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Book Reviews of All Souls : A Family Story from Southie

All Souls : A Family Story from Southie
All Souls A Family Story from Southie
Author: Michael Patrick MacDonald
ISBN-13: 9780345441775
ISBN-10: 034544177X
Publication Date: 1999
Pages: 286
Rating:
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 101

3.8 stars, based on 101 ratings
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

26 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

Erinyes avatar reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 279 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 7
Incredible. It was less like he was recounting his family's history and more like he was looking under the rocks of his past. The family history is somehow both tragic and triumphant. Despite all of the perils in place, they manage to love each other desperately. They still can laugh and hug and hope. Well worth the read. I highly recommend it.
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 60 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 7
A story of growing up in the Irish ghetto of South Boston. A fascinating but disturbing picture of mostly fatherless families in a culture of crime and drugs where everybody thinks they live in the best place in the world.
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 9 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
This is was a pretty inspiring story, but kind if typical. Young kid that grows up in a rough neighborhood and still manages to make good as an adult. Not that I am taking away from what he has accomplished, it is nothing short of amazing after what he has been through in life.

My parents in law both grew up in Southie at the same time as the author, I asked them about some of the things in the book and although they remember some of the things (busing riots and Whitey's presence) they felt as though some of the stories were a bit exaggerated, although they admit they did not grow up in the projects as the author did.

All in all a pretty good read, I have always grown up knowing there is a lot of history right in my own backyard, but didn't realize so much of it was this recent.
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 31 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
A wonderful memior about the dark side of a neighborhood many Boston Irish love.
TheLankyYankee avatar reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 81 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
Absolutely devastating account of growing up in one of the worst projects in America.
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 38 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
one of the greatest books I have ever read...so honest and so heartbreaking...
story of childrens lives in the projects of South Boston...
dulcimer42 avatar reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 107 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
A fascinating story of a kid growing up where the unusual is usual and the usual is unusual. Violence was all around, but nobody talked about it. That was just part of the life in Southie... One of those books I could scarcely lay down... It was that compelling a story.
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 12 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Interesting story; an insider's view on what life is really like growing up in the projects.
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 9 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This book is incredible. I read it twice; I have never been able to do that with a book. It is a book that I can honestly say that I will never for get reading.
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on
Helpful Score: 1
I love memoirs, but I found this one to be just fair. It's an excellent story and insight into his life, and the amount of tragedy his family has to endure is unbelievable. However, I didn't particularly care for his writing style; there were too many repeated details, then jumping around, then lack of explanation for huge changes in his life. I see that he has another memoir that focuses on one of these times of big chnage, and I'm putting that on my wish list. I believe in second chnaces. :)
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 49 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This is such an excellent first-hand history of "the projects" of South Boston!! Required reading for seniors in my local high school!
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on
Helpful Score: 1
Shocking, depressing, educational story of growing up in Boston's Old Colony Projects in the Southie neighborhood in the 60's - 90's.
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 94 more book reviews
Written in an excellent fashion. The author uses the language of the times and expresses his opinions as they were at that time and age. He often points out some interesting contrasts between reality and South Boston's residents' perception. This was a very enjoyable and informative book.
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 67 more book reviews
Good read!
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 18 more book reviews
Excellent book about Southie in Boston, particularly if you are Irish or want to learn about the Irish in America's most Irish city
Iluvgoldens avatar reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 104 more book reviews
Memoir about a poor Irish family growing up in South boston.
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 63 more book reviews
A natural story teller. I couldn't put it down. It also is a revival of the spirit to see how people who have so much against them can go on and make the world a better place.
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 5 more book reviews
I thought this book was excellently written, and it really gave a new dimension to my life in Boston.
mjowest avatar reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 236 more book reviews
I haven't read any book in years that had me so riveted-
I would give it ten stars if I could.
An amazing story, told by the man who lived it, of life in south Boston in the 1960s, 70s and 1980s.
How he survived, and most of his family didn't.
It brought me to tears, and made me want to shout from the rooftops over victories.
a MUST read, if you enjoy real life stories.
You will not ever forget this book, once you've read it.
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 49 more book reviews
Community and gang loyalty in South Boston - a Book-of-the-Month Club selection
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 469 more book reviews
"This is an extraordinary family story about an extraordinary place called Southie. It is a story of a young man climbing a mountain of violence, to emerge with love and hope." Howard Zinn, author
Dalaiwmn avatar reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 14 more book reviews
I absolutely adored this story.
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 8 more book reviews
Riveting story of a down on their luck family in South Boston. Despite the economic hardship and violence, this is a close and loving family. Amazing story of life in South Boston.
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 34 more book reviews
This is an interesting tale. It addresses the social issues and is not just a memoir. While "dated" at this point a bit, it is as compelling and interesting as the time it was published.
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 5 more book reviews
This was a great book on real life during hard times in a big city. Being a Southern girl it was an experience to see the other side of the "coin".
reviewed All Souls : A Family Story from Southie on + 31 more book reviews
Michael Patrick MacDonald grew up in the"the best place in the world"-- the Old Colony projects of South Boston- where 85% of the residents collect welfare in an area with the highest concentration of impoverished whites in the U.S. In All Souls MacDonald takes us deep into the secret heart of Southie.. . . . . .