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

Pros: fascinating story, strong message, good flow

Cons: none

The Bottom Line: Excellent story on poverty in white America.

Review: 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 Bottom Line: All Souls is an amazing account of what is right about South Boston when so much has been wrong about South Boston.

Review: 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: 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.

The Bottom Line: I strongly recommend this book as a guide to acknowledging that different approaches and origins can produce shared triumphs in America.

Review: 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: good historical info about 70's, forced busing, great memoir

Cons: It's listed in Epinions FICTION category...this is MEMOIR-nonfiction

Review: 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.

The Bottom Line: I would highly recommend this book for those enjoying honest glimpses into real family's lives.

Review: 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: true story, eloquent writing, riveting

Cons: none to speak of

Review: 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

Review: 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...

Pros: wonderful story

Cons: none!

Review: 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...