Quick looks at Joseph Doolin’s ‘South Boston Boy’ and Beverly Ford and Stephanie Schorow’s ‘The Boston Mob Guide’

The Word On the Street

December 11, 2011

Former Catholic Charities president Joseph Doolin delves into his familys…

Joseph Doolin, former longtime president of Catholic Charities, renders a nostalgic yet clear-eyed portrait of his family’s past in his new book, “South Boston Boy’’ (Bumps River). Reading his memoir is like strolling through a bygone Boston, a time when people lined up for fried seafood at Kelly’s Landing, house doors were left unlocked and children unattended. Yet he doesn’t shy away from addressing the hardships presented by his father’s excessive drinking and his own chronic stuttering.

The book is dedicated to his father’s mother, Maggie, who was the grandmother he never knew. In the opening scene, she is taken away after setting fire to her home for the umpteenth time. She spent the next 18 years in Boston State Hospital, where family visited her on Sundays.

Beginning in the 1940s, the Doolins lived in South Boston’s Old Colony Public Housing Development for 13 years. Doolin and his two sisters attended parochial schools. When the family budget allowed, they moved into a seven-room flat in a triple-decker at the corner of Columbia Road and O Street. “Lace curtain heaven,’’ Doolin calls it.

He was lucky to find adults who took an interest in his future, helping him to get jobs and encouraging him to go to college. He graduated from Boston University in the 1950s, earning a master’s degree, and doctorate 30 years later. After starting his career as a social worker in Boston, he took on leadership roles, founding the Kit Clark Senior Services agency and leading Catholic Charities “in which role I had the opportunity to boss around the sisters,’’ he writes.

Along the way, he got married, had two sons, and reconciled with his father. After four decades living in Newton, Doolin and his wife returned to South Boston early in the new millennium. The memories washed over him. He was home - for a while. The couple has since moved to Osterville.

Gangster talk

Like Doolin, James J. “Whitey’’ Bulger Jr. grew up in Southie’s Old Colony development, but the similarities end there. There was finally an answer to the question “Where’s Whitey?’’ when Bulger was captured in Santa Monica, Calif., in June after 16 years on the run. The renewed interest in the mobster’s murderous past led two veteran Boston journalists to create a who’s who of organized crime. “The Boston Mob Guide: Hit Men, Hoodlums & Hideouts’’ (History) by Beverly Ford and Stephanie Schorow begins in the days of Prohibition and encompasses dozens of gangsters, hangouts, hits, and heists. The first chapter traces Bulger’s rise from hoodlum to the FBI’s Most Wanted suspect.