All Souls: A Family Story from Southie: Amazon.ca: Michael Patrick MacDonald: Books

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From Publishers Weekly

In this plainly written, powerful memoir, MacDonald, now 32, details not only his own story of growing up in Southie, Boston's Irish Catholic enclave, but examines the myriad ways in which the media and law enforcement agencies exploit marginalized working-class communities. MacDonald was one of nine children born (of several fathers) to his mother, Helen MacDonald, a colorful woman who played the accordion in local Irish pubs to supplement her welfare checks. Having grown up in the Old Colony housing project, he describes his neighbors' indigence and pride of place, as well as their blatant racism (in 1975 the anti-busing riots in Southie made national headlines) and their deep denial of the organized crime and entrenched drug culture that was destroying the youth and social fabric. MacDonald's account is filled with vivid episodes: of his brother Davey's horrific incarceration in Mass Mental and ultimate suicide; of the time Helen took her older kids to the hospital, where her current lover was a patient, to beat him up after he denied he was the father of the child she was carrying; of the murder of his brother Frankie by his compatriots after the police shot him in an armored-car robbery. But perhaps most shocking is the accusation that the FBI was paying Southie's leading gangster, Whitey Bulger, as an informant although they knew he was the neighborhood kingpin. MacDonald, who now works on multiracial social projects in Boston, does not excuse Southie's racism, but he paints a frightening portrait of a community under intense economic and social stress, issuing a forceful plea for understanding and justice. Agent, Palmer and Dodge.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

"The best place in the world." That's what South Boston people

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Customer Reviews

145 Reviews

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3 star:		(6)
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Average Customer Review

4.6 out of 5 stars (145 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone from Boston should read this book, July 14 2004

By

Megan "Megan" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All Souls: A Family Story from Southie (Paperback)

Before the gentrification of Southie and Dot, these areas contained Boston's infamous white "underclass." This book is the story of a fascinating family that lived in Southie in the 70's and 80's, and witnessed and participated in some of the most important events to happen in Boston in the 20th century.

The book is really divided into two parts. The first part takes place when the author was a very young child, and is primarily about his older siblings. It is the 70's, when the bussing riots are threatening to destroy Boston and the Winter Hill gang was hanging around in a certain auto body shop. The author makes it clear that a lot of what he tells about these events is second hand, primarily from his siblings and his mother. However, since they were very active in so many events, and since this book concentrates on the whole family and not just the author, this does not detract from the veracity of the book at all. The second part takes place in the 1980's, when, in the aftermath of the Charles Stewart fiasco, the police are looking for a martyr to prove that they're not rascist. They settle on the author's younger brother.

The most fascinating thing about this book his how the author manages to chronicle how a family and a community can disintigrate while remaining as strong as ever. Not everyone in the family, or the community makes it through the book, and as Southie is quickly becoming hot real estate it is sad to think of the community that is being condo'd over.

Anyone who is interested in knowing why Boston is the way it is now should read this book. Boston is still living with the repurcussions of the period that this book covers, and this book offers a fascinating first (and sometimes second) hand account of the events that shaped our city.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, Eye-Opening, and Tragically Irish, Jun 26 2004

By

Patrick J Hayden (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: All Souls: A Family Story from Southie (Paperback)

Ignore the attacks - All Souls is beautiful and timeless. It is at once a story of 20th century American turmoil and also a story with the Irish tone and Irish rhythm, calling to mind Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. But above all else it is, as described on the cover, a family story. A story written throughout a childhood, it tells the tale of a family torn violently apart by fate and circumstance, yet in some form still together, still beating and moving on with force. What many people, including some of my fellow Irish-American Boston residents, fail to grasp is that this story is not an analysis of a neighborhood; it is nothing historical but rather a vibrant story that drives straight into the core of what it means to be Irish and American simultaneously, and how the joy, loyalty, and fierce pride combine with hypocrisy and silence to produce a perplexing Irish-American identity. The story hits home for me, and it's truth is not necessarily in the trivial names of bars or individuals as some myopic readers contend. The truth comes in its message, in the power and emotion in Michael Patrick MacDonald's pride and disgust for the neighborhood that can be at the same time "the best place on earth" and a "hellhole." Do not fight the contradictions - it is contradictory and beautiful as a novel. It's American; it's Irish; it's human; and it's timeless. I urge anyone to read this phenomenal piece of work by MacDonald!

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3.0 out of 5 stars Good but not great., Jun 13 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: All Souls: A Family Story from Southie (Paperback)

Over all I enjoyed the story. At times I really felt for him and his family. But at points in his book he goes from one point to another with out explaining it. It was hard to follow at times, I didn't know if he was talking about himself or another member of his family.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book -- ignore the attacks!
I love to laugh at the nasty reviews below -- particularly the one from the man in Japan, questioning "All Souls" accuracy. Read more

Published on Jun 12 2004 by C. A. McCarthy

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and honest view
Ignore the pathetic attacks below -- how ridiculous to try and 'discredit' MacDonald's memoir which is of course a personal history -- and a very compelling one. Read more

Published on May 29 2004 by Jess