All Souls A Family Story from Southie

by Michael Patrick MacDonald | Nonfiction |
ISBN: 034544177x Global Overview for this book
Registered by FamFatale of Chantilly, Virginia USA on 3/29/2004
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6 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by FamFatale from Chantilly, Virginia USA on Monday, March 29, 2004
An interesting book but difficult for me to connect with. Growing up in Boston the hard way.

Journal Entry 2 by FamFatale at Friend/Fellow Bookcrosser in Pawtucket, Rhode Island USA on Monday, March 29, 2004
Released on Monday, March 29, 2004 at Friend/Fellow Bookcrosser in Pawtucket, Rhode Island USA.

Journal Entry 3 by fsr44 from Pawtucket, Rhode Island USA on Monday, April 5, 2004
Received today. Thank you!

Journal Entry 4 by fsr44 from Pawtucket, Rhode Island USA on Wednesday, June 30, 2004
This book was nearly enough to make me into a social conservative. While the author tells an interesting story about growing up poor in Southie during the bussing riots, he points many fingers on who is to blame for his family's sorrows. The cops, Whitey Bolger and wrongheaded liberals all come in for blame. But his mother, who raised 9 children with seemingly no rules, no direction and no guidance at all, is seen as a victim. I don't buy it. There are many things his mother could not protect the family from, but letting 8 year olds have run of the streets til all hours when gangs, drugs and violence were omnipresent is simply neglectful. I found the whole "we were victims of society" (which I'm sure is true to a certain extent) argument to be annoying when no blame at all was attached to his mother for making decades of horrible choices.

Released on Thursday, July 22, 2004 at n/a in n/a, By Post Controlled Releases.

Sending to Hanrahan-Siudy. Enjoy!

Journal Entry 6 by Hanrahan-Siudy from Schenectady, New York USA on Saturday, July 31, 2004
arrived safe and sound

Journal Entry 7 by Hanrahan-Siudy from Schenectady, New York USA on Tuesday, September 7, 2004
This was an accounting of what it was like to grow in up in South Boston during the seventies. This man's life was anything but a cakewalk. His mother must have had a backbone of steel and incrediable faith. While the children of that time period (me included) were watching the Brady bunch this man and his family were just trying to survive. Once again the old indian phrase "Don't judge a man till you walked in his shoes" comes to mind. I have learned through reading to be more thankful for all that I have and all that I did have.
This book is moving on to a fellow BCer.

Journal Entry 8 by rampallion from Evanston, Illinois USA on Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Arrived today! Thank you very much.

Journal Entry 9 by rampallion from Evanston, Illinois USA on Sunday, September 19, 2004
"The kids in the neighborhood created every bit of fun that we had. Mothers never had to find something for us to do. Sometimes we'd get bored, but that's when we'd go up to the rooftops and throw splashes of pebbles down onto the heads of outsiders passing by the outskirts of the project. We'd duck then, and they wouldn't dare come after us, unless a car window broke and we'd have to run before the cops came. On summer nights, after the hydrants were abandoned, it was time to set the dumpsters on fire."

Very moving memoir about the author's childhood, his ten brothers and sisters, and his indomitable mother. I found the story of how he became an activist extremely compelling. Maybe that's because I grew up south of Boston and I'm familiar with many of the people and places he talks about. (I remember my dad calling me one day and mentioning, "Guess what? Whitey Bulger's pally won the Megabucks!" "Really! I said." What a piece of luck! Billy will have a hard time explaining that one." Of course it was all a scam--it was later proved the notorious crime boss had defrauded the state lottery. Which was really the least of his crimes, when you think of all the guns and drugs he trafficked in.)

I respectfully disagree with fsr44's assessment of the mother. If you are a single parent of eleven, your kids are not going to get that much attention from you. Of course, I think it was a bad idea to have so many kids by so many fathers. But I don't see how she could have had access to birth control in South Boston in the 1950s and 1960s. And when you grow up poor and the project is practically all you know, it's hard to get out. She did, though by then it was too late for several of her kids.

If there's an audiobook version of this, I hope they include the mom singing and playing the accordion.

Journal Entry 10 by rampallion at Cafe Mozart in Evanston, Illinois USA on Monday, October 11, 2004

Released 19 yrs ago (10/12/2004 UTC) at Cafe Mozart in Evanston, Illinois USA

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RELEASE NOTES:

Will be released at the Meetup this Tuesday.

Journal Entry 11 by uofigirl from Bloomington, Indiana USA on Saturday, October 16, 2004
Got this at the Evanston meet-up. Will read and pass along.

Journal Entry 12 by uofigirl from Bloomington, Indiana USA on Monday, November 1, 2004
Wow... does this make "Angela's Ashes" seem like Sesame Street.

I do have to say that I did have a hard time relating to the story, growing up in Suburbian, but the grandfather seemed like my own Grandpa. The proud Irishman trying to do right, whether it be thru tough love or whatever he could think of. I did have some issues with the mom, too. However, with 11 kids to look after, and living in a neighborhood with absent fathers and tons of kids, she was not out of place.

Will pass this along.

Journal Entry 13 by mojosmom from Chicago, Illinois USA on Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Lots of interesting responses so far! I'm curious, so I grabbed it at the Meet-Up.

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