This memoir, by turns passionate and hilarious, recounts the colorful life of the man who has dominated Massachusetts state politics for more than a generation. William Bulger describes his childhood in a poor but lively and devoted family in heavily Irish South Boston - where he still lives - and his struggle for an education. He tells of his leadership when Boston was America"s focal point in a fierce school busing crisis. He recounts power-brokering in one of the most independent and feisty state governments in the nation and writes about the inside game of politics in a way that invites comparison to Edwin O"Connor"s The Last Hurrah . He affectingly makes the case for the right of neighborhoods to preserve ancestral culture from efforts to stifle diverse traditions in a rootless age. This is a book for political aficionados everywhere.