Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Brutal (1-48)

Summary:
In this book, Brutal by Kevin Weeks, the author talks about him living in a neighborhood where there was a lot of violence, and one of the most notorious mobster lived in it - Whitey Bulger. Yeah, that's right, the guy on the Top Ten Most Wanted list for the FBI. The autobiography starts out with the protagonist, Kevin, talking about his childhood, where he lived, and how life in general was for him. Weeks lived in South Boston, in the Old Colony Housing Project, with a family of eight. Born on March 21st, 1956 to a family of 6 children, him being the 5th. He had two older brothers, two older sisters, and a younger sister. His parents were very strict and they liked the idea of school, since their parents were voracious readers and school was an important part of their lives. His father would hit him for no reason, and say things like "That's for nothing. Now do something"(Weeks 2) or "That's in case you did something and got away with it" (Weeks 2). Weeks was very athletic, but what most standed out to me is that he loved boxing.

You needed to learn how to fight, and that was essential for Highschool. Weeks saw a fight everyday. People would get beat down for looking at another person the wrong way. during and after Highschool he would be a Bouncer for the "Triple O's" restaurant. There he met Whitey Bulger. As he got better at fighting and threw people out of the restaurant that didn't belong their, Whitey looked at him, and started talking to him more. They later became friends, and Weeks hangs around with Bulger almost every hour in the day. They become friends, that do bad stuff. They basically do bad stuff and drive around in a car all day.


(And that's when I stopped reading)

Quote:
"Stop staring at him, Billy had told me. He's Whitey Bulger" (Weeks 27).
- This quote made me intrigued, and kind of wonder. You can't even stare at this man? He was so popular back then. What is so special about him? He must be a Big Shot or a special guy.


Reaction:
I noticed that the author uses and writes in past tense a lot. He writes it probably like this because it happened in the past, and it happened to him. My reaction to the story is very interesting. I have a feeling I will like this book. it has a lot of suspense that just makes me keep reading it. I really like this book and how it talks about living in South Boston and in the time of Whitey Bulger. This type of stuff interest's me.

1 comment:

  1. this post crackles with voice. The tone perfectly fits the book's content!

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