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Angela's Ashes : A Memoir by Frank McCourt
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Reviews of Angela's Ashes : A Memoir by Frank McCourt
Amazon.com
"Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish
childhood," writes Frank McCourt in Angela's Ashes. "Worse yet is the
miserable Irish Catholic childhood." Welcome, then, to the pinnacle of
the
miserable Irish Catholic childhood. Born in Brooklyn in 1930 to recent
Irish immigrants Malachy and Angela McCourt, Frank grew up in
Limerick after his parents returned to Ireland because of poor prospects
in America. It turns out that prospects weren't so great back in the old
country either--not with Malachy for a father. A chronically unemployed
and nearly unemployable alcoholic, he appears to be the model on which
many of our more insulting cliches about drunken Irish manhood are
based. Mix in abject poverty and frequent death and illness and you have
all the makings of a truly difficult early life. Fortunately, in McCourt's
able
hands it also has all the makings for a compelling memoir. --This text
refers to the hardcover
edition of this title
Amazon.com Reading Group Guides
Are you in a reading group? There is a reading group guide available for
this title. --This text refers to the hardcover
edition of this title
The New York Times Book Review, Denis Donoghue
For the most part, his style is that of an Irish-American raconteur,
honorably voluble and engaging.... Induced by potent circumstances, he
has told his story, and memorable it is. --This text refers to the
hardcover
edition of this title
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From Booklist , August 19, 1996
It is a wonder that McCourt survived his childhood in the slums of
Depression-era Limerick, Ireland: three of his siblings did not, dying
of
minor illnesses complicated by near starvation. Even more astonishing is
how generous of spirit he became and remains. His family
lived--barely--in a flat so miserable that every year they had to cram
themselves into an upstairs room when winter floods made the place only
half-habitable. That upstairs room was "Italy" --warm and dry.
Downstairs was Ireland--wet and cold. Father sat up there drinking tea,
while mother Angela often could not rise from bed, so depressed was
she. Or mother sat by the fire, waiting for father to return; when he did,
frequently drunk on their little money, he would line up the boys and
extract promises that they would die for Ireland. Dying was what
everyone seemed to do best: the little sister, the twins, the girl with
whom
Frank first had sex, the old man Frank read to, too many boys from
school, too many neighbors, too many relatives. McCourt spares us no
details: the stench of the one toilet shared by an entire street, the insults
of
the charity officers, the maurauding rats, the street fights, the infected
eyes, the fleas in the mattress . . . Yet he found a way to love in that
miserable Limerick, and it is love one remembers as the dominant flavor
in this Irish stew. Many a lesser book gets the kind of publicity push
that
McCourt's memoir is happily slated to receive. Expect demand, not only
from those seduced by blurbs and interviews, but from word-of-mouth
thereafter. Patricia Monaghan
Copyright© 1996, American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to the hardcover
edition of this title
From Kirkus Reviews , July 1, 1996
A powerful, exquisitely written debut, a recollection of the author's
miserable childhood in the slums of Limerick, Ireland, during the
Depression and WW II. McCourt was born in Brooklyn in 1930 but
returned to Ireland with his family at the age of four. He describes, not
without humor, scenes of hunger, illness, filth, and deprivation that would
have given Dickens pause. His ``shiftless loquacious alcoholic father,''
Malachy, rarely worked; when he did he usually drank his wages, leaving
his wife, Angela, to beg from local churches and charity organizations.
McCourt remembers his little sister dying in his mother's arms. Then
Oliver, one of the twins, got sick and died. McCourt himself nearly died
of typhoid fever when he was ten. As awful and neglectful as his father
could be, there were also heartrendingly tender moments: Unable to pay
for a doctor and fearful of losing yet another child when the youngest
is
almost suffocating from a cold, his father places ``his mouth on the little
nose . . . sucking the bad stuff out of Michael's head.'' Malachy fled
to do
war work in England but failed to send any money home, leaving his wife
and children, already living in squalor, to further fend for themselves.
They stole and begged and tore wood from the walls to burn in the stove.
Forced to move in with an abusive cousin, McCourt became aware that
the man and his mother were having ``the excitement'' up there in their
grubby loft. After taking a beating from the man, McCourt ran away to
stay with an uncle and spent his teens alternating between petty crime
and
odd jobs. Eventually he made his way, once again, to America. An
extraordinary work in every way. McCourt magically retrieves love,
dignity, and humor from a childhood of hunger, loss, and pain. (First
serial to the New Yorker; Book-of-the-Month Club and Quality
Paperback Book Club alternate selections; author tour) -- Copyright
©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers
to the hardcover
edition of this title
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Book Description of Angela's Ashes : A Memoir by Frank McCourt
"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 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 does nurture in Frank an
appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story.
Perhaps it is a story that accounts for Frank's survival. Wearing shoes
repaired with tires, begging a pig's head for Christmas dinner, and
searching the pubs for his father, 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.
Imbued with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion -- and
movingly read in his own voice -- Angela's Ashes is a glorious
audiobook that bears all the marks of a classic. --This text refers to
the
audio cd edition of this title
Synopsis of Angela's Ashes : A Memoir by Frank McCourt
Born in depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants, Frank
McCourt experienced a childhood fraught with poverty and occasional
cruelty. An astonishing, glorious debut, Angela's Ashes recounts
McCourt's miserable existence with remarkable exuberance and
remarkable forgiveness. --This text refers to the hardcover
edition of
this title
Synopsis of Angela's Ashes : A Memoir by Frank McCourt
Frank McCourt reads his own unforgettable story of growing up in
depression-era Ireland. The voice that has enthralled audiences at
readings across the country will bring his story into the homes and hearts
of audiobook listeners. 4 cassettes. --This text refers to the audio
cassette edition of this title
Synopsis of Angela's Ashes : A Memoir by Frank McCourt
Now in an unabridged edition! Frank McCourt reads his own
unforgettable story of growing up in depression-era Ireland. The voice
that has enthralled audiences at readings across the country will bring
his
story into the homes and hearts of audiobook listeners everywhere. 10
cassettes. --This text refers to the audio cassette edition of this title
Buy frank mccourt's angela's ashes at Amazon by clicking here
Simon & Schuster
"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 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 does nurture in Frank an
appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story.
Perhaps it is a story that accounts for Frank's survival. Wearing shoes
repaired with tires, begging a pig's head for Christmas dinner, and
searching the pubs for his father, 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.
Imbued with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion -- and
movingly read in his own voice -- Angela's Ashes is a glorious
audiobook that bears all the marks of a classic. --This text refers to
the
audio cassette edition of this title
Buy frank mccourt's angela's ashes at Amazon by clicking here
Booknews, Inc. , December 1, 1996
A beautifully written memoir full of Irish wit and pathos, making it stand
out among the garden variety of youthful reminisces. Let's face it, a bad
childhood is more interesting and McCourt had it in spades. He was born
in Brooklyn, but his family went back to Ireland where he grew up on the
dole exacerbated by alcoholism (his father's), near starvation, beatings
by
the schoolmasters, and a brief respite in clinic where he discovered
Shakespeare. All of this would be merely stereotype in less capable
hands, but McCourt's mastery of language manages to make us
understand the gentleness, forgiveness, and humor that accompanies
misery and enables its protagonists to survive with dignity. Annotation
c.
by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or. --This text refers to the hardcover
edition of this title
The publisher, Touchstone , April 23, 1999
Praise for "Angela's Ashes"
"A classic, modern memoir...stunning."-Michiko Kakutani, The New
York Times
"Every once in a while, a lucky reader comes across a book that makes
an indelible impression, a book you immediately want to share with
everyone around you...Frank McCourt's life, and his searing telling of
it,
reveal all we need to know about being human."--Linnea Lannon, Detroit
Free Press
"A splendid memoir, both funny and forgiving"--People
"A spellbinding memoir of childhood that swerves flawlessly between
aching sadness and desperate humor...a work of lasting beauty."--Peter
Finn, The Philadelphia Inquirer
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arrow and select books,
type in Frank McCourt
and click the GO
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