Five Wicked Awesome Massachusetts Books

Saturday, February 6th will mark 222 years since Massachusetts ratified the U.S. constitution, becoming the 6th state in the process. In honor of the Commonwealth, here are five great books set in the Bay State.

1. The Given Day by Dennis Lehane
This historical novel, which includes cameos by everyone from Babe Ruth to Calvin Coolidge, follows a Boston family during the years following World War I. This was a period rich with local and national importance - the novel features the influenza epidemic of 1918 and the Boston molasses spill, and culminates with the Boston police strike of 1919. Unlike some of his earlier work, including Mystic River, Lehane creates larger-than-life, likable (though flawed) characters. The Given Day is a magnificent story of a colorful era.

2. All Souls: A Family Story from Southie by Michael Patrick McDonald
A memoir set in South Boston ("Southie) by someone who lived through one of the most divisive eras in the city's history - the 1974 Boston busing decision to integrate the public schools - and the subsequent boycotts and riots. Along the way, McDonald recounts his family's struggles to survive the poverty and violence of the Southie housing projects. By all accounts, this should be a terribly depressing book, but the pride that McDonald feels in his family, his neighborhood and his Irish heritage counterbalance the strife.

3. When A Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers On and Off the Streets by Timothy Black
Black chronicles the lives of the Rivera brothers, raised mostly in Springfield, and their struggles to stay in school, find employment, and steer clear of the law. He follows the Riveras for 18 years, becoming a mentor and confidant to the family, even going so far as to post bail when the youngest brother gets arrested for narcotics. Yes, this is a sociological study, and there are times when the prose turns academic, but by and large this is a very readable and engrossing tale.

4. Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robison
Robison is the brother of Augusten Burroughs (Running With Scissors) so you can expect he led a rather unusual childhood. The memoir details his difficulties growing up in western Massachusetts, not just with a dysfunctional family, but his own problems with simple communication and social interaction with his schoolmates. He finds he has an aptitude for mechanical processes, starting out in his high school A/V department and eventually working as a guitar technician for the band Kiss. At age 40, a therapist friend tells him he exhibits classic symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome, a diagnosis that gives him an understanding of his past difficulties. This is a funny, poignant tale of adaptation in the face of adversity.

5. The Professional by Robert B. Parker
This probably isn't the best Spenser novel, but it might be the last. Parker died January 18th at the age of 77. In The Professional, we follow Spenser from his home in Boston to Springfield (Parker's birthplace), Chicopee, and the fictional town of Hartland ("a small town about 15 miles upriver" from Springfield) as he pursues a blackmailer. As always, the dialog is sharp and witty, and the cast of characters (Hawk, Susan Silverman, Pearl the Wonder Dog) are as familiar as a pair of your most comfortable slippers.

Of course, if the STCC Library doesn't have the book on the shelf, it can be requested from another library. Please ask for assistance if you need it.