“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.” So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish … Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank’s mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank’s father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy — exasperating, irresponsible and beguiling– does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father’s tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies. Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank’s survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig’s head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors–yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness. Angela’s Ashes, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt’s astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.
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This book about an Irish family settling in America during the Depression years was an awesome read. Much of the story was unforgettable and inspiring. This book should be a must for any book club or high school history or literature class.
This was a wonderful book telling of the poor lives of this family. They lived in a place where waste ran by their house . The mother worked and the father drank. It tells of the boy growing up and making do with what they had.
THE most depressing book I ever read, but excellent writing
Such a depressing book, but aren’t most “good” true stories.
Excellent book by a wonderful writer about realistic aspects of life!
Such a sad life.
Saddest book I have ever read.
sad
Highly recommend this book. I’ve read it several times. So hard to believe what this man and his brothers lived through and overcame in their young years. I loved his sense of humor.
This is one of the best books I’ve ever read. I love it.
I highly recommend this book. The era is past but it still resonates today.
Told from the gradually maturing perspective of a boy growing up, the struggles of an poor family in Ireland. One of the best books, ever. Gripping, insightful, joys and sorrows. Hauntingly beautiful and terrible.
Love this book! One of my favorites books ever ️
A favorite. It’s about the determination and mother’s love of her children. A heart wrenching story of survival in Ireland during a time flourished there. The description of living conditions and how the family lived is a tragic reminder of the consumerism we take advantage of today. If you get and like Irish wit it’s easy to read and you’ll look …
Great book on what is like to grow up poor. Tremendous writing by McCourt do not miss reading this book if you are Irish or Poor you will see yourself in the pages.
A great slice of history yet it still resonates today.
Could be tragic, but is triumphant. Heartbreaking descriptions of living hungry in dismal residences. Book on tape read by Frank McCourt is the best way to experience the book.
I loved this book. It’s different from anything else I’d ever read. Frank McCourt develops a unique voice, working from the point of view of a very young child all the way to young adult. Although a memoir, it reads almost like a novel, with plenty of tension and challenge. It’s funny, tragic, witty, and odd all at once, a great read. I couldn’t …
Too sad for me. What a tragic childhood.
Angela’s Ashes is the perfect rebuttal to everyone claiming that poverty kills the soul. The statement is absolutely true and false at the same time. It proves that we each have the ability to muddle through the worst that life has to offer, as long as we have a strong character–with a very well-developed sense of humor! In this day of …