“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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I have read all three of Frank McCourt’s books and even went to his museum in Limerick, Ireland, too! 🙂
wonderful, inspires the reader!
This book took me back in time to tragic events. I read it in two days. Historical events can touch the soul…whether unsettling, sorrowful, or triumphant. This book will stay with me as long as I live.
One of the best tales I have ever read (says the English major). Witty and tragic; realistic and dramatic; I wish I could read it again for the first time. It sings.
Very depressing and I have since learned that his memories do not support his older brothers’ memories. We all remember things differently. I am not sure of his experiences now.
This book is a biography of the life of Frank McCourt who grew up in Ireland. His family was irish catholic and very poor. This book won the pulitzer prize. It will have you laughing and crying. A must read.
This book details the author’s early life in Ireland. His father was a drunk and was frequently unemployed. His mother had 3 children die before the age of 5.
I read this many years ago and although the story details have faded the atmosphere has remained. I felt the squaller and in many ways, it made me somewhat thankful for my own poor start in life. AND now I write about similar themes from those real life experiences. This shameful self-promotion is necessary, so please excuse me. These books are …
This is the story of the author’s childhood. Starting from his short time as a small child in America, and then his middle and teenage years in Ireland. One tragedy after another befalls his family. He grows up extrememly poor in Ireland with many siblings and an absentee father. They barely have enough money to feed themselves and cloth …
what interests me the most is that as much as there is so much sorrow&,hardship surrounding frank ,he seems to not feel sorry for himself.even the way the story is told the author hardly tells what he feels he mostly only shares his thoughts.
So revealing that many of us live in such a sheltered world. A nearly overwhelming eye opener. So important to take off the blinders.
Wonderful book.
I know many people LOVED this book. I found it boring. Sorry.
Did really like it, but I know people who did.
Will never think about poverty in the same way again!
Loved this book. It made me cry several times. I could not put it down. Great story telling
Sad, but a wonderful example of the resilience of the human spirit.
Every few years I re-read this book, even though I know half the (stellar) lines by now. Quite possibly the best memoir ever written.
This is a memoir about a boy named Frank who comes of age in an Ireland slum in the 1930’s and 1940’s. The story is both heartbreaking and humour as the author has a very witty way of unfolding the unthinkable events in this young boys life.
One of my all time favorite books. Just beautifully written