“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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Powerful
This is undoubtedly one of the best books I have ever read.
This is a well written biography with many sad and many funny moments. It is hard to believe that the author and his siblings managed to survive. In our current turmoil surrounding blacks it was interesting to see that, when man is left without an obvious visual cue, he could still pick ever finer ways to discriminate: Limerick Irish ostrasizing …
One of the best books I have ever read. It will stay with me forever.
Before reading this I had no idea of poverty in its true sense. Ireland. England’s effect on the country. Reality of alcoholism in an intelligent loving father. Mother not able to feed children, babies dying. And Frankie persevering. Bold, crude, heart rending story that I was enlightened by.
Pulls at your heartstrings, but uplifting too.
McCourt’s tale of a poverty-filled childhood is an account filled with heartbreak and tenacity.
Fabulous
Heart breaking and yet every page I was pulling for the characters to find brightness and abundance in their lives. There isn’t a wasted word in this account of a family in the grips of poverty during WW!!.
Read it in its entirety on a flight. Brought back multiple memories of my Roman Catholic upbringing
A great read
This book grips you like no other. It made me laugh and cry, often within the same hour. The story and characters are unforgettable. I read it in one go during a long flight.
So sad, yet gives insight to the hopelessness of poverty unless you decide to change the future. The beauty of the word craft of this book is beautiful.
Difficult to read due to the reality of the author’s tough childhood. Reading of this poor Irish family gives us insight and empathy for those who struggle with poverty, alcoholism etc.
Sad
One of the most human memoirs ever written, filled with love and admiration for the author’s mother, who retained and inspired devotion from her children. The author honors her character and teaching that helped him and his siblings to defy their surroundings, lack of opportunities, and miseries of poverty and aspire to rise above it all.
maybe my expectations were too high, but I was disappointed.
Enjoyable reading.
Enjoyed every page.
Well written story of Irish family living in poverty in mid1900’s. You see all the good and bad of the times and the individuals involved