Isaac Fitzgerald & Jerry Stahl With Jonathan Ames: A Conversation

Isaac Fitzgerald appears frequently on the Today show and is the author of the bestselling children’s book How to Be a Pirate, as well as the co-author of Pen & Ink and Knives & Ink, winner of an IACP Award. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and numerous other publications. Fitzgerald’s lived many lives: He’s been an altar boy, a bartender, a fat kid, a smuggler, a biker, and a prince of New England. But before all that, he was a bomb that exploded his parents’ lives – or so he was told. Dirtbag, Massachusetts: A Confessional (Bloomsbury Publishing) recounts his ongoing search for forgiveness, a more far-reaching vision of masculinity, and a more expansive definition of family and self. His memoir-in-essays begins with a fast childhood that moves from safety to violence, and through trauma to self-understanding to, ultimately, acceptance. From growing up in a Boston homeless shelter to bartending in San Francisco and smuggling medical supplies into Burma, Fitzgerald strives to take control of his own story, put aside anger, isolation, and entitlement, and embrace the idea that one can be generous to oneself by being generous to others.

Jerry Stahl has written 10 books, including the bestselling memoir Permanent Midnight, made into a movie with Ben Stiller; the essay collection O.G. Dad; and six novels, including Pain Killers; I, Fatty; Perv; and Bad Sex on Speed. His work has appeared in Esquire, Vice, and The New York Times, among other places. His credits for film and TV include HBO’s Hemingway & Gellhorn, Bad Boys II; the cult classic Dr. Caligari; and the series CSI. In September 2016, Stahl embarked on a two-week trip across Poland and Germany that included a guided group tour of Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Dachau. He had his reasons for Holocaust tourism. His depression was at an all-time high – an out-of-control sadness, regret, and fear, not just for himself but for the entire United States – and his career and personal life were at an all-time low. The idea was to confront personal and historical demons with deep despair and savage humor. In Nein, Nein, Nein!: One Man’s Tale of Depression, Psychic Torment, and a Bus Tour of the Holocaust (Akashic Books), Stahl weaves global and personal history as he takes us from gang polkas and tour rash to Auschwitz’s truly disturbing snack bar. It is a raw, surreal, and redemptively hilarious tale.

Jonathan Ames is the author of the novels I Pass Like Night, The Extra Man, and Wake Up, Sir!, as well as the nonfiction books The Double Life Is Twice as Good: Essays and Fiction, What’s Not to Love?, My Less Than Secret Life, I Love You More Than You Know, and most recently, You Were Never Really Here (adapted into the film starring Joaquin Phoenix). He’s the creator of two TV series, Blunt Talk and Bored to Death, and fought two amateur boxing matches as “The Herring Wonder.” Happy Doll, the title character of A Man Named Doll: A Novel (Mulholland Books), is a charming if occasionally inexpert private detective living beneath the Hollywood sign. A veteran of both the Navy and LAPD, Doll supplements his meager income as a P.I. by working at a local Thai spa that offers its clients “special services.” Armed with his 16-inch steel telescopic baton and biting dry humor, he protects the women who work there from clients who don’t understand the word “no.” But he’s out of his depth with one violent patron – and then an old friend from his days as a cop shows up at his door with a bullet in his gut.