The Old Overholt and Other Stories

A dreamer, a talker, a merrymaker, and a moralist, Tim Cadigan is classic Boston Irish-just the kind of local color that writer Mitch Goldberg is looking for when he moves to a working-class Dorchester neighborhood. Mitch soon learns that his elderly neighbor is both a prolific storyteller and a fascinating character, hilarious and neurotic, open-minded and self-righteous, kind and thoughtless, honorable and cagey, forgiving and grudge holding. After hearing dozens of stories from Tim's family and friends, Mitch decides to compile a broad sampling, including his own favorite, in which Tim produces a deathbed miracle of sorts with a shot of whiskey and a beer chaser. Blending humor and poignancy, other stories describe Tim's righteous defense of a tenant victimized by prejudice, his madcap efforts to get the pope to stop in for tea, his extraordinary determination to reverse his brother's mental illness, his annual yuletide roast of the regulars at the Connemara Gardens Bar and Grille, and his final days at the home he loves. The Old Overholt and Other Stories is a lively portrayal of an endearing, complex individual and the people, times, and place that shaped him.