My identity problem

Group identity is an inescapable fact of who we are. Our earliest attachments determine and shape the quality of those later in life. So it is no surprise to Alan Shapiro that growing up in the 1950s as both Jewish and American led to him having a deep and inescapable need to belong. His family were Jews at home and in the synagogue, but everywhere else, they were good Americans embracing the invisibility of the socially acceptable. From his earliest childhood to the deep depression of his teenage years, where he became interested in Allen Ginsberg and the rest of the Beat generation, the award-winning poet describes how he discovered his one and only passion, which transformed his life.