Product Description

A searing coming-of-age memoir set in an unfamiliar world: Irish South Boston. Michael MacDonald brings us a poor and intensely insular neighbourhood which its residents agree is the "best place in the world". Through his eyes we meet Michael's mini-skirted, accordion-playing mother who, by herself, cares for her ten children through a combination of high spirits and scam. Too soon "Southie" becomes a place controlled by a resident gangster, later revealed to be an informant for the FBI. It is a world primed for the escalation of class violence, and then, with sickening inevitability, of the racial violence that swirls around Boston's forced bussing in the 1970s. The violence spills into the MacDonald family, so that within a few years four of Michael's siblings lose their lives to drugs and organized crime. All but destroyed by grief and the Southie code that doesn't allow him to feel it, MacDonald gets out. His work as an anti-violence activist is the powerfully redemptive close to his story.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1185634 in Books
• Published on: 2000-12-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 267 pages

KIRKUS
'An incendiary, moving book that startles on nearly every page...'

ALICE HOFFMAN
'A courageous and disturbing history of a family caught up in a web of violence, unjustice and rage'

About the Author
Michael Patrick MacDonald helped launch Boston's successful gun-buyback programme. He still lives in 'Southie'.

Customer Reviews

One of the most excellent books I have read in a long time
The cover of "All Souls" suggests that the reader will enjoy this if they enjoyed McCourt's "Angela's Ashes". In my view this is every bit as good, if not better. This is an autobiographical work - the author writes about growing up on the "Old Colony Project" a tough housing development in "Southie" (South Boston), dominated by American-Irish Catholics. This book deals with tough issues- Race, drugs, crime , corruption,mental health, with the author losing 3 brothers to suicide and murder in the 1970's and 1980's. Despite this subject nature it is not a depressing read - but an insiprational, brilliantly-written book. It is also peppered with humour as the author shows how stoically, family characters (in particular his "ma") deal with the trials and tribulations their tough life throws at them. The author has retained a love for Southie - and has moved back there to become a leading figure in anti-violence campaigns. In this sense, the reader is left with a sense of hope and inspiration for all those in Southie. I picked this up at Boston airport on a journey back to the UK - the trip made all the quicker, because I couldn't put it down! You do not simply read this book - you "live" it - with all the complexity of emotions the author so brilliantly puts across.

"Great book! MacDonald is a true Irish storyteller."
Mike MacDonald tells the honest truth about South Boston's demise at the hands of the Irish Mafia, led by powerful bosses such as Whitey Bulger. Intertwined with the stories about the criminal and political world of South Boston, MacDonald tells the story of his large family and the many tales of tradgedy that they endured living in the "projects". The story is well told and the book ends in a very positive note, with the memories of many of Southie's young being remembered and the neighborhood silence finally broken.

Its easy to think its just a movie.....
I stumbled across this book after watching 'The Departed' - a gangster movie set in Boston, which seems to have used this for some of the source material. Forgetting all that was glossy about the movie - this is a moving true account told through a childs eyes as they witnessed riots, fights, murders, suicides and racism while trying to survive on the poverty line. This was every day life as the author grew up in a large family in South Boston. I couldnt put this book down, as you really wanted to find out how the family got through it. Unfortunately some of it is tragic, some of it makes you realise how lucky you are, some of it makes you realise why things are in such a mess...... Definately give it a read. Awesome.