Blog wrap up

The book “All Souls” is a captivating work of literature, told from the stand point of the

author Michael MacDonald, a young man who grew up in the heart of South Boston. Throughout

this book, Michael shows tremendous courage as he struggles through debilitating conflicts. His

ability to get up and keep fighting for his life is astonishing, given his young age through most of

the meat of the book.

Michael is the third youngest child in his family and is one of ten brothers and sisters, out

of those ten only 6 survive, including Michael. The brutal deaths of his brothers are enough to

move the reader to tears. From two murders, to a suicide, and the death of a baby, MacDonald

envelops his story with raw emotion that could make a grown man cringe. The events that occur

are almost implausible. The MacDonald family is hit with such tragedy that is repeated at a such

a regular rate throughout Michael’s adolescence into young adult hood, that it is truly hard to

believe at times. However, the fact that this type of story was typical for most everyone that lived

in Southie during the 70’s and early 80’s verifies that MacDonald is one of thousands who

experienced the pure terror that was South Boston.

Racism, drugs, and violence are three concrete themes that play a major role throughout

the entire story. Most of the chapters are based on one or all of these and without them, the book

would not exist. The violence and racism described can be hard to read at times for those that

don’t have a high tolerance for vulgar language, or violent criminal acts, but lessons can be

learned if the reader can be open minded enough to get through it. The book is a tough read in

the sense that the tragedy is overwhelming and one might have to put it down for a short time,

and recover emotionally before picking it up again. The sense of family and loyalty throughout

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the community are also felt by the reader, and MacDonald does an incredible job of using

inserting the idea of loyalty in Southie in each chapter without making it feel monotonous.

The use of language, and the mood created by MacDonald are also very specific to this

book. It feels as though the author is sitting down with the reader for coffee and telling his life

story. It makes the book enjoyable to read, and relatable, allowing the reader to feel vulnerable

and put themselves in MacDonald’s shoes. It is easy to get attached to each character described,

given the love that is displayed through the author’s descriptions.

Not only is this an inspiring story of courage and strength but it speaks volumes to the

reader. It has the ability to speak directly to a readers heart and makes one want to take action

after reading it. The fact that MacDonald has the ability to write well enough to make someone

want to change is a compliment to his ability as a writer and his decency as a human being. I

highly recommend this book to any reader, it fits into many genres when you dig deep enough

and is an informative, without being too overwhelming, piece of literature.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I really enjoyed “All Souls” by Michael Patrick MacDonald and that makes me feel a bit bad. How can I enjoy such a tragic, true tale about the pain someone else went through his or her whole childhood? I think the way in which I enjoyed was more in the way that it made me grateful and opened my eyes. Not that I wasn’t already before, but it expounded my gratitude for the life I am lucky enough to have. Of course, you always hear stories that leave you feeling like you should feel happy fate was on your side, but until you read a whole narrative like this one, those feelings only last for so long. I feel like this is one of those books that’s really going to stay with me, and I’ll be thinking about it years from now.

It amazes me just how strong all of the characters in it were; they had to be. Ma had ten children and did everything in her power to support them. Some would criticize her and say, “Well, stop having children,” but she loved every single one of them with her whole heart and didn’t back down when someone challenged her children’s safety. Ma wasn’t the only strong character though, I feel like Michael is truly strong to be able to come out the other side of his childhood relatively clean. He didn’t fall into any of the things everyone else in the Old Colony and other similar neighborhoods seemed to. Of course he wasn’t innocent and did partake in some underage drinking, drugs, and violence, but I feel like when you look at the bigger picture, he was able to pull himself together for his family and return to school. Not only that put he took his misfortune and pain and used it to motivate him. He became an activist. I feel like many of people can learn a lot from Michael with this book, and I know I’m certainly left inspired by his perseverance.

Race

I think it's truly interesting to learn about something like racism that happened not only close to home in Boston, but all over America. When “forced housing” in Old Colony started to take place, the news said they were expecting a ‘blood-bath.”  Originally, Old Colony was mainly an area for white, Irish Americans. Considering all the racial tension that had been taking place earlier in the book, it was a big deal when the BHA and Mayor Flynn let blacks, Hispanics, and Asians move into the apartments of Old Colony. While there certainly was some tension in the beginning, it got to a point where black, white, and Hispanic mothers all sat together on the stoops watching their children playing. Ma even invited some Puerto Ricans over to the apartment but they didn’t understand a word she was saying and looked more scared of her than anything else. It's almost like once the different races were forced to live together they sort of stopped the racial war that was taking place, it was easier to just let go of any grudges and to live in peace.

I already talked about how in the last chapter of the book, white women welcomed black and Hispanic women to the vigil with open arms and that was something that really stood out to me. Earlier in the book, people couldn't overstep the boundaries into another neighborhood without getting beat up for being a different race than the one popular in that neighborhood. To see people put aside their differences and their lifetime of hate to grieve together says something loud and clear. It says that it gets to a point where you realize everyone is human, and there at that vigil everyone noticed that they weren't the only ones in Boston suffering after losing someone they loved.

For All Souls

As depressing as the whole story seemed to be there's something certainly touching about the All Soul's vigil. Michael opens the book discussing it in the first chapter, and also closes the book discussing it and I felt like this was a very good way to bookend (no pun intended...) the whole story. The thought of hundreds of people of varying races gathering together to remember those they loved that died too young is interesting to me. The fact that these people were all different races is important to remember. There was much fighting, tension, and hate between races at the time. For all of them to gather together for one cause is magnificent. Michael even talks about how a few black and Hispanics pulled up in taxis and he wasn't sure what he was expecting, but when white women welcomed these minorities with hugs, he was relieved.
I thought ending the last chapter of the book similarly to the way he opened the book was a beautiful tactic. And he certainly ended it on a memorable note saying:
"'These candles burn for my brothers,' I stopped and took a deep breath. Then I spoke up. "Davey, Frankie, Kevin, and Patrick…” And for all souls."

Corrupt Law Enforcement

I'm finding the chapters about Stevie's arrest and trial really interesting. The corrupt law enforcement is just crazy to me and I can't believe cops and detectives used to (and perhaps still are???) so shady. When Stevie was arraigned for alleged first-degree murder of his best friend, detectives against Stevie lied and schemed to try to frame Stevie to look guilty. They wanted the fame and glory of getting the craziest murders, and they would luck out with Stevie because he was white and no one could claim racism as had happened in the past. They created a fake transcript of Stevie’s call to the police writing ‘I shot Tommy!” on it, but when Stevie's lawyer got a hold of the real recording, Stevie never said those words. They pronounced the gunpowder residue testings inconclusive when in reality they pretty clearly showed that there was no gunpowder on Stevie or his clothing. Other cops went on stand in the courtroom and lied about Stevie’s mental state after calling 911. They said he seemed emotionless and stoic when in reality he was crying and shaking. It's just crazy to think that the people who are supposed to protect citizens and uphold the law can sometimes be the ones scheming and conniving against the truth. In the end Stevie gets off innocent, but only after serving a sentence in juvenile detainment, and Michael begins to dedicate his life to activism.

Chapters 10 & 11

THESE CHAPTERS ARE CRAZY.

In chapter 10 Ma takes Seamus and Stevie and moves to Colorado. She thinks it will be a better life for them, and uproots them though they really don’t want to go. So it is only MacDonald and his brother Johnnie in the apartment in Southie, though MacDonald is still sleeping around at friends houses in Boston because he doesn’t want to be in that atmosphere. Eventually the boys, Seamus and Stevie want to come home for a visit and that is when all Hell breaks loose.

Upon the arrival of the boys, Stevie was hanging out with his best friend one day and they were looking at his dads gun, when his friend Tommy accidentally shot himself. Stevie wasn’t in the room when it happened, he was in the room next to it, however the police did such a shitty interrogation and charged this 12 year old (I believe he is 12) boy with the murder of his best friend. This book I can honestly say is the only book that has ever made me cry. The devastation and injustice in this book is overwhelming. None of the evidence even matches what they need to charge the kid and he is charged anyway. It’s almost unbelievable the liberties these cops take upon themselves. They are real scum bags, but I have witnessed plenty of cops doing a lot of shady things, and there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop it, you feel helpless. The people that are the only ones who can help you, are also the ones deceiving you.  Steven was charged with murder, but the story he gives makes him sound completely innocent. However the police don’t follow up on anything he says, and they don’t investigate any clues that could positively eliminate Steven from the crime, and even when they get the chance to they just ignore it, or pretend that it’s not enough evidence to dismiss the case.

Eventually the cops said they had a tape that could prove Steven was guilty, but when the tape came out it was a complete lie. They had nothing. During Stevens trials, their grandfather dies, but everyone stays strong and Stevens case is dismissed. It is a truly unreal story. I would highly recommend this book because every single page you think to yourself “this cant be true” but it IS! And it’s amazing that someone made it out of that situation a success.

Anyway, the next chapters go on to talk about how MacDonald becomes a huge non-violence activists. He gets people to hand in guns and take action against violence all around Boston. The end of the book comes with MacDonald in a church on “All Souls” night. A night where people say the names of their loved ones who have been lost to violence or drugs, etc, and he says the names of his four brothers that have been lost “Kevin, Frankie, Davey, and Patrick” – It is one of the most moving, informative, and beautifully sad books I have ever read. It wasn’t my first choice, but I’m glad I ended up reading this one.

Chapter 9

So in this chapter Ma is going crazy trying to do nice things and the right thing for everybody in Southie. Giving homeless people clothes, trying to get the bottom of crimes, she is just all over the place. She’s really trying to make a difference not only in her life, but in her two youngest sons lives Seamus and Stevie. MacDonald is trying to escape from Southie. He starts sleeping over other people houses that live out of town, he’s pretty much trying to be anywhere that doesn’t involve anything that has to do with Southie, and the coolest thing was that he wasn’t running away, he was really trying to make a name for himself. He started going to Umass Boston. It seemed that Southie itself was starting to turn around too. Police raids on drugs were happening more frequently, and people in the justice system were actually looking for answers instead of just trying to cover things up, or pretend they had answers that they didn’t.

This chapter pretty much leads up to the fact that Southie had been fooled the entire time by local gangster Whitey Bulger. Instead of keeping the streets safe like everyone thought he had been doing, he was running a ton of cocaine through the streets. Cocaine that killed lots of kids and lots of parents, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers. The realization really hit Southie and everyone was pretty pissed off. It’s almost incredible that it took so long for police to really catch Whitey, and it makes the reader wonder what conspiracies were taking place.

It was evident to the reader what Whitey was doing, and it would be even if it wasn’t told from the author’s viewpoint just because we know what he’s done to this day. But the way that MacDonald writes about Whitey and how much everyone loved him and admired him is really an incredible thing, seeing how much damage this man happened to wreak upon Southie.

Chapter 8

This chapter is mostly about MacDonalds older brother Frankie, who happens to be my favorite character in the book. Frankie is a “Stand up guy” as the chapter is called, and that description is spot on. He looks out for everyone and really tries to do the right thing all the time. He never dabbles in drugs, he is always working out in the gym trying to better himself, and he tries to keep everyone in his family safe, he’s the neighborhood hero and he doesn’t have one enemy. He’s also one of the only siblings pulling in some money in an honest way, by boxing. He even got closer to his drug dealing brother Kevin just to keep an eye on him.

Later on in the chapter, Frankie is killed. He is involved in a robbery that takes place and is murdered. Ma is heartbroken, so is all of Southie. Apparently Frankie had gotten into cocaine for a short time, and he was coked out while doing the robbery. Frankie’s wake was the biggest Southie had ever seen, everyone attended. Eventually Ma is getting involved in trying to figure out Frankie’s murder, she wants the people of Southie to speak up but no one will.

Kevin, early on in the chapter, gets a girlfriend later in the chapter, she gets pregnant and they’re married, he is on the straight and narrow and everyone is proud of him. Toward the end of the chapter, Kevin starts coming around back to Southie more often and leaving his wife and kid at home, it becomes obvious that he is struggling with Frankie’s death. Not too long after he starts hanging around, Kevin is arrested for robbing a store. He goes to a prison for the criminally insane and at one point MacDonald is saying a prayer for him, about filling Kevin with a white light and healing him forever. Almost immediately Ma receives a letter from Kevin saying exactly that. That he had seen a white light and was beginning to feel okay about Frankie’s death.

The craziest part about this chapter comes at the end. Kevin is found three months later hanging from a bed sheet from the prison bathroom, and the last person to visit him was a detective that was friends with Whitey Bulger, and there had been a rumor going around that Kevin was a tattle tale. The police said it was very strange that an officer would visit so late at night, and it leaves the reader questioning if Kevin was murdered, or if he actually hung himself. It’s hard to believe he hung himself, given the letters he had been writing about how he was healing emotionally, but at this point in the story nothing is even shocking anymore. The entire story is almost unbelievable, so this just adds to the madness.