Rating: 
Summary: A story that has to be told
Review: Last year as soon as I read in a weekly magazine that there was a story of South Boston, I immediately had to buy it. Being that I have lived in Southie--a place where you see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil--that is place that you love and hate with a community that has lots of pride. Michael Patrick MacDonald survives the violence, crime, injustices, and coruption that no one will admit to, that comes along with living in the projects of Southie. The MacDonald family suffers so many losses too many times. the opening line to the book reads.....I WAS BACK IN SOUTHIE, "THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD," as Ma used to say before the kids died. ....after that you have to read on!
Rating:
Summary: Hell no, we won't go...
Review: Michael McDonald's ability to tell a story - to observe the goings-on around him with the cold detachment of a brilliant narrator at the same time he was an actor in the drama that was unfolding between and among his family and friends - is simply breath-taking. His writing is so clear, so real and so immediate that you feel the heat, the energy and the pain of the streets of South Boston from beginning to end.While I have lived in Massachusetts for most of my life and have some appreciation for the larger events that were unfolding throughout the course of Michael's book, he brings it all home with an eye for detail and an appreciation for what was happening on the ground that is astonishing. His observations about and real-life experiences with cops, forced busing, drugs, welfare, racism, classism, corruption and poverty are eye-opening, to say the least. This book will move you no matter where you live or how old you are. It is heart-felt, beautifully constructed, and - in many ways - a tale for all times. It is a classic tale about one family's life in urban America during the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. I am sure it will become a "must-read" in high school and college classrooms across the country.
Rating:
Summary: All Souls: A Family Story from Southie
Review: My reactions relate not only to the reading "All Souls" but to other reviews of the work. I should state with clarity that I am familiar neither with the individuals in the book nor with the history of Southie. Yet MacDonald's book is vital to both the story of urban centers such as Boston but also to the untold story of white poverty in the United States. Books such as "All Souls" and more militant pieces such as "The Redneck Manifesto" (Jim Goad's brash and irreverent book) are important accounts of white poverty. MacDonald never portrayed his work as "a socio-cultural study of white poverty in an Urban Center in the Northeastern United States," but a personal account of his family's experiences. "All Souls" presents a good picture of the complexities of the real world - a family that was a picture of both dysfunction and resiliency, a community "code" that served both as its' strength and its' Achilles heal, and a person who journeyed through life trying to come to terms with these issues. Unaware of the accuracy of the "facts," the story of this family is an important addition to those who continually ignore the reality of the "white experience in America" - an experience, that for many, is not couched in race-based advantage. To dismiss an important piece of work such as this based on interpretation of facts or untold pieces of what is an enormously complex story misses the point. Mr. MacDonald, good job on starting an important discussion!
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment of tedious proportions
Review: This story loses its potential punch, since it purports to enlighten, yet overlooks an opportunity to mention obvious lessons.
The subtext in MacDonald's book, that it is really kind of cute when little kids steal and scam; or that dressing and behaving like a lady or a gentleman cannot be taught or learned if one is poor; or that babies and disasters just appear out of nowhere, is a problem. What are readers to learn from people who: admit that they know what behaviors to avoid, but are too self indulgent to avoid them; or who know who the criminals are, but accept that they are really sort of good criminals; or who think that wearing spike heels and short skirts is somehow a dignified priority for a mom who is rearing children?
Newsflash! When you have children to care for, you do NOT bring men home to play.
Choices have consequences, and even in the most severe circumstances, the choices people make have a great deal to do with what happens next. This book drops the ball.
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