We Go With Him

10 Years on the Irish Waterfront

Yesterday we got our first copy of Jim’s new book, On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York. I'll quote from the blurbs on the book jacket:

For anyone who has ever been moved by Marlon Brando delivering the immortal line, 'I coulda been a contender,' this book is a must. Through state-of-the-art research, James T. Fisher recreates the tough, corrupt universe of the waterfront, a huge commercial and criminal bounty where careers were built, noses broken, dissenters murdered, riches gained and lost—and it all became the basis for one of the most cherished American movies of all time. On the Irish Waterfront is a major act of historical restoration and a fascinating yarn told by a skilled literary maestro--- T. J. English, New York Times bestselling author of Paddy Whacked, The Westies, and Havana Nocturne

"James T. Fisher penetrates the code of silence that characterized the Irish culture of New York’s waterfront, bringing to life the violent world of longshoremen, crooked unionists, politicians and businessmen, crusading writers, and Catholic clerics fighting over control of the nation’s busiest port and what moral code it would live by. He brilliantly reconstructs the story behind On the Waterfront and the actual events on which that great film was based."—Joshua B. Freeman, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, author of Working-Class New York and In Transit

(More advance praise for Jim’s book is here.)

On the Irish Waterfront is set in Jersey City, Hoboken, Bayonne, and other Hudson county environs, and in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, territory that the three of us have regularly traversed since we came back to New Jersey in June of 2001. Often Jim’s need to locate some site he was researching was the reason for a trek in Greenwich village or Hell's Kitchen. Walking with Charlie on the West Side and the West Village, venturing onto the piers where longshoremen once stood in the shape-up to have a chance at a day's work, hoofing it down Kennedy boulevard in the rain to catch the PATH train from Jersey City’s Journal Square to the WTC site: These jaunts (a big part of our weekends with Charlie) have covered much of the terrain of the Irish waterfront.

Being out and about with Charlie anywhere and everywhere has long been the core of our advocacy. Back in 2005 we took Charlie on a Riverkeepers tour of the Meadowlands. When another passenger asked if we thought Charlie was getting something out of the tour, Jim immediately replied “Absolutely.” Sure Charlie’s not at his grade level in any of his academic subjects. I’d say there’s all the more need for him to learn about the world, about history, about nature, in any way that might be offered.

And when I read the pages of Jim’s On the Irish Waterfront I’m not only taken back to the days when Chelsea Piers were working piers, a far cry from the entertainment complex they are now (Charlie first visited Chelsea Piers to attend a birthday party); when union bosses, politicians and businessmen including a Mr. Big (and, too, some members of the clergy) vied for control of the port. When I read about the Waterfront Crime Commission I’m back in St. Paul in 1999 when Jim spent his sabbatical year opening the door for Charlie’s first ABA therapists and doing research in the University of Minnesota library. When I read about Fr. Peter Corridan, the “waterfront priest,” who fought for social justice for the longshoremen and their families, I recall our walks, Charlie getting a piggy back ride from Jim, past Xavier Labor School and the numerous times Jim and I searched the shelves of Blockbuster to find a copy of On the Waterfront before Jim discussed the film in a class or at a lecture.

On the Irish Waterfront is a story of struggle and silence, of violence, of perseverance and justice. Of course it’s not a book about autism or what I’ve been writing about in journals and blogs while Jim pieced together his narrative. And yet the struggle and the unwavering sense that there’s a story to tell that many would rather consign to silence: This spirit is behind Jim’s book. I’ve been hoping I can harness even a piece of it as I try to put together my own book of our journey with Charlie. "It was you, Cholly, it was you," the movie’s broken down fighter Terry Molloy (played by Marlon Brando) says. “It was you, Charlie, it is you”: This has become a motto of sorts for our life here on the autismfront.

In celebration of which, we went out for Vietnamese food: Back in the days when Charlie was on a strict gluten-free casein-free diet, I realized that Vietnamese summer rolls with rice-paper wrappers were something he could eat and many rolls were consumed (by all three

of us) at a restaurant in St. Paul. Charlie was struggling so much then that a man sitting at the next table once just said “He’s really a handful” about Charlie. He’s now a boy who eats his share plus of summer rolls and, after sampling some (vinegary-sweet-sour) sauce with a spoon, poured it over his rice vermicelli as I directed him, and ate away until he stood up and smiled and was ready to go.

On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York is due out in September from Cornell University Press. Jim’s started a blog here that will include photos of key figures in the book and a schedule of appearances.

August 5, 2009 12:44 AM

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