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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780618470259 |
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
Michael Patrick MacDonald's All Souls: A Family Story from Southie told the story of the loss of four of his siblings to the violence, poverty, and gangsterism of Boston's Irish American ghetto. The question "How did you get out?" has haunted MacDonald ever since. In response he has written this new book, a searingly honest story of reinvention that begins with young MacDonald's breakaway from the soul-crushing walls of Southie's Old Colony housing project and ends with two healing journeys to Ireland that are unlike anything in Irish American literature.
The story begins with MacDonald's first urgent forays outside Southie, into Boston and eventually to New York's East Village, where he becomes part of the club scene swirling around Johnny Rotten, Mission of Burma, the Clash, and other groups. MacDonald's one-of-a-kind 1980s social history gives us a powerful glimpse of what punk music is for him: a lifesaving form of subversion and self-education. But family tragedies draw him home again, where trauma and guilt lead to an emotional collapse. In a harrowing yet hilarious scene of self-discovery, MacDonald meets his father for the first time — much too late. After this spectacularly failed attempt to connect, MacDonald travels to Ireland, first as an alienated young man who has learned to hate shamrocks with a passion, and then on a second trip with his extraordinary "Ma," a roots journey laced with both rebellion and profound redemption.
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About the Author
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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
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JEOBrien, September 29, 2006 (view all comments by JEOBrien)
In Easter Rising, Michael Patrick MacDonald accompanies readers on a blistering journey through familial pain, healing, and self-discovery. The slew of family tragedies that prompt MacDonald to leave his native Southie take him from the abandoned warehouses that spawned Boston?s hardcore punk scene to the streets of Paris, London, New York, and ultimately, to the Ireland his grandfather left half a century before. The parallels between the author?s departure from South Boston and his grandfather?s from County Donegal, and the awkward, comically touching moments grandfather and grandson share make up some of the book?s most memorable moments. MacDonald?s writing is as fearless and direct as the underground bands that so influenced him in his teenage years, but with a world-wizened insight and maturity informed by the nightmares that plagued his family in Old Colony.
Though the punk cries of ?destroy? and ?no future? serve as a catalyst for a young MacDonald?s escape from Southie, Easter Rising is a chronicle of spiritual pilgrimage, not two-dimensional punk rock nihilism. MacDonald is that rare breed of writer who dazzles with both craft and content, doling out a one-two punch readers should feel privileged to be a party to.
What makes this book an essential piece of American writing is the author?s uncanny ability to bravely and insightfully bring to light stories that would otherwise be whispered in quiet corners. In this regard, MacDonald?s prose makes cowards of us all.
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780618470259
- Subtitle:
- An Irish American Coming Up from Under
- Author:
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Houghton Mifflin Company
- Location:
- Boston
- Subject:
- Literary
- Subject:
- Irish americans
- Subject:
- Irish American families
- Subject:
- Personal Memoirs
- Copyright:
- 2006
- Edition Description:
- HARDCOVER
- Publication Date:
- September 2006
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- Y
- Pages:
- 248
- Dimensions:
- 8.68x5.92x.84 in. .87 lbs.
