Book Review: All Souls

All Souls: A Family Story from Southie by Michael Patrick MacDonald

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When I bought an ereader, I immediately stocked up on $3 ebooks.

The result is I picked up books that I might not otherwise. Looking back, I am glad I did. We should all push ourselves to read outside our normal box and if you follow me, then you know I stick to many similar books and genres.

So, it was good to pick this up. The book’s cover and title give no indication of what’s inside. Hardly, a feel good story. I saw the tons of plaudits as well as recommendations from people like Howard Zinn and Patti Smith.

It is interesting from a sociological angle. Here are these families in the South Boston projects who think they are in Mayberry. They feel fortunate that they do not have the crime associated with the Black projects and it’s the best place to live.

Which is ironic since South Boston in the Reagan era is overrun by drugs, murder and suicides. Still they feel pride, buoyed by people like Whitey Bulger who keeps the area clean from outside riff raff. All adhering you the code of protecting each other- which means “no snitching”.

The MacDonald family loses child after child, until Mom can’t take it anymore. The beginning of the book (and to a lesser extent, the end) is extremely powerful.

It is a good look at some societal attitudes. Southie fights against the well-intentioned liberals who don’t understand, and won’t, can’t or don’t know how to help. The Desegregation busing riots of the 70s play out here, and we are reminded that there are always two sides of a story.

While Southie has now since been gentrified, it reminded me of my red state hometown and how we are fighting the same battles. Just look at social media and how many people refer to themselves as ‘deplorables’. Things haven’t changed.

There’s a lot to relate to for poor small-town living. A pride and yearning. At the end, older Southie residents are still nostalgic for the days Whitey Bulger kept the place clean. But, we know what the reality was.

This one is memorable. It’s a fairly quick read and it’s quite powerful. A modern day classic that I saw on many bookshelves when I visited the Boston area recently myself.



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