Flying Close to the Sun

My Life and Times as a Weatherman

By: Cathy Wilkerson

Narrated by: Cathy Wilkerson

Flying Close to the Sun is the 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 escaped the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion, here wrestles with the legacy of the movement, at times finding contradictions 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.

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 somehow finds hope and faith in a world that at times seems to offer neither.

©2007 Cathy Wilkerson (P)2014 Audible Inc.

probably better to read the book

the book itself had some excellent, interesting analysis of the movement and times. particularly from a female perspective. Unfortunately I struggled with the monotonal delivery and would recommend reading rather than listening to this book - sorry Cathy!

Great insight into 60’s radicalism

I really enjoyed this book. A great look at what it was really like inside the weatherman group !
The critical analysis of how it went wrong is especially relevant now as I feel we are on the verge of another such uprising of activism. I appreciate her spelling out her and the group’s mistakes. I gave the performance 4 stars bc the author stumbles at times. However, once I accepted that she is not a professional voice actor and relaxed into it, I really enjoyed hearing the story in her voice- imperfections and all. It made it all more real and personally meaningful.

Worth Listening to or Reading

I had to read this book for class, and I could not have gotten through it in time without also having the audiobook. The story itself is absolutely fascinating, and I highly recommend this book to anyone who is even vaguely interested in the movements of the 60s and 70s, even if you've never heard of the Weather Underground before.