While the Music Lasts: My Life in Politics

by William M. Bulger

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.

Genres: Nonfiction

328 pages, Hardcover

First published February 19, 1996

Reviews

[Siobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're interested in finding out about William Bulger's brother James, don't read this. But if what interests you is the political process, this is an interesting book and a fairly quick read.

Bulger is a tad disingenuous in places. Clearly, he did not have a good relationship with the media, and has little good to say about the Fourth Estate. But toward the end of the book, he states that he has nothing against the media. Um, sorry, not buying it.

I can understand, though, why he was at odds with the media throughout his career. Bill Bulger is a man for whom "loyalty" is an integral part of his being. He is loyal--to his neighborhood, to his family, to his Church, and nothing takes precedence over those things.

He mentions a couple of times that he could have made more money by doing something else. But one thing that he doesn't seem clear on is why he didn't go after the money. Political power apparently meant a whole lot more to him than making money. There's nothing wrong with that, but the way he keeps saying he wasn't in it for the money without recognizing what he was in it for leads me to the conclusion that he either doesn't get what motivates him, or he's not being totally honest. I'm betting on the latter.

One of the episodes that he covers in his book is one that I remember quite well. In the 1970s, Boston was forced to integrate its schools through busing. Bulger and his entire neighborhood were deadset against integration, not, according to Bulger, because of racial prejudice, but because South Boston, where they lived, had the lowest crime rate of any neighborhood in the city. The busing plan would have entailed sending their children into Roxbury, the neighborhood with the highest crime rate in the city.

Southies, as they're known, were infuriated by the prospect of busing, and angrily aware that those in favor of busing were not going to be effected by it. The judge in the case lived in Wellesley. Ted Kennedy sent his kids to private schools. Michael Dukakis, who sent his children to public schools, lived in Brookline. One state senator who wanted kids in Boston bused managed to write legislation allowing Springfield to be exempt from busing requirements. And of course, he represented Springfield.

I have a hard time believing that there was NO racial prejudice involved in this on the part of the Southies, but I do understand Bulger's argument. No parents in their right mind would agree to sending their children into dangerous neighborhoods with substandard schools in the name of integration. And Bulger does redeem himself later in the book when reflecting on the busing era:

"In the quiet that follows the busing storm, it is difficult not to wonder at times how much of a permanent nature was really accomplished. All the passion, the fury -- all the pain and sacrifices -- spent or suffered for the sake of our children; it's all history; yet now, as is the way with history, it must be repeated. Again we must fight for children at risk, children trapped behind the barbed wire of our school bureaucracy. Most of the victims today are black or brown or yellow -- but precious to the whitest among us because they are CHILDREN (emphasis his). It will be a long, bitter struggle to salvage them, but it is one to whcih all people of goodwill must be committed to the end."

Who can argue with that? The only problem is that during the 70s -- and earlier, and later -- the children of Roxbury have needed champions like Bulger to stand between them and the unfeeling bureaucracy, not to mention the lives of poverty that await the uneducated in our society. Who stood up for those children then?

I think that where Bulger failed in this issue was not in opposing busing but in not suggesting some alternatives. After all, the parents in Roxbury are just as concerned that their children get a good education in a safe place as are the parents in South Boston. And as a legislator, Bulger was in a position to at least have some input into that scenario rather than stopping at throwing up roadblocks to busing.

What I respect about Bulger is that he never forgot where he came from. In fact, he never left where he came from. He grew up poor, but not knowing it, and was concerned from the get-go with helping to lift the burden from people who were struggling. I don't agree with the ways he did all of that, but he really seems in many ways like quite a noble character. And he is clearly well educated; his quotes from Shakespeare and comments in Latin make this book a joy to read.

A friend of mine from Boston is fond of quoting a Boston Irish politician who said he planned to be buried in a particular cemetery, so that he can remain politically active. I don't know where Bulger will be buried, but it's a safe bet that he'll be politically active right up until the put the pennies on his eyes.

[Chrisanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this on the recommendation of David McCullough (1776, etc). I don't even know the man and I had certainly never heard of Bulger. But the more I read the more I was convinced that he would have been an amusing neighbor... and that, don't shoot me please!, there is really very little difference between party lines. The troubles and politicking of a life in politics are nicely spelled out here and, while I took everything he had to say with a grain of salt (he is, after all, unashamedly Irish, a lawyer, and a politician. Read the book. I'm not saying anything he didn't), he had some shrewd observations about the career path. A very high 3 + stars.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.2

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Billy Bulger's self-aggrandizing, score-settling, and winding memoir. Not exactly literature on every page but a window into a certain world and a certain kind of person, and ultimately very hard to dislike. There are occasional brilliant political observations strewn throughout, leaving the impression there is maybe a much better and more useful book hiding in here among all the other stuff.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reasonably charming, especially so about his younger years in Boston, a bit self serving at the end but he is an impressive guy.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A refreshing & enlightening read that reminds one to take people as you find them.

[Lisa Houlihan]

David McCullough