping to get an insider's account of life as a fugitive and an explanation of those days. Maybe Ayers' own admission that memory is shaky and not entirely trustworthy should have been a hint to me. I found little of what I was looking for. I find the title misleading. Only about one-third of the book is about his days as a fugitive and the description of that time is vague. He doesn't even describe how they finally turned themselves in. I didn't get a clear idea of who the other members of the Weathermen were and how they interacted with each other. He and Diana Oughton loved each other, but I don't get a sense of that love. He uses the book mostly to expound upon the ideas of that time and his ideas now. Definitely not a straight autobiography; more of a philosophical rant.

Rating:
Summary: Bring the war home
Review: Many people around the world have sacrificed for a better world, and Bill Ayers was one of those people who did what he could from his position, in his time. He gives us an account of his life and times, and milieu.

I appreciated some of the things I noticed - he doesn't really talk about how he was an SDS leader or note how this or that person was a leader, everyone is considered on an equal basis. He talks in one section about a black woman who is a good leader in her community, and how government social workers going down their lists would probably classify, in their books, as a general failure as a person.

The book is a good mixture of personal and political, of confrontation with authority as well as building community and giving to the community, in poor American neighborhoods or in Guatemala. It is from the point of view of someone who grew up in a normal, middle class, Midwestern family during the 1950's, but even that would be too dangerous to hear on the corporate media, so one would have to read the book to get an idea of the world view that many people in the country and world share.

Rating:
Summary: Revolting radical chic narcissism
Review: That this thing ever found a publisher is disgusting. Mr. Ayres is utterly incapable of realizing or telling the truth about his grotesque and violent ideas or passage through life. Lies about his history and motives whenever it suits his purposes to do so. Avoid this package of lies and inadequate justifications at all costs.