NO WAY BACK

A seasoned writer reflects on his college years in the tumultuous 1960s in this coming-of-age memoir.

Spang was born in the Midwest in an era of postwar prosperity, and his upbringing was, in some ways, very similar to those of millions of other baby boomers who questioned the conformity, racism, and conservativism of their parents. Spang decided to break free by traveling hundreds of miles south to attend divinity school at Vanderbilt University. In this coming-of-age tale, he connects his story as a politically idealistic college student to the larger revolutionary milieu of the 1960s. He found that Nashville, and Vanderbilt, specifically, served as a gateway for aspiring activists committed to social justice, and various figures, such as the Rev. James Lawson and Appalachian community organizer Marie Cirillo, make cameos throughout the narrative. Against this backdrop, the author reflects on his personal journey of self-discovery; although people frequently told him that he “could have any girl” because of his dashing good looks, he felt that his “body didn’t behave as it should.” Graduate school provided a venue for him to experiment with sex with both women and men, which turned out to be the first step on his journey to eventually becoming a happily married gay man. Another driving theme of the volume is how a self-described “Yankee” found a home and identity in the Appalachian Mountains. Indeed, much of Spang’s activism centered on his involvement in a folk school that not only preserved the culture of the region, but also served as a voice for “people dismissed by capitalist society.” By connecting poor people who’d long been caricatured as “hillbillies” to broader movements for social justice, the book presents an often underdiscussed perspective on ’60s activism.

The author, a former poet laureate of Portland, Maine, has penned more than a dozen novels, poetry anthologies, and chapbooks, and he currently teaches writing at the University of North Carolina at Ashville’s Great Smokies Writing Program. Over the course of this memoir, he taps into his lifetime of experience as a skilled writer, and it reads very much like a novel, replete with literary references, detailed scene setting, and rich character descriptions. And although the volume has all the hallmarks of a memoir, told through a series of short, autobiographical vignettes, its most distinguishing feature is the author’s unusual decision to name the book’s protagonist “Jason,” instead of using his own name throughout the text. Jason, per Spang, “serves as my alter ego—an earlier version of myself,” and the distance between the modern-day author and 1960s-era Jason allows Sprang “to present him honestly, without trying to romanticize him or fit him into a neat plot.” The approach, as well as the author’s admission that the “line between memoir and fiction is blurry,” may be met with some skepticism by historical purists, but it makes for a touchingly sincere and vibrantly detailed remembrance that effectively evokes the ethos of its time.

An insightful literary journey of self-discovery in the 1960s South.