).I was just going on and on about how, when I lived in Boston, I felt like I was in a movie because of the people, many of the old-timers felt very rich and extreme characters, theatrical, almost cartoonishly so. The folks there feel it’s worth preserving their identities, despite being American, maybe because the nuances are still holding up, along the power structure between the Irish, Italian and Jewish quarters, and the blacks of course. And these Canton people are no different. Even when they move away from Boston - and not many do, when I go to weddings there, it’s usually one or two family members in a big family - 20 or so - who come from California, the rest moved 5 miles in their whole life. And the ones who do live out of state (outside of 128 haha) remain Bostonians, they find other Bostonians in their new home. They know which bar to go to on day 2 to watch Celtic games.
I only found it with New Yorkers and Chicagoans to some extent, the rest are just "yeah, I was born in [X] and moved around".
The "Bostonianship" is almost a spice, a sauce that you can pour on anything and make it way more interesting, enthralling, and also darker, mysterious. It’s like the mist and fog of London for Dickens. The Boston strangler, the Isabella Gardner robbery, Whitey Bulger, the Kennedys, etc. all swim in that gravy..
So not much lost with that novel.
Have you seen; A Deadly American Marriage ?
I don’t know if it’s a fascinating story or presented in a tricky way, but I was fascinated.
Baldwin > Brian Higgins