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Title | : | All Souls: A Family Story from Southie |
Author | : | Michael Patrick MacDonald |
Book Format | : | Paperback |
Book Edition | : | First Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 263 pages |
Published | : | October 3rd 2000 by Ballantine Books (first published September 25th 1999) |
Categories | : | Nonfiction. Autobiography. Memoir. Biography. History |
Michael Patrick MacDonald
Paperback | Pages: 263 pages Rating: 4.09 | 10629 Users | 828 Reviews
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Michael Patrick MacDonald grew up in "the best place in the world"--the Irish-American Old Colony projects of South Boston--where 85% of the residents collect welfare in an area with the highest concentration of impoverished whites in the U.S. In All Souls, MacDonald takes us deep into the secret heart of Southie. With radiant insight, he opens up a contradictory world, where residents are besieged by gangs and crime but refuse to admit any problems, remaining fiercely loyal to their community. MacDonald also introduces us to the unforgettable people who inhabit this proud neighborhood. We meet his mother, Ma MacDonald, an accordion-playing, spiked-heel-wearing, indomitable mother to all; Whitey Bulger, the lord of Southie, gangster and father figure, protector and punisher; and Michael's beloved siblings, nearly half of whom were lost forever to drugs, murder, or suicide. MacDonald’s story is ultimately one of overcoming the racist, classist ideology he was born into. It's also a searing portrayal of life in a poor, white neighborhood plagued by violence and crime and deeply in denial about it.
Be Specific About Books During All Souls: A Family Story from Southie
Original Title: | All Souls: A Family Story from Southie |
ISBN: | 034544177X (ISBN13: 9780345441775) |
Edition Language: | English |
Literary Awards: | American Book Award (2000), Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award (2000), Boston Author's Club Award (2000) |
Rating Epithetical Books All Souls: A Family Story from Southie
Ratings: 4.09 From 10629 Users | 828 ReviewsColumn Epithetical Books All Souls: A Family Story from Southie
WOW, first of all.Trigger Warnings: Suicide, Drugs, Gangs, Mobs, MurderYou want to talk about violence, drugs, and death in Urban Cities, then you need to be talking about All Souls. Southie, an all Irish neighborhood in South Boston, is ran by a man whose name you've heard in conjunction with the FBI's Most Wanted List: Whitey Bulger. I had never heard his name before picking up this book. Early on in the book, I had completely underestimated his involvement, but one should never underestimate"Even when we want to say their names, we sometimes get confused about who's dead and who's alive in my family." This sentence in the first paragraph hooked me.The MacDonald family is gloriously dysfunctional, brought up by a single mother whose wisdom is matched only by her wildness. But MacDonald leaves us no doubt that his guitar-playing, man-loving mother loves her children, against all the odds of poverty and violence and failed romance.This memoir is set in Southie, the community in Boston
This book was a strange roller coaster. The first chapter had me riveted, then I slogged through subsequent chapters like a kid taking bitter medicine. I knew it was good for me but my soul felt like it had cramps. I learned a ton from this book about the complexities of the Southie identity, and the history of the busing movement in Boston, and the book's ending was fascinating (and redeeming). I cannot imagine having such a story to tell, and I appreciate that it has been told. However, having

All Souls was a real eye-opener for me. I decided to read it because of Whitey Bulger's recent arrest, but I took much more from it than I expected to. I'm a somewhat new resident of Boston; I've been here for about six years. This book reminds me that you can live in a city for a long time- forever, maybe- and not genuinely know it. I'm not super familiar with Southie; I've been there a handful of times. I'm not even sure if the Southie described in this book still exists. Even the parts of All
It was fascinating to see the world of Southie through the eyes of a young Boston Irish boy during the 70s and 80s. We've all heard of the race riots due to busing, but it was very compelling seeing the history not only through the eyes of someone who was there, but also through the eyes of a young, white boy. MacDonald writes well, and my only complaint might have been that a few of his stories felt like they built up well but ended without anything really happening; but one must remember that
In his book Black Rednecks and White Liberals, Thomas Sowell explains how black ghetto culture is traceable to redneck culture in the South, which in turn is traceable to the Scotch-Irish peasantry which settled the region. In All Souls, Michael Patrick MacDonalds sociologically important memoir of growing up in South Boston, we get a vivid look at the type of Shanty Irish culture that has more in common with Compton than Connecticut. The setting is a gritty cityscape of gangsters, unwed
A very gripping and powerful memoir about MacDonald's experiences growing up in the Southie neighborhood of Boston in the 1970's. The neighborhood was one of the poorest in the nation and was the home of the Irish Mob and the school-bussing riots. Definitely an eye-opener!
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