Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $1.99 You Save: $12.96 (87%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Angela's Ashes: A Memoir
Book Review: 3/4 Great, 1/4 Yikes
Summary: 2 Stars
"Angela's Ashes" is an autobiographical story of Frank McCourt growing up in Ireland during the depression and World War II. Through the entire book I just really wanted something good to happen to this family, but it never does.
The first probably 3/4 of the book is incredibly eye-opening. It was amazing to me how little this family could live with, especially food. It made me see how resilient people can be, how little we really need, and the terrible circumstances some people live in.
If you don't read anything else in the book, the chapter on Frank's first communion is worthwhile. I was in tears reading it to my husband, laughing so hard at Frank's grandmother's horror at Frank throwing it up in her backyard.
Overall, I don't recommend "Angela's Ashes." It was bad while he was young and poor and that was difficult to read, but the last about 1/4 of the book the story turns south. Think young man growing up. He gets a little too much 'excitement' when he's alone and sometimes with others. Maybe McCourt is happy sharing his blatant immorality, but I don't need to read about it.
I love when I finish a book, close it, and just have to sit and breathe for a few minutes and let the greatness of it all soak in. When I finished this there wasn't even a hint of that. More like, "That was it?" There was some good, but it didn't overwhelm the bad.
Book Review: 8 stars to make up for the 3 Nevadamistermom missed.
Summary: 5 Stars
Brilliant. I have to keep the book out of site so i dont over read it. Frank McCourt deserves all the praise he's gotten.
Nevadamistermom wouldnt know a good book if it sailed in from Limerick and slapped her across the face. I mean seriously. Mistermom? Obvious confusion there. Ive never seen a more delusional name in all my life. Not to mention review.
Book Review: A Bit Of The Odd Manner
Summary: 5 Stars
Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" is probably the easiest review that I have had to write since I have been doing such reviews in this space. Why? Frank McCourt's book of childhood memoirs is my story. No, not in the details of his life's story, or mine. But rather in how being Irish, being poor and being uprooted affects your childhood, and later. And those traumas, for good or evil, cross generational lines. McCourt, we are told as his story unfolds, was born in America of immigrants of the Diaspora after Irish independence who, for one reason or another, returned to the old country in defeat in the 1930's. As McCourt notes right at the beginning, that fact in itself provides a rather ironic twist if one is familiar with Irish history (at least until very recently). He is, in any case, thus a child of the Great Depression and World War II, the generation of my parents, as it was refracted through Ireland during that period. I, on the other hand, am a child of the 1960's, the "Generation of `68" here in America born of the dreaded Irish Catholic-English Protestant combination- and raised in an Irish Catholic enclave. Nevertheless the pages of this memoir are filled to the brim with the results of the emotional (and sometimes physical scars) of being "shanty" Irish in this world that hit home to this reader.
That said, we did not share the terrible effect that "the drink" had on creating his dysfunctional family with his father's, Malachy McCourt, crazed need for the alcohol cure to drown his sorrows and his bitterness and the fact that his great moment in life was his bit for "the cause" (of Irish independence). A familiar story in the Irish community here and in the old country but my father seldom drank, although he too was constantly out of work and shared with Frank's father that same bitterness about his fate. He was uneducated, lacking in skills and prospects and as a "hillbilly" Protestant Southerner from coal country down in Kentucky. Thus, an `outsider' like Frank's father. That is the commonality that caught my eye (and sometimes my throat) as I read of Frank's youthful trials, tribulations and adventures. McCourt's ability to tap into that "mystical" something is what makes this a fine read, whether you are Irish or not.
Throughout the book McCourt's woe begotten but fatally prideful father is constantly referred to in the Irishtown working class poor ghetto of Limerick (and elsewhere, as well, but the heart of the story is told from there) as having an odd manner. This reflects a certain clannishness against those from the North of Ireland (Dare I say it, then area the known as Ulster) and a sneaking suspicion amount that crowd of some alien (meaning English Protestant) heritage. As the book progresses that odd trait is transferred (by heredity?) to Frank in his various wanderings, enterprise and desires. What joins us together then is that odd manner that gets repeatedly invoked throughout the book. Frank survived to tell the tale. As did I. But in both cases it appears to have been a near thing.
There is more that unites us. The shame culture, not an exclusive Irish Catholic property but very strong nevertheless, drilled in by the clannishness, the closeness of neighbors, the Catholic religion and by the bloody outsiders- usually but not always Protestants of some sort (as least for blame purposes- you know, the eight hundred years of British tyranny although very real to be sure). All driven by not having nearly enough of this world's goods. Every time I read a passage about the lack of food, the quality of the food, the conditions of the various tenements that the McCourt family lived in, the lack of adequate and clean clothing I cringed at the thoughts from my own childhood. Or the various times when the family was seriously down and out and his mother, the beloved Angela of the title, had to beg charity of one form or another from some institution that existed mainly to berate the poor. I can remember own my mother's plaintive cry when my brothers and I misbehaved that the next step was the county poor farm.
And how about the false pride and skewed order of priorities? Frank's father was a flat out drunk and was totally irresponsible. From a child's perspective, however, he is still your dad and must be given the respect accordingly, especially against the viciousness of the outside world. But life's disappointments for the father also get reflected in the expectations for the son. The dreams are smaller. Here, the horizons are pretty small when a governmental job with its security just above the "dole" is the touchstone of respectability. Sean O'Casey was able to make enduring plays from the slums of Dublin out of this material. And Frank McCourt enduring literature. Thanks, brother.
Note: The movie version of "Angela's Ashes" pretty fairly reflects the intentions of Frank McCourt in his childhood memoirs and follows the book accordingly, without the usual dramatic embellishments of that medium. The story line is so strong it needs no such "touch-ups". Particularly compelling is the very visual sense of utter poverty down at the base of Irish society in Frank McCourt's childhood.
Book Review: A Child's View of his Impoverished Family
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an incredible, wonderfully written memoir. It is
about Frank McCourt's childhood in Limerick, Ireland. He
captures the poverty, abuse, alcoholism and dysfunction in
his family. However, he also captures his family's love,
acceptance and forgiveness.
One scene is unforgettable to me. The basement floods with
sewage and the family is forced to deal with the smell,
grossness and the overall disgust. Frank's mother tells
her children that since they are not living in the basement
that they are in a castle and thus are royalty. What a
wonderful metaphor for these children!
The depiction of poverty is vivid and accurate. That this
book is written from a child's vantage point only proves
to make it more miraculous. This book is truly brilliant.
Book Review: A Miserable Irish Experience but a Wonderful Joy to Read
Summary: 5 Stars
Outstanding work. Sad, but somehow uplifting and funny. If there is one book to read about a poor Irish family this is it.