beerchick gave me this book to read. It is a memoir by Michael Patrick MacDonald in which he tells about growing up poor and Irish in the projects of South Boston. I thought it was going to be the American version of Angela’s Ashes and maybe it is but these two books seem to be written about different centuries not continents.
All Souls gives an insiders veiw of poverty, racism and forced busing, drugs and crime and a “project mentality” that both helps these people survive the conditions they live in and exacerbates the problems that are slowly killing them.
So. . . how do you have a book discussion about a book you’re not sure anyone else has read?
I just finished All Souls a few weeks ago, and I couldn’t let this thread die without complimenting Biggirl on this elegant, concise description of one of the major themes of the book – it’s just perfect.
When we moved to Boston in 1985, we were frequently irritated, and sometimes horrified, by examples of what we came to think of as a “Southie attitude” of extreme pride in one’s neighborhood and in one’s Irish heritage, coupled with a corresponding intolerance, often rising to outright bigotry and racism, towards outsiders. Obviously, I don’t believe that everyone in Southie holds this attitude, but there is a vocal group of residents and politicians which does to this day.
I have to say that All Souls gave me a different perspective on this attitude. It still drives me crazy, but now I can at least see where it might come from, and why it is that Southie politicians sometimes seem to be cutting off Southie’s nose to spite its face whenever they perceive that decisions are being imposed on the neighborhood from outside.
It’s been many years since I read Common Ground, the book by Anthony Lukas about the busing crisis in Boston, but I don’t recall getting the same understanding from that book about where 'townies were coming from as I did from All Souls about where people from Southie were coming from during busing. (Not to knock Common Ground, which I still think is a very good book.)
I read All Souls about a year or so ago and really enjoyed it. I always like books like this - they make you realize that there’s a lot more going on between the classes than you think. Unfortunately, those people who really should read these kinds of books rarely do.
I noticed that there is another thread dealing (at least peripherally) with this book, having to do with the two cops named as framing a homeless black man for a murder he didn’t commit.
Link? Sorry, can’t remember where I saw it, and my connection is very slow!
