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.