Michael Patrick MacDonald - All Souls: A Family Story from Southie

Pros: fascinating story, strong message, good flow
Cons: none

Michael Patrick MacDonald grew up in South Boston. All Souls: A Family Story from Southie is his story. It’s the tale of white poverty in the United States and the toll that takes on everyone. There’s a myth in the States that poverty is a ...

Pros: A great glimpse into the life and history of South Boston.
Cons: None.

The past few years there has been a bright spotlight shone upon the South Boston social and political climates that have forever given Southie the reputation of being a sort of rough and tumble sort of place. With movies such as The Departed glorifying ...

Pros: good historical info about 70's, forced busing, great memoir
Cons: It's listed in Epinions FICTION category...this is MEMOIR-nonfiction

Michael Patrick Macdonald has been in the news quite a bit lately in Boston. Susan Sarandon has expressed an interest in playing his mother in the film version of his recent bestseller "All Souls," and many others in Hollywood are scrambling...

Pros: The author made me feel like part of the family.
Cons: I was left feeling so sad for the families in Southie.

Michael Patrick MacDonald infuses his readers with so much empathy and compassion, that by the end of this book you feel like part of the family. You cry and mourn with them. You celebrate and rejoice with them.

All Souls tells the true story...

Pros: wonderful story
Cons: none!

All Souls is an absorbing book from start to finish. It is written by a young man who grew up in South Boston in the seventies and eighties. Michael MacDonald describes the neighborhood and its residents in such descriptive detail it is almost as if you...

Pros: It is well-narrated account about the institutional discrimination faced by poor mothers.
Cons: Is MacDonald now refocusing to serve Boston's poorest citizens? The reader is not informed.

Michael Patrick MacDonald's "All Souls" is an observant and heartfelt rendering of his childhood in South Boston and his moving beyond it, illuminating a pathway towards change. One must read the book with the receptive, non-judgmental spirit that ...

Pros: true story, eloquent writing, riveting
Cons: none to speak of

This is an amazing book! I bought it on an impulse and read it straight through. It's an autobiographical account of a boy growing up in South Boston in the midst of the chaos of school busing and its aftermath.

MacDonald has a gift for...

Pros: Enlightening
Cons: None

This book is a true page-turner. I'm still reading it, but I have barely been able to put it down to go to work. The frankness of the text may rub some South Boston residents the wrong way, but if you were ever interested in what it was really like...