Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times as a Weatherman (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: upcoming national action, draft resistance union, townhouse explosion, United States, New Left Notes, Weather Bureau (more...)

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Product Description

“On the morning of March 6, 1970, in the subbasement of 18 W. 11th Street in Greenwich Village, a piece of ordinary water pipe, filled with dynamite, nails, and an electric blasting cap, ignited by mistake…”

 So begins this stunning memoir of a white middle-class girl from Connecticut who became a member of the Weather Underground, one of the most notorious groups of the 1960s. Cathy Wilkerson, who famously blew up and escaped from a Greenwich Village townhouse, here wrestles with the legacy of the movement, at times looking at contradictions of the movement that many others have avoided: the absence of women’s voices then and in the retelling; the incompetence and the egos; the hundreds of bombs detonated in protest which caused little loss of life but which were also ineffective in fomenting revolution. While proud of many of the accomplishments of the 1960s, years later Wilkerson examines why, in 1970, she in effect accepted the same disregard for human life practiced by the government.  In searching for new paradigms for change, Wilkerson asserts with brave humanity and confessional honesty an assessment of her past—of those heady, iconic times—and finds hope and faith in a world that at times seems to offer neither. 

Cathy Wilkerson was active in the civil rights movement, Students for a Democratic Society, and the Weather Underground. In 1970, she, along with Kathy Boudin, survived an explosion in the basement of her parents’ townhouse that killed three Weathermen, forcing the two underground. For the past twenty years she has worked as an educator teaching teachers in the New York City schools.

About the Author

Cathy Wilkerson was active in the civil rights movement, SDS and the Weather Underground. In 1970, she, along with Kathy Boudin, survived an explosion in the basement of her parent's townhouse that killed 3 Weathermen, forcing them underground. For the past twenty years she has worked as an educator.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1583227717
• ISBN-13: 978-1583227718
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #453,033 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting yet flawed, January 9, 2008

By	Daniel W. Helpingstine (Indiana) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Flying Close to the Sun was an interesting look at how SDS and other anti-war activists decided that confrontation, even violent confrontation was the only true way to exact meaningful politcal change. It also showed that many new leftists were anti-Vietnam war but not anti-war. I am sure many would be all too comfortable in the culture wars of today.

Ms. Wilkerson comes across as a person with strong beliefs and a true committment to back them up with action. Yet, she also comes across as self-absorbed and naive. She didn't seem concerned that her father's town house had been destroyed and that other innocent people could have been killed. She acknowledged that her cohorts had shown terrible judgement in messing with explosives but didn't seem to realize the town house explosian damaged the anti-war movement and helped move this country to the right.

The book was still a great read and did a nice job of describing the political climate of the late sixties. It showed, through her own strainted family relations, the dynamics of what was then labeled as the "generation gap." Yet, at times I thought the book wasn't reflective enough even though it looked back events almost 40 years old.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I wanted more about her personal experiences, January 6, 2008

By	Sue Ella Kobak "reviewing my own whys" (Virginia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There were parts of the book that I really liked. Her writing is very good and her research regarding those times was well based. I too grew up at that time and was in the same circles to a much much lessor extent than she. There were no experiences easily available at that time to teach us how to even understand A revolution happened regarding class, women,and more particularly racism during the 60s and early 70s. That does not even include music, dance, art, the economy, etc. We were all being educated extensively, intellectually and by new experiences, and more importantly including some real effective organizing skills. We had more money and resources in a way our parents never had available when they were our age. What we did with those opportunities resulted in some significant change. I had hoped that Cathy would talk about her experiences with this revolution in a more personal way. I think she did an excellent job explaining how and why she intellectually made the decisions she made. That was good and helpful, but I still don't know much about Cathy and how she experienced this meaningful time based on her own experience as an upper middle class person whose whole understanding of the world was turned upside down by the efforts to affect power in this country. I do recommend this book, but don't expect to know Cathy Wilkerson much better than what we already knew. Her place in the weatherman organization is confirmed and understanding how decisions were made becomes very clear. That information clearly helps us understand the Weathermen and what influnced their activity.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Raises Questions But Provides No Answers, Little Insight, March 7, 2008

By	Kenneth K. Kraska "bookworm_54" (Michigan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Cathy Wilkerson is best known to the world today as one of the two survivors of the March 2, 1970 bomb explosion at a Weatherman safe house in New York City which killed three of her friends and collaborators.

Wilkerson writes an interesting narrative of her transformations from a WASPy 1950's era Swarthmore College grad into a professional activist to a street fighter, then a terrorist, a wanted fugitive, a mother, a prison inmate, and today a NYC math teacher. Wilkerson gives the most emphasis in her book to the first three, and it is an emphasis that will probably be of most interest to readers.

Wilkerson notes throughout her book that the New Left had a tendency toward bullying tactics for both organizational governance and in formulating programs of action [p.205]. This tenancy was extreme in the case of SDS in general and the Weathermen in particular. To wit: "It was a [leadership] style that embraced certainty as a primary credential for leadership." Wilkerson detects this tendency but never struggles against it and never says why, either. This is a issue I would have liked to see her address.

Another issue that Wilkerson identifies but never addresses in depth is the whole idea of SDS as an organization for the long-run. As a student-based organization SDS had the fatal flaw that being a college student is a transitory phase in most people's lives. At some point people want to stop going to classes and get on with their lives. So where does the committed student activist go then? [p.236]