Author Dennis Lehane grew up in Boston, Massachusetts and writes about the city from personal experience. This novel, set in South Boston (Southie) revolves around the 1974 judicial decision that ordered Boston public schools be desegregated via busing of students between white and black neighborhoods.
Southie neighborhood of Boston circa 1970s
As the story opens in 1974, Southie residents, led by the Irish mob that controls the neighborhood, are planning protests against the busing slated to begin in several weeks, when summer break ends.
Demonstration against busing
Forty-two year old Mary Pat Fennessey is planning to assemble placards for the demonstration, which is another thing to do besides working two jobs and raising her 17-year-old daughter Jules.
Mary Pat's first husband was an accomplished thief (now declared dead); her second husband left her; and her son - a Vietnam veteran - died from a heroin overdose. So Jules is now the most important person in Mary Pat's life, 'her heart' as Mary Pat puts in.
The residents of Southie consider themselves 'family' and share the same values, attitudes, and prejudices. Racism, in the form of extreme prejudice against black people, is passed from generation to generation, and it wouldn't occur to anyone to think differently. So busing is REALLY anathema to Southie residents, and busing orders are to be defied at all costs.
Children were included in demonstrations against busing
Mary Pat's daughter Jules, about to be a high school senior, is scheduled to be bused to the black neighborhood of Roxbury. This is especially galling for the last year of school, which is supposed to be fun.
With this on her mind, Jules goes out one evening with her friends: Rum - Jules' boyfriend, who Mary Pat thinks is a dumb lunkhead who shouldn't reproduce;
Brenda - Jules' best friend from childhood, whose curves catch men's eyes;
and George - a young drug dealer and gang hanger-on.
George, like lots of young men in Southie, works for the Irish mob, which is run by Marty Butler.
Jules doesn't return that night, or the next day, and a frantic Mary Pat sets out to look for her daughter. Mary Pat questions Jules' boyfriend Rum and the other friends Jules was with on the night she disappeared, but can't seem to get truthful answers.
Mary Pat making a fuss alarms mob leader Marty Butler, who's afraid it will bring police attention to Southie.....and to his criminal activities. So Marty STRONGLY suggests that Jules took off for Florida, and STRONGLY encourages Mary Pat to leave off searching for her child.
Of course Mary Pat keeps on probing; talking to people; and asking questions.
While still hoping that Jules turns up, Mary Pat keeps working at an old age home where she changes bedpans, bathes the residents, changes sheets, etc. At work Mary Pat learns that the son of her black co-worker - a young black man called Auggie Williamson - was found dead under a subway platform in a white neighborhood. Like everyone in Southie, Mary Pat jumps to the conclusion that Auggie was a drug dealer trying to ply his trade in the area....and that he died as a result.
The thing is, Auggie was killed on the same night Jules vanished. And the subway station where Auggie was killed is across the way from the park where Jules and her friends were partying, drinking, and smoking marijuana. This is a BIG coincidence, and Mary Pat starts looking for connections.
Along the way Mary Pat develops a kind of mild friendship with a Boston policeman called Bobby Coyne, who's investigating Auggie's murder and helping Mary Pat search for Jules.
Coyne grew up close to Southie, but his parents weren't racist and he doesn't hate black people. I can't say Coyne's attitude rubs off on Mary Pat, but she does seem to (very slightly) adjust her thinking over the course of the story. The point of the book, the toxicity of racism, is well presented and impactful. Attitudes have changed since the 1970s, but the novel is still relevant today as demonstrated by racist killings.
Some parts of the book, such as when Mary Pat demonstrates her formidable ninja skills, stretch credulity a tad. But this is an excellent book, highly recommended
Rating: 4 stars
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