Committed: A Rabble-Rouser's Memoir Review

Bibliography
Mathews, D. (2007). Committed: A rabble-rouser's memoir. New York: Atria Books, 253 pp.

Genre
Autobiography

Synopsis
Dan Mathews shares how he grew up a geeky extrovert in 1970's Los Angeles and blossomed into a vegetarian crusader for PETA in Washington D.C. Amid his exploits such as crashing a runway show in Milan dressed as a priest, protesting naked in Harvard's front lawn, and handing out informational leaflets on the cons of eating meat to children while dressed as a giant carrot; Mathews shares intimate moments of his life of coming into his own and out of the closet.

Evaluation
Amid such backdrops as New York, Vienna, Munich, and Rome, Mathews guides his reader not through his close eye to detail, but through his personal quips and stream-lined thoughts about these areas. The people that he interacts with on a daily basis and the celebrities that he hob-nobs with are merely characters that unfold in his unfinished play. Everyone seems to have an integral role to Mathews prevalent thought system, belief, and perception to life.

One of his more fully-realized characters is Mathews' mother MaryEllen cum Perry Lawerence. She is acknowledged as the driving force behind his open-mined idealism and patient tolerance of others. Mathews (who I hope in an attempt to portray his mother as accurately as possible without telling the reader) develops MaryEllen in his imaginative retelling of her flight to Newport Beach to see a potentially tsunami-like wave that would result from the devastating earthquake to hit Alaska to her introduction as "the last of the socialists" to their conscious, middle-class neighbors. It is MaryEllen that fosters in Mathews a sense of responsibility for those that cannot fight or a voice for those that cannot speak. He describes her struggle to make ends meet after her divorce from Mathews' father and her creative but odd way of showing her sons her love and affection.

The rest of the memoir is essentially Mathews trip down memory lane, describing his own painful childhood and slow dawning of what would eventually become his life's work; the cruel and unethical treatment of animals. Through his outrageous protests and sit-ins, Mathews chooses this time with the reader to stand on his soapbox and descry his thoughts and beliefs about non-vegetarians and fur-lovers. He does use gross tactics and matter-of-fact detail pertaining to cruelty to animals to effectively convey his message. His sexuality is constantly mentioned and alluded to, but remains a mere sub-topic to Mathews' larger issue.

Classroom Use
Due to some of the graphic nature of the memoir, I would suggest that this novel be used as an individual choice. It is not for the faint of heart.

Appropriate Age
This may work best for 16+. Again, I would stress that if you do not want to know where your meat comes from, then I wouldn't read it.

Personal Reactions
I didn't expect Mathews to launch into detail the facts about the farming industry or nasty truths about the fashion world. That being said, I believe that Mathews chooses the perfect medium with which to persuade a more open-minded audience (young adults) to join his cause. He becomes a role model and idol for questioning teens, outcasts, forward thinkers, and edgy adolescents. I loved his quips, one-liners, and personal outlook on life. Overall, I think that this was the best book that I read for this project and would recommend it to vegans, vegetarians, and animal-lovers in general.