Rebel With a Cause

 “Passages of Rebellion,”by Fran Shor, 2020

This is a semi-autobiographical story about U.S. draft resistance and anti-war activism from 1967 to 1970 in Minnesota, with a familial coda many years later.  It is told mostly from the first-person point of view of a young grad student at the University of Minnesota, Franklin Roosevelt Goodman. 

Those involved in the Minneapolis movement against the Vietnam War during this period will recognize some of the players.  Marv Davidov and Eddie Felien show up, along with members of the Minnesota 8, who destroyed draft files in the state.  They are now remembered in a play, “Peace Crimes.”  Their real names are Brad Beneke, Frank Kroncke, Don Olson (still a friend of the May Day), Pete Simmons, Bill Tilton, Mike Therriault, Chuck Turchick and Cliff Ulen. This is relevant because the central event of the book involves Frank and another breaking into a draft office in the river town of Winona, Minnesota and trying to destroy draft files there.  His comrade is arrested for this and Frank eventually heads to Canada to avoid prison time in Sandstone.  This is similar to what the Minnesota 8 did, breaking into draft offices in the outstate Minnesota towns of Little Falls, Alexandria, Winona, and Wabasha.

The real Fran Shor did not participate in these raids, so this book is a bit like putting himself in their shoes.

The ideological content involves a pacifist and moral opposition to violence and war, using civil disobedience, non-violent occupations, public displays and property damage to hinder the war effort.  Camus’s “The Rebel” is the foundational text.  Frank, as well as some other draft resistors in his circle at the Twin Cities Draft Action Center, actually inform the Selective Service System of their intention not to be drafted.  This leads to long legal action in the courts against them.  Others in the movement burned draft cards at rallies, got CO status, hoped for a high draft number, enrolled in school, absconded to Canada or just disappeared.  So there is a bit of ‘martyrism’ here, as Frank’s passion about the damage being done to the Vietnamese and U.S. soldiers is primary.  He wants his opposition to be as public as possible. 

There are political pokes against more radical activists, some in SDS, some spouting revolutionary clichés about ‘picking up the gun.’ Though the novel acknowledges that the older black vets coming back from Vietnam weren’t pacifists.  Oddly, the bomber of the Army Mathematics Research Center in Madison, Wisconsin is foisted on Frank at one point. While the book is trying to contrast Frank’s pacifism with the bomber, there is no debate between them as they travel in a car.  One died and three were injured in this real bombing, the only deaths in the whole U.S. during this period carried out by the anti-war left.  Using this anomaly, the attempt to compare their respective ideas fails.  To me, Frank seems a bit naïve, but then his politics are not my own.  Pacifism is a useful tactic at times, but not a permanent all-around strategy.

The Real Minnesota 8

Frank during this period meets an attractive fellow grad student, Mary, and quickly gets married.  This is the personal side of the story, but his obsession with the anti-war movement ultimately breaks them apart.  This happens prior to his knowledge that she was pregnant, which forms the coda of the book.  In this part of the book, one character, Ruth, becomes an Andrea Dworkin-style feminist.  The story tracks the historical timeline of events during these tumultuous years and mentions key books read by beginning leftists of the time.  This ‘name-dropping’ method doesn’t really integrate the books or events into the story. 

As to the writing, it is somewhat simplistic, including many details that have no relation to the plot.  For instance Frank stops at Al’s Breakfast in Dinkytown, a favorite dining spot in a famous University neighborhood.  This is evidently meant to spur nostalgia and knowing nods from local readers.  There is a lot of this, which mentions local place names, gets in two sly references to Dylan lyrics and includes random details that add little to the story, the language or the ideas.

At any rate, part of the literature of the local and national left which many people will identify with.  Pick it up today!

P.S. – Don Olson will be providing his insights on this book later.

Other prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left: “Into the Streets (Felien); “American Pastoral” (Roth), “The Real Balfour Declaration,” or type in the word “Vietnam.”

And I bought it at May Day Books!

Red Frog

December 8, 2020