CyndiA's Full Review: Michael Patrick MacDonald - All Souls: A Family St...
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 minority problem. That’s not true and never has been. Poverty is disproportionate in terms of ethnicity; however, the pain of being a have-not is colorblind. I heard a speaker once say that when the power company shuts off your lights for non-payment, you can’t tell what anyone looks like anyway. That’s true. And we are all much more alike than different. Poverty is painful no matter who or what you are.
There are few books out dealing with stories of poverty in the white community. I’ve seen a few books about Appalachian culture, and Rick Bragg wrote a very raw and powerful story about his low income background in Alabama.
MacDonald talks about this code of silence in the Irish-American community. Residents of the Old Colony projects in South Boston simply refused to discuss such issues as poverty and the associated problems like violence, drug abuse, alcoholism, murder, and suicide. In fact, most preferred to think of being from Southie as being a badge of honor.
The reality was that South Boston had the highest concentration of poverty within the white community in the nation with 85% drawing welfare. This was in the 1960s and before yuppies moved in and started revitalizing the neighborhood which generally means that the poor folks must relocate.
Middle and upper income readers may have some problems relating to this story. It’s easy to question how a woman can bear nine children when she can’t take care of them. The thought that it’s more noble to wear stolen or hot designer clothes than those that the family can afford will be a slap in the face to people who work hard for what they can afford and shop carefully.
On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine how one might react to living in dire poverty. Maybe stolen high heel shoes and a perky smile make it easier to get through each day. When the kids turn the water hydrants on repeatedly and the fire trucks get called out over and over, perhaps that says something about not having anything for kids to do other than play in the streets and enjoy some cold water from time to time.
Complicating the problems during this time was forced busing. In retrospect, historians call busing in the project a failure. Forcing kids into neighborhood schools in other areas where they did not want to go and where they were not wanted did not work well. Actually it was dangerous. There were riots. People got hurt and killed. Little wonder that so many dropped out of school and got pregnant or turned to drugs and crime.
MacDonald watched four of his brothers carried out of Southie in coffins. His sister jumped off the roof and was disabled for life – just a shell of the lively girl she had been. Then, his kid brother was arrested for a murder he did not commit.
Ultimately MacDonald did get out of the projects, but he could not get the projects out of his head. He became a political activist and a writer based back in his old neighborhood. This memoir is part of his effort to get people to talk, to make changes, and to deal with the tragedies of his own past. Certainly his story is eye opening, and hopefully it has and will make a difference.
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