5 comments about The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (Oxford Paperback Reference).

1. An excellent source for information on saints of the Roman Catholic Church and the Ortodox Church up through the Schism. It does not include saints of the Episcopal Church, but does include those popular saints such as Barbara and Christopher removed in the 1968-69 time frame. I use it in writing my monthly column for my parish newsletter.



2. The Oxford Dictionary of Saints will not disappoint you, no matter what your reasons are for buying it.
   
   It's an excellent reference book. David Hugh Farmer has a real gift for summarizing large amounts of material without sacrificing either natural language or the particularity of the information being summarized. He's especially good at conveying the nuances of sources and their reliability.
   
   Also: no matter what your religious and educational background may be, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints is one of the very best bathroom books ever printed: endlessly varied, always interesting. It's a trove of self-contained little stories.



3. A must for anyone who wishes to sort fact from fiction!



4. This book is an interesting and engrossing catalogue of saints, primarily from the British Isles. Far from exhibiting the "bias" of which other reviewers accuse it, that focus on British/Irish saints was the_intent_of the book. Although the major saints of the universal Church are included, this book fills a vacuum by concentrating on the saints of the British Isles, the majority of which are obscure and of purely local interest and devotion. In the lives of these forgotten saints, Mr. Farmer has dug deeply through the layers of history to give us a fascinating snapshot of British piety and devotion since the earliest times. Although the tone of this book is scholarly rather than devotional, and some of the early legends and beliefs tend to amuse rather than edify, on the whole the lives of these saints cannot but inspire the faithful.



5. Other reviewers have cogently noted Farmer's English bias in his otherwise witty and eminently readable accounts of Saints' lives, but I might add that this fills a necessary niche in a crowded field. English and Welsh saints are lacking in many major references of this kind, and Farmer, publishing under the appropriate Oxford imprint, provides a welcome reprieve from this omission.

5 comments about A Long Way from Tipperary: What a Former Monk Discovered in His Search for the Truth.

1. Book Review
   A Long Way From Tipperary: A Memoir by John Dominic Crossan (2000)

   Dom Crossan, the world's leading expert and best-selling author on the historical Jesus, has written a witty, hearfelt and easy reading (about 200 pages - you can finish it in an afternoon) memoir of his remarkable life. From the Prologue:

   "This book is about a series of transitions, from Ireland to America, from priesthood to marriage, from monastery to university, and from academic scholar to public intellectual. It is especially about the transition from a very traditional Roman Catholic faith...to a self-conscious and self-critical Roman Catholic faith for the next [century]."

   Born in 1934 in County Kildare, Ireland to parents of modest means, he entered a monastery at sixteen and remained in the priesthood for some nineteen years, most of which was spent as a professor in seminary. After leaving the priesthood to get married, Crossan taught at DePaul University for nearly twenty years. His memoir is a charming recollection of the very different worlds along his life's journey - interspersed with reminiscences of how each episode shaped his thinking.

   Crossan, co-founder of the (in)famous Jesus Seminar, has been a public voice proclaiming the need for Christians to revitalize their tradition. Again from the Prologue:

   "After a decade of interviews in newspapers and magazines, discussions on radio and television, lectures in parishes and seminaries, colleges and universities, I now recognize a group...who claim a center of the road between secularism and fundamentalism. They are also dissatisfied, disappointed, or even disgusted with Classical Christianity and their denominational tradition...They do not want to invent or join a new age, but to reclaim and redeem an ancient one. They do not want to settle for a generic-brand religion, but to re-discover their own specific and particular roots. But they know now that these roots must be in a renewed Christianity that has purged itself of rationalism, fundamentalism, and literalism, whether of book, tradition, community, or leader. I did not set out to speak to those people, because I did not know they existed until about 80 percent of my mail told me they did."

   In the final pages of his memoir, he says:

   "In conclusion, this is what I have learned between Ireland and America, monastery and university, priesthood and marriage, scholarship and public discourse. I have learned that God is more radical than we can ever imagine, that a divine utopia on this earth is more subversive than we can ever accept..."

   John Dominic Crossan is a monumental figure in the reformation of the Christian tradition underway in the world today. A man of deep faith, profound intellect, and searing vision, this memoir provides a window into the humble origins and very human journey of a great modern sage. His dry Irish wit is ever present, his writing style is clear and conversational and you finish the book with the feeling that you now "know the man". That's what a memoir is all about.




2. Before I read this memoir, the only other insight I had of Crossan was from "Excavating Jesus", a book he and Reed collaborated on. Many times I would pause during a particular chapter and ask "Why does Crossan think that?" and I found many of my answers in "A Long Way from Tipperary." This memoir describes how Crossan's upbringining contributed to his analysis of the historical Jesus. It is the genuinity and extreme honesty with which Crossan speaks that makes this memoir truly memorable. I especially liked the parts when Crossan would describe an event in his life and compare it to the life of Jesus and ask how it influenced his conclusions on Jesus- I would have liked to see more of this for it was truly insightful. I also woudl have liked to see more of discussion on his faith in God- he makes the point that he doenst use human logic to prove God's existence yet doenst really seem to describe how he arrived at his conclusion. Overall a great read into a fascinating mind.



3. If you want Jesus to be what you need, avoid this book. If you want to learn about the historical Jesus, read Crossan. This book is more accessible than some of this others; but it presumes some familiarity with his other works which should, I think, come first. Then read this one by all means.



4. Rather disappointed with this book. Bought it at the local Borders and found its prose rushed; was the copyeditor asleep? I found long stretches rather tedious, not enhanced by the author's strong ego, which lacks discernment about what the reader might find engaging and what s/he might not. I appreciate much of Crossan's work, such as In Search of Paul, and this one has many good paragraphs. But the whole work never quite seems to come together.



5. Once, a Lutheran pastor went up to an author (who's also an ex-monk who spent many hours in monastic choir and Latin chant) and asked, how could one have a personal relationship with God in prayer when all was set and programmed, all was ritual, formal, and liturgical?? This author later wrote in his memoirs,
   
   "I have never, ever, thought that Latin chant opposes personal prayer. It is simply personal prayer as part of a total community at prayer. It helps you to distinguish, in prayer, between human echo and divine response, between your own will set to sound and the divine will that allegedly transcends it. As a simple analogy: Does singing the national anthem communally enlarge or diminish personal and individual patriotism??"
   
   It's amazing how much you can learn from people who've been deemed outcasts, super-deviants and heretics from your community. I suspect there are Christians who wouldn't touch the works of John Dominic Crossan with a 10-foot pole.
   
   But after reading A Long Way From Tipperary: What A Former Irish Monk Discovered In His Search For The Truth, whilst I'm nowhere near agreeing with his views on the historical Jesus, I can identify with his struggles, his doubts, his pain (I can almost weep with him over the loss of his first wife).
   
   I see a man who needs the love of Jesus Christ, yet also one I can learn from tremendously (even N.T. Wright has celebrated Crossan's genius; see the opening remarks in his chapter on Crossan in Jesus & The Victory of God). If nothing else, Crossan's wit-filled prose brings literary delight which one finds rare in evangelical works. For example:
   
   "If, in fact, you want a parent metaphor for God, I think father is much more appropriate than mother. It is the mother who is publicly knowable, visibly provable, and legally certifiable. You do not need faith to know a mother. You need faith to know a father, because he is known only on the mother's word and sometimes not even then.?" (p.37)
   
   
   Whilst evangelicals rightly ought to warn the community of the problems in Crossan's writings, we would do well to humble ourselves and learn from our enemies? (wouldn't we want them to learn from us, too?). Try this sharp observation on the Catholic-Protestant schism:
   
   "It is the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, during which Catholicism and Protestantism forced each other into opposite extremes (faith or works, Bible or tradition, individual or community, real or symbolic, etc. or etc.)in that separation within Christianity, Catholicism lost any internal but loyal opposition, any sternly self-critical voice from within. In that separation, Protestantism lost anything to protest against save itself and has continued to fracture into every increasing diversity.?" (p.72, emphasis mine)
   
   Perhaps we need (or God has allowed? or predestined?? [grin]) writers like Crossan, the quintessential postmodern Biblical scholar, drawing his inspiration from, among others, the work of Jacques Derrida, to shake us into seeing our own problems, to look closer at our sacred cows.
   
   And one day Crossan was at a book-signing event, someone came up to him and said, "My pastor told me not to come here tonight because you are even to the left of Marcus Borg.? Crossan replied,
   
   "Give your pastor my best regards and tell him that is the good news. The bad news is that both Borg and me are to the right of Jesus. And worse still, if he will recall Psalm 110, Jesus is to the right of God."

3 comments about Queen Victoria (British History in Perspective).

1. Queen Victoria has more biographies written about her than any woman born after 1800. This biography takes note of the work done in the past and tries to fill in where the author thinks previous works have been lacking. She is a paradoxical monarch who is largely misunderstood. Becoming Queen in 1837 at the tender age of 18, her 64 year reign would span one of the greatest periods of cultural evolution in history. Europe was also unusually peaceful during this period. A shrewed politian, Victoria was the last British monarch to wield great authority. To help explain the "Victorian" zietgiest, a large portion is devoted to the relationship between Victoria and her Husband, Prince Albert. This book's greatest weakness is it's greatest asset: it is short (many other biographies are published in large volumes). At the expence of the druging details of history, he provides a biography that is both interesting and manageable. In the author's own words, he aims to "whet the readers appitite for more and to alert that same reader to the books and articles in which additional historical nourishment may be found." (p.13) A great book, an easy read; 4.5 out of 5 stars.



2. Written by a Professor Emeritus of History of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Queen Victoria is an engaging expose of both the private and public life of the princess who inherited Britain's throne as a teenager and became the strong guiding figure and symbolic head of the largest empire in the world. Drawing upon past studies and research as well as Victoria's own writings to illuminate her not only as a ruler, but as a human being gripped by concerns ranging from gender roles and religion to political machinations and the state of Ireland. An excellently researched and presented portrayal of one of the strongest and most influential women of history.



3. When you think of Queen Victoria, sometimes you visulize a cold and distant monarch. This book looks into to life of a very young queen and how her impact influenced a 3 generations. It will help the reader understand the English family and monarchy. Paced well and very enjoyable. It will be time well spent. Donna Pitcock

5 comments about My Lady Scandalous: The Amazing Life and Outrageous Times of Grace Dalrymple Elliott, Royal Courtesan.

1. This book has little to do with the woman in the title. The writing style reminds me of sixties free flow writing that people did after they were stoned. The author dashes off on one tangent after another that is difficult to follow and you forget what the chapter was supposed to be about to begin with. Not even worth checking out of the library much less owning.



2. But, it was an enjoyable read that had me laughing out loud on more than one occaision. It's definitely packed with lots of information that you'd never read in a "proper" history book.
   
   It was exhaustively and lovingly researched and, contrary to an earlier review, I could definitely see how current events and social mores could easily be connected to the wild times of Daly the Tall.
   
   I passed this one on to my dear friend MarJane who has informed me that should she get reincarnated, she wants to come back as a Courtesan just like Grace! She could definitely do worse and come back as Savonarola...
   
   Hmmmm....now THAT would have been an interesting meeting - Grace and Savonarola...how the world could have turned out differently...



3. I have recently read several biographies of famous/infamous British women, from Nell Gwynn to Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Due to my great interest in the Regency period, I ordered "My Lady Scandalous". I'm sorry to say I cannot recommend this book.
   
   There was much more content about Grace Dalrymple's family and the Regency period than there ever was about Grace, and the information was very helter-skelter. The book seemed to be mostly "sidebar" articles about topics the author had researched, like condoms, hot air balloons, and so forth.
   
   I took it along on a trip and left it behind, unfinished. I hope the author is blessed with a better editor, in future.



4. This is a thoroughly well-researched and well-written biography of a fascinating personality who lived at one of the most interesting historical periods: England and France during the time of the American and French Revolutions. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves biographies or has a fascination with this period of history.



5. grace dalrymple elliot,was the real paris hilton of georgian era.she married young ,divorce faster for adultery.slept her way to the top.her only child may had been fathered by prince of wales.she also had a romance with french royality during french revolution that almost cost her ,her head.this is a fun read.like reading scandel sheets of today.

5 comments about U2 by U2.

1. For any U2 fan, this is the real thing.
   From their early years up until 2005, the band share every single moment, plus a collection of pictures that complement very nicely the entire book.
   100% recomended.



2. My husband and I are big U2 fans. We both are really enjoying this book. It has an intimate feel to it. The pictures are great, too. It makes a nice coffee table book, too.



3. I am a U2 fan, but by no means am obsessed (trust me, I have friends who do fit that description). This book has become one of my favorites to just flip open and read and enjoy. Its passages are simultaneously humorous and sagacious. That is saying nothing of the artful layout, design and photography of the volume. You won't be disappointed.



4. As a certified U2-phile, it was pre-ordained that I would own and read this book as I have done with much of the other biographical work in book and magazine form. This tops the lot.
   
   Repeatedly asking any person to share the details of their lives can result in tedium for the subject, the asker, and the reader. In fact, I have for the most part given up reading more than one interview from a certain period of time (tour, album release, etc.) as all of the questions seem to be the same, and all of the answers likewise. Even with Bono who seems determined to reinvent the U2 epic with each word that leaves his mouth can mire in a rut of propaganda as various interviewers vary only tone and inflection on the same questions in hopes of mining a previously unheard gem.
   
   This book seems to find new ground by simply allowing the band to find its own points of emphasis. As the members of U2 retrace the careers from a mature point of view, the stories actually become grander and more engaging. Either they have become so much more adept at political messaging and spot-on branding, or they have relaxed and become more human. Rather than reading like the typical fan-zine pop fiction that seeks to feed the mythology through the trite and true tools of music journalism which boil the characters down to one dimension, the book and pictures read like a complete memoir. Rather than focusing only on the radio-worn greatest hits of U2 history, the reader is treated to a rich catalog of human experience.
   
   It might have been the perspective of mature distance from their youth. Perhaps, they have been up with the sun and back. Whatever the reason, at last we are finally able to see them as the four youngsters from Dublin who made it work and turned into the world's greatest rock band while staying human.



5. This is a great book to own if you are a U2 fan, and would like to know more about the members; their history, their past, present, and future...
   
   Fair warning! This book is the hardcover version, and it's very heavy & bulky... I bought this book to take on the bus with me to read, but there's NO WAY I'm gonna try to haul this giant heavy book with me!!!
   
   But other than that, excellent book!

1 comments about Winston Churchill: Soldier, Statesman, Artist.

1. Winston Churchill: Soldier, Statesman, Artist, is an outstanding, and easy to read book for young adults. It is very detailed and not hard to follow along. It basically describes the entire life of Winston Churchill starting even before he was born. It is an amazing book, yet does get dry at points.

5 comments about The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary.

1. It is an understatement to say that the main character of this book had an unfortunate life. Driven by madness, this man lost his career as a surgeon after committing murder. The story could have ended there, but Dr. W.C. Minor ended up making a major contribution to the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Although the story of Minor is sad, in a way this contribution offers some redemption. A story about the creation of a dictionary could very easily become dull and that was my expectation, but the author, Simon Winchester, brought the subject to life through the characters he writes about. His descriptions of the actual process of constructing the dictionary were weak, but fortunately this was not the main point of the story and so did not detract from it. Winchester has a talent for bringing this type of story to life as he demonstrated in The Map That Changed The World, a story about geologist William Smith. I am confident enough now in Winchester's ability that I look forward to reading his other book about the OED, The Meaning Of Everything. Overall, I enjoyed The Professor And The Madman and would recommend it to those readers who have a fondness for the English language.



2. Perhaps no where is that more in evidence, than in this story, the story of a man, Dr. Minor, confined to an insane asylum, becoming one of the leading contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary.
   
   His story, the story of Dr. Murray, editor of the OED, how they got together and how the dictionary was compiled and edited makes for fascinating, marvelous reading. An intriguing, fascinating story well told, well written. Surprises, twists and concerns every few pages.
   
   The book does deserve criticism for its sometimes long and laborous detail about putting the dictionary together, but as a story, the story of the two men, Murray and Minor, it is a worthwhile and fascinating read.
   
   Winchester tells the story well, with an eye for detail, then and now, and with an empathetic if not sympathetic perspective for the humanity and the odd twists and turns involved. Good read. Buy it. Read it.



3. This book was simply marvelous, if you are into the story of the origins of the Oxford English Dictionary, this is a book that captures the makings and includes the story of two gentlemen who's lives inevitably come together in bizzare but wonderful order of circumstances, if you Love words and their origins, you will be astounded by this book!



4. Simon Winchester has come up with a nifty little tale of the making of the OED. It's a fun little gem from history, and worth the read. My only complaints are: the book would have been more interesting if he had included some pictures, and the tale itself is pretty small. The publisher makes up for this by using large type, double spaced, with wide paragraph separation. But it's still a footnote in history, and you can't hide that fact.



5. There is a certain "Did you know..." factor about the "new" genre of creative nonfiction: we read it for both the informative componenet, and the fact that quite a bit of history is, well, interesting. Did you know, for example, that the main contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary was insane?
   
   Dr. W.C. Minor was an American soldier in the Civil War, who later moved to England, where he wound up shooting a man. He was placed in an asylum (not the greatest of places in those days), where he was given a few more perks than the other inmates, simply because he was non-violent (despite the reason for his incarceration) and intelligent. One day, he happened to come across an advertisement: Professor James Murray, along with an elite group of gentlemen, was creating the single-greatest compilation of the English language ever conceived. Minor, with nothing but time on his hands, decided to pitch in. Over ten-thousand words later, Minor was the single-greatest contributor to the single-greatest dictionary ever created.
   
   It is a compelling, surprising story, told in Winchester's usual novel-meets-nonfiction style. While I enjoy a good piece of creative nonfiction, I find myself time and time again returning to Winchester's work not necessarily because of the topic, but because I enjoy his style so much. (It just so happens he chooses interesting topics to write upon.) The "P.S." section of this book, as with the others, doesn't offer too much, though there is an intriguing little section: Winchester's favorite words from the OED. Still, you'll purchase "The Professor and the Madman" for the story itself--and it's a doozy. True, too. Funny, how facts can sometimes be more interesting--and harder to believe--than fiction.

5 comments about To the Scaffold: The Life of Marie Antoinette.

1. I never thought of Carolly Erickson as a first rate biographer, even though her "Bloody Mary" some years ago met with some critical acclaim. However, since her pulp novel "Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette" hit the shelves, I have lost all confidence in her as a historian. I read "To the Scaffold" and at first found it charming, with the loveliness of the young queen brought to life but then it descends into the same old cliche. The beautiful queen with the fat, indifferent husband who takes a lover out of boredom - this does not match with the information we are given about Marie-Antoinette in her letters to her mother and in the memoirs of those who knew her. Erickson chose sensationalism over facts. Anything to make a buck....



2. Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) was the daughter of the formidable queen Marie Theresa of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. In the eighteenth century
   nubile daughers were wed to fellow royals in distant lands. Antoinette was wed to the Dauphin Louis when she was only 14. The Austrian girl was now French having to get used to the rich and frivolous lifestyle of court life at Versailles.
   Her husband (the future Louis XVI) was a strange man. He was obese, loved to work on locks, hunt game and had no interest in sex. Due to a penis problem eventually corrected by his doctors the marriage was not consummated until seven years of wedded life had passed. Marie eventually had several children.
   Marie was fair and beautiful. She was no intellectual and indulged her delight in fancy gowns, jewelry and games. Marie even took a lover the Count Alex Fersten of Sweden who have served on the American side during the Revolutionary War. Fersten was devoted to Marie even as the monarchy collapsed in 1789.
   Marie and her family were taken prisoner following the storming of the Bastille beginning the French Revolution in 1789. Her husband Louis XVI was executed in January 1793 while Marie herself was exdcuted in October of that year.
   Erickson is a prolific author of royal biographies including those of Ann Boleyn,Elizabeth and Mary Tudor, Queen Victoria, Alexandria of Russia and Queen Victoria of Britain. She holds a Ph.D in history; writes with
   a novelist ability to tell a good story and has done her research.
   This is a popular biography dealing more with the social history of the age rather than politics. It is one of her best. I have a long shelf of Erickson books which I can recommend the person interested in good historical biography.



3. I generally enjoy good historical fiction but found this one dull and devoid of insight.



4. I am always suspicious of biography that reads like it was historical fiction. Erickson's To the Scaffold is one of this breed. It reads well, particularly at the beginning, but I deeply disliked her narrating details as fact that could really only have been inferred from letters. A certain amount of that can be excused as atmosphere building. I am not too upset when she describes a historical person at a certain moment as pink with health, for instance. However, when she treats certain more controversial aspects of a historical figure as though it were fact instead of a disputed opinion, I get significantly more irritated (for instance, the supposed affair of Marie Antoinette). The way that Erickson uses detail and the unobtrusiveness of the historical sources lends her an unfair feeling of narrative omniscience.
   
   I suppose that there is a case to be made that this sort of text opens accessibility to those who would not normally read historical books. In my view, this is more a kind of dramatization than a real biography. It was satisfying enough to read for entertainment, but I found it wanting as historical text.



5. I really enjoyed this book I bought it several years ago and it was my first introduction into the life of Marie. I have read it a couple of times now and I still just enjoy it.

1 comments about People: The Royals: Their Lives, Loves, and Secrets.

1. The contents, photos, stories, and glimpses of history, sorrow, celebration and transformation are beautifully portrayed in this full color high resolution magazine.
   
   [Side Note: I bought this when it first came out, and the front cover is different than the picture shown, but the title is the same.]
   
   The areas covered are: "A Century of Style - From Princess Diana's star power to Queen Rania's modern take on tradition, royals have shaped the world of fashion."
   
   "Jewels" - Just an incredible close up look at the jeweled crowns, jewelry worn, from brooches to bracelets, this is really a depiction that any jewelry lover would be glad to see.
   
   "Weddings" - from Lisa Halaby & King Hussein of Jordan, to Princess DIANA and Prince Charles, Letizia Ortiz & Felipe of Spain, Crown Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah Bolkiah of Brunei & Sarah Salleh (the photo of the custom made gold Rolls Royce is quite a Kodak moment! Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of Monaco adorn the pages as well as a beautiful look back in time to 1947 when Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten. And there's more!
   
   "Behind the Palace Walls" - This takes you inside the castles with rare, true behind-the-scenes photos that are quite amazing.
   
   "Scandals" - There are plenty of them, and they are told in an unbiased manner.
   
   "At Play" - Ski holidays, yachting, polo matches, fun in the water - it shows the more regular human side to the royals.
   
   "The Next Generation" - this is a rare and especially splendid look inside the lives of the grown children: Exceptional photos of Prince's William and Harry, in-the-moment action shots (sports & hugs) along with their girlfriends. Princess Caroline's beautiful young adult children, Charlotte, Andrea, and Pierre - truly magnificent.
   
   The Editors of PEOPLE really did one OUTSTANDING job. This is a magazine/book that I will always treasure. Their collector editions are so well put together. I'm looking forward to receiving the new one Diana: Her Story, as Told Through the Pages of People when it comes out this July. Get this issue now, while you still can!

5 comments about All Souls: A Family Story from Southie (Ballantine Reader's Circle).

1. The feature which works best in All Souls is the dramatically understated quality of MacDonald's prose. There isn't an ounce of pretense here, and this, when balanced against the horrors he is telling, creates a surface tension of great effect. As a piece of art, as a work of writing, there is little to learn beyond this, however; MacDonald is careful in how he uses language, but there are no surprises. So, this work's strength is also its weakness. Given that, it is a hard book to put down. It has a unique strength that makes one want to reach the end.



2. MacDonald characterizes himself as cursed with an "Irish whisper." That is, unable to keep the secrets he's entrusted with under wraps, blaring out what he should have kept hidden. This memoir of the 1970s through the 1990s, when Whitey Bulger's thugs replaced the anti-busing protests for media attention in South Boston, moves efficiently, with modest attention to Michael Patrick's own coming-of-age as contrasted with a fearsome family scenario of ten siblings, four of whom meet violent ends and three of whom die tragically. The one who survives might as well have died earlier; she survives a coma only to emerge a psychological and physical wreck. While this story often blurs the schooling, or lack of, that the author gained as he grew up in the midst of the anti-busing boycotts, and while you gain a stronger sense of the other members of his family rather than himself, this may be redressed in the new sequel, "Easter Rising." You get a less distinctive depiction of himself compared to his larger-than-life Ma and assorted brothers. Yet, the author appears here to deliberately focus upon his family and the violent milieu that boasts of its solidarity yet which poisons its very cohesion by such corruption on a moral level and a sociological scale. MacDonald redeems himself and his neighborhood as he grows up not only in body but in spirit, managing a buy-back gun program and learning to trust (a few perhaps) police.
   
   The same department who sought to imprison his brother, at thirteen, as Boston's youngest suspect: such maturity for the narrator emerges gradually and realistically. His story of how he survived Old Colony, absent of maudlin sentimentality or contrived cutesy anecdotes, reflects what in his acknowledgements appended he calls "every painful and personally redemptive sentence." (265) MacDonald manages to tell a story that could have been akin to the film "The Departed" or the HBO "Brotherhood," yet avoids ethnic cliche and predictably pat endings. The drama of abiding by the neighborhood code that forbids snitching but vowing to break that same omerta by seeking the culprits behind two of his brothers' deaths and the imprisonment of a third adds natural tension to this narrative. Yet, MacDonald sidesteps special pleading.
   
   Many of the memories he shares deserve repeating. For this review, three quick examples. First: the author accounts for the absence of a regular man in Ma's life as she cares for eight kids. "A man would only be abusive, tear at Ma's self-worth, and limit her mobility in life. Welfare could do all that 'and' pay for the groceries." (33). Her third (named) partner and second husband, Bob King, gets hit over the head by Ma with the wine bottle that made him drunk. When he comes to, she accuses him or stealing the "Christmas money" and he's sent off down Jamaica Ave. for the last time. Staggering down the street, to staunch his bleeding head, he holds what Michael Patrick fetched on his mother's orders: a Kotex pad.
   
   Ma herself gets shot randomly, through the living room window, by a teen high on Whitey's cocaine, just before the episode of "Dallas" comes on that she and all of America had been waiting for: "Who Shot J.R.?" Whether evoking the terror of his brother Davey's schizophrenia at Mass Mental, the fear of rats and roaches that infest the projects, the rage of the busing protests, the desperate schemes of his Ma to stay ahead of the authorities, or the conniving that infects both cops and criminals with the same lack of morality, MacDonald holds a calm eye for the telling detail and a cool pen to record what transpired. I look forward to his sequel, "Easter Rising." He keeps to the unadorned, if often witty, accounts of "street justice" that complicate his series of vivid incidents, recalled conversations, and local lore that add up to a poignant, yet honest, depiction of what it was to grow up in what was Southie, before gentrification, integration, and disintegration.



3. 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 and demonstrating to the rest of the world what exactly Southie was all about, the resurgence to try and understand what living in South Boston must have been like is perhaps stronger now than ever before.
   
   Though a textbook format could certainly provide readers with a sociological and psychological look at the factors that went into making South Boston perhaps one of the most volatile sections of the country, not everyone is always looking for the highfalutin academic approach to gain a glimpse into a society. Rather, what is too often not focused on is the personal stories of the area.
   
   Thanks to the work of Michael Patrick MacDonald, readers from across the globe can read a much more personal take on life in the South Boston projects, streets, hospitals and morgues. In 2000, MacDonald and Ballantine Books release All Souls: A Family Story from Southie . MacDonald, who grew up in the projects located in Old Colony in South Boston tells an amazing family story that is so far reaching that each page seems almost as unbelievable as the next.
   
   The MacDonald family, although perhaps never willing to admit it back in the day, did not have it easy. Though they may have been masked in their zeal for their homeland, South Boston, the realities that existed were perhaps only realized once a look back at Southie was taken by those members of the family that were fortunate enough to get out.
   
   The book tells remarkable story after story in which the trials and tribulations of the MacDonald family and the life and events taking place in the world around them in Southie. The family is perhaps the ideal capture of a family that has been through so much yet continues to remain strong. Certainly the societal factors so prevalent in South Boston such as drugs, poverty and Whitey Bulger affected this family as it did so many in Southie. However, the remarkable part is that the author faced with the tragedy of having to bury sibling after sibling and seeing both his family and friends suffer so much is capable of releasing such a well thought out and brilliant book.
   
   What remains true not just for the MacDonald family but also so many that grew up in South Boston during the mid to late 1900's is that despite all of the social evils taking place around them perhaps the unifying factor of being from Southie was all they needed to remain strong. When others might have crumbled or lost all hope, Southie residents and the MacDonald's in particular were able to time and time again pull themselves out of the gutter and move on in life.
   
   The book is written in a very methodical and organized way. The stories tell a sort of time-line approach to the life of MacDonald and how it interrelated to not just his family members but also the issues that Southie will forever be remembered for: the busing riots, the drug trade of the Irish underground and the fist fights on street corners that turned into an almost daily occurrence.
   
   What MacDonald does well in this book is not just tell a story, but rather allows the reader into the lives of those around him. Through an almost genealogical lens, MacDonald brings the reader into his family in a way that at times makes the reader forget that they have no idea of this family prior to turning to page one.
   
   All Souls is the perfect read for someone that is both familiar with Southie either because of geographic or historical relevance or for someone who has no idea about what South Boston and its residents were faced with. The book is an amazing account of what is right about South Boston when so much has been wrong about South Boston. Even when faced with amazing extenuating circumstances, what held South Boston together was families like the MacDonald's.
   
   Though certainly sullied by a few bad apples, the bunch is never ruined.
   
   
   Recommended:
   Yes



4. I usually try to read all books that I get a hold of that are memoir..but this one I read about 1/4 of it--maybe a little more and I just couldn't keep going. I put it away for awhile and got it out again and tried again--I started from the beginning but I didn't even get a 1/4 of it read before shutting it for good. I don't recommend this book to anyone. :(



5. i could not stand this book and did not finish it. it was poorly written and has probably gotten its good reviews from people who feel sorry for their poverty, but it is neither touching nor sympathetic. if chapters on hiding the boyfriends and the big color television from the government welfare worker appeal to you, you are in luck.