In the follow up to his successful and riveting memoir, All Souls, MacDonald takes us along for another ride—this time through his teen years in the Irish ghetto of Boston’s Southie. He says he wrote this in response to the readers of his first book who only wanted to know how he’d got himself out of what can only be described as a desperate (and seemingly impossible to escape) childhood. MacDonald was the third youngest of seven kids, raised by the singular ‘Ma’ and when we catch up with him in this installment is just discovering the punk scene of the early seventies. His exploits into the underground scene are fascinating and hysterical (his run ins with Johnny Rotten and Siouxsie Suh are jaw-dropping). MacDonald has a knack for creating atmosphere—his descriptions of his brief foray into the drug culture of New York fortified my resolve to stay away from hard drugs. Neither sentimental nor sensationalistic, his story is one of truth and hope and all the incarnations a person has to go through before finding their real self. (It’s also about some really kick-booty music.) ( )

2.5ish stars. i really liked the last quarter of this book. this, as well as his work in southie and what really brought him back there, was what i was expecting and hoping to read about. so i was kind of disappointed to read more about his childhood, although it was nice that he filled in some of the gaps from his first memoir (all souls). still, while this wasn't quite what i wanted it to be, it was an interesting read. i don't know much at all about the music or the movements that came out of the music that he talked about, so it was kind of interesting to read about it. i do wish he had focused less on that and more on his later experiences. i think what bothers me the most, i'm realizing as i'm writing this, is that he sidesteps most of the depth and the emotional part of the journey that we know he was on. in a memoir like this, i'd like that shared, but maybe that's not fair. ( )