In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Bill Hillmann’s novel White Flight is an engrossing coming-of-age story.
Irvine Welsh wrote of the book:
“A story as big-hearted and quick-witted as Chicago itself—searing, dynamic and authentic.”
In his own words, here is Bill Hillmann’s Book Notes music playlist for his novel White Flight:
My novel White Flight is a Bildungsroman but more specifically a subgenre of the Bildungsroman called a Erziehungsroman, which focuses more on the education of the character. In the case of my protagonist Joe Walsh, he encounters one of the great mentors and teachers of his life at his Catholic high school in Brother Alex, a Christian Brother history teacher and boxing coach. Using crude language and blunt force, Brother Alex confronts Joe, who’s been convinced from a young age that he’s stupid, with a different perspective—he is not stupid, just unmotivated. Afterwards, Joe embarks on an education in both Particle Physics and boxing, discovers he’s good at both, and makes it into college.
I’ve observed that this story is far too common with working class males. The education system often fails them, shames them and does little to bring them into the fold in intellectual conversations, especially in literature. We are also not publishing many books that authentically connect with working-class male readers.
This needs to change and I’ve devoted my career as both an educator and a writer to changing that.
White Flight deconstructs masculinity from within, and my aim is for it to be a lesson to the world about why we—and, although I do now hold a PhD, I include myself in this group—are the way we are.
Wu-Tang Clan “Triumph”
The Wu-Tang Clan, like White Flight’s narrator Joe Walsh, are what you call a Subalterns. This is philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s concept about people who are traditionally excluded from intellectual discourse due to race, class, or other constructs. Often when Subalterns enter the intellectual realm, they bring fresh and radical perspectives. In the ‘90s, Wu-Tang Clan were rough and tumble New Yorkers who were full of curiosity, intellectual pursuits, crude humor and street poetry. “Triumph” is a classic that delivers their essence as Subaltern intellectuals with a gangsta lean.
I bomb atomically, Socrates’ philosophies and hypotheses
Can’t define how I be droppin’ these mockeries
Lyrically perform armed robbery
My real-life brother—depicted as the character Pistol Pat in White Flight—was a stick-up man who ended up in prison, which makes this verse hit even harder, especially as I was completely fascinated with philosophy like my main character Joe Walsh.
Rage Against the Machine “Killing in the Name of”
Rage Against the Machine is one of those revolutionary groups both musically and politically. I do not support communism or socialism as they represent anti-human and failed ideas to me, but I believe they do function well inside of capitalism. “Killing in the Name of” is a protest song about police brutality. I do think we need police reform; however, I am not naive enough to stereotype police officers as racists or that they abuse power. I know a lot of heroic police officers but the job is also so toxic and violent that it can destroy even the most golden of hearts or at least put a great burden on them. The fictional cop brother in my book is meant to explore the complex nature of police officers–part hero, part villain, part authoritarian, part victim of a career that can eviscerate your humanity. But still, there’s no excuse for police brutality.
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses
Killing in the name of
Now you do what they told ya
Those who died are justified
For wearing the badge, they’re the chosen whites
Sarah McLachlan, “In the Arms of the Angels”
When you grow up in a terribly violent world like Joe Walsh has, you endure so many traumas that you lose count. For people like Joe, it would take a million years of therapy to unwind them all. So, instead, to cope, we try to find peace in love and tenderness. We fall in love and we are extremely protective of our partners. And we find peace and refuge in that love and we realize that life doesn’t have to be the way it’s been. Joe falls in love with Faith to these songs as she helps him through his struggles. Sarah McLachlan has a saintly voice and is a serene lyricist.
I need some distraction
Oh, beautiful release
Memories seep from my veins
Let me be empty
Oh, and weightless
And maybe I’ll find some peace tonight
In the arms of the angel
Fly away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room
And the endlessness that you feel
You are pulled from the wreckage
Of your silent reverie
You’re in the arms of the angel
May you find some comfort here
Tool “Schism”
If you were a working-class teenaged guy in the ‘90s and Tool hit the radio you basically had an instant atomic, testosterone, orgasm-bomb go off inside of you. You were ready to put your fist through some enemy’s face and boot them when they went down. You became the apex version of yourself for a few minutes and that released the tensions and pressures and frustrations. All of this goes back to some people in the literary world not understanding or caring about working-class masculinity. Perhaps they’ll never understand us because we don’t do the same drugs, but they could at least listen to us and acknowledge our humanity. As Joe loses Faith to a series of events he doesn’t yet understand, this song becomes an anthem for his broken heart and spirit.
I know the pieces fit
‘Cause I watched them fall away
Mildewed and smoldering
Fundamental differing
Pure intention juxtaposed
Will set two lovers’ souls in motion
Disintegrating as it goes
Testing our communication
The light that fueled our fire then
Has burned a hole between us so
We cannot seem to reach an end
Crippling our communication
I know the pieces fit
‘Cause I watched them tumble down
No fault, none to blame
It doesn’t mean I don’t desire
To point the finger, blame the other
Watch the temple topple over
To bring the pieces back together
Rediscover communication
John Prine “Sam Stone”
Joe Walsh suffers through the heroin addiction that destroys his older brother, Pistol Pat who he loves dearly. Joe grew up on John Prine (RIP), and this song is a poem that depicts Joe’s torment.
Sam Stone’s welcome home didn’t last too long
He went to work when he’d spent his last dime
And Sammy took to stealing when he got that empty feeling
For a hundred-dollar habit without overtime
A Perfect Circle “Judith”
Joe is growing up Catholic and going to a Catholic high school. One of the most pivotal people in his life is the aforementioned Brother Alex, a Christian Brother who challenges him to study and who becomes his boxing coach. Yet, the inner turmoil brought on by Joe’s family and his life choices all bring him to question his faith in God. And “A Perfect Circle,” which is also a play on geometry and quantum physics, brings to the forefront this inner turmoil that sends him on a spiritual journey through a variety of faiths.
You’re such an inspiration for the ways
That I’ll never ever choose to be
Oh so many ways for me to show you
How the savior has abandoned you
Fuck your God
Your Lord, your Christ
He did this
Took all you had and
Left you this way
Still you pray, you never stray
Never taste of the fruit
You never thought to question why
It’s not like you killed someone
It’s not like you drove a hateful spear into his side
Praise the one who left you
Broken down and paralyzed
He did it all for you
He did it all for you
Joan Baez (cover) “Long Black Veil”
Joe falls in love with a Cajun/Creole/Indigenous jazz singer from New Orleans. She brings him into the Burkhart Underground, a wild underground realm with unique artists and a powerful creative vibe. She sings him “Long Black Veil,” and it plunges him into another universe.
She walks these hills in a long black veil
Visits my grave when the night winds wail
Nobody knows, nobody sees
Nobody knows but me
Mario Brothers Video Game Sound Track
When Joe finally wins an important boxing tournament, which advances him towards the Olympic Team, he has a run in at Regionals with an elite international Phenom boxer. The boxer is nicknamed Luigi from Mario Brothers, based on a real Phenom of the time who boxed out of the Kronk Gym in Detroit. This guy hits Joe so hard Joe hallucinates that he is inside the Mario Brothers video game. Coincidentally, the son of my former gym mate, a real-life boxer named Joseph ‘JoJo’ Awinongya, Jr., is someone I think of as a modern-day version of Luigi. He’s a world ranked 18-year-old scoring sensational knockouts in international competitions and one of the front runners to represent the U.S. in his weight class at the 2028 Olympics. (Side note: he gave me a nice blurb for this book.)
And maybe some of JoJo’s opponents are having some difficult hallucinatory experiences when JoJo begins to batter them, like Joe Walsh has while losing to Luigi.
Frank Sinatra “That’s Life”
Lauren Dupre and Joe Walsh are riding a massive high as Lauren has become the new voice of the legendary Green Mill Jazz Club in Chicago, and Joe has just signed with one of the biggest managers in boxing. They sing a different Sinatra song, “Young at Heart,” and Joe plays around with the lyrics as they head out to Elmhurst College, the school Joe is attending. But a violent, life-altering confrontation breaks all the momentum they have going and sends them out on the run. Sinatra summed up how it feels when you have your dreams crushed and have to pick up the pieces in this classic, “That’s Life”.
That’s life (that’s life)
I tell you, I can’t deny it
I thought of quitting, baby
But my heart just ain’t gonna buy it
And if I didn’t think it was worth one single try
I’d jump right on a big bird and then I’d fly
I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet
A pawn and a king
I’ve been up and down and over and out
And I know one thing
Each time I find myself layin’
Flat on my face
I just pick myself up and get
Back in the race
Thelonious Monk “’Round Midnight”
You can’t delve into the world of Jazz without including a legend like Thelonious Monk. Lauren Dupre, Joe’s girlfriend, is an improviser who sings jazz standards and just before one of the most pivotal scenes, he walks in on her singing this Monk classic.
Let our love take wing some midnight
‘Round midnight
Let the angels sing
For your returning
Let our love be safe and sound
When old midnight comes around
Nam Myoho Renge Kyo chant
Joe’s girlfriend Lauren finds Nichiren Buddhism while Joe is incarcerated and gets him to try chanting “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.” Nam = devotion, Myoho = mystic law, Renge = lotus blossom, Kyo = sutra. Basically, it means, I devote myself to the mystic law and the lotus sutra. One of the core ideas in Nichiren Buddhism is that the beautiful lotus flower blossoms from the thickest mud. In essence, Joe’s soul must blossom in the thickest mud inside the Illinois prison system. This idea is a pivotal force that helps Joe through his darkest times while incarcerated, and it leads him to seek out his own human revolution.
Bob Dylan “Hurricane”
Every guy eventually goes through a Dylan phase and mine arrived a few years ago. This song is about Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who had an impressive career knocking out future hall of famer Emile Griffin and going the distance in a world title fight loss to future hall of famer Joey Giardello., Though Hollywood sort of overstated some things in the Denzel Washington film, “The Hurricane,” the essence of the story is that Carter was an innocent man who could have been champion of the world, but was convicted of a murder he did not commit and served twenty years for it. In White Flight, Joe Walsh is an Olympic hopeful who runs into some trouble when a fist-fight erupts that he tried to walk away from and a kid at his college is left in a coma. Joe eventually ends up incarcerated. This is the dark side what they call the red-light district of sports.
Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell.
In essence this is a book not only about boxing but also about the hopes and aspirations of working-class men and the cold realities they face that—sometimes for better but often for worst—make them who they are.
That’s the story of the Hurricane,
But it won’t be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he’s done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
also at Largehearted Boy:
Bill Hillmann’s playlist for his memoir Mozos
Bill Hillmann’s playlist for his novel The Old Neighborhood
Dr. Bill Hillmann is a full-time professor of English and Communications at East-West University in Chicago. He is the author of four books—the novels White Flight and The Old Neighborhood, and the memoirs Mozos and The Pueblos. His writing has appeared at CNN, NPR, and VICE, and in the Chicago Tribune, the Daily Mail, the Toronto Star, and various others. He created the National College Story Slam competition, where students from across the country compete telling five-minute personal stories. Hillmann is a former Chicago Golden Gloves boxing champion and union construction laborer, and is married to Paula Andion Zabalza. You can visit him online at billhillmann.org.