Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Angela's Ashes: A Memoir
Book Review: An extraordinary life.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a life of an individual and family that is so difficult that it is hard for anyone to comprehend. I watched an interview with the author on C-span 2 which decided me to buy the book. I have thoroughly enjoyed it and marveled that he survived.Book Review: Angela's Ashes
Summary: 5 Stars
An outstanding memoir about the hardships of a young Irish boy and his impoverished family. McCourt relives his life in Ireland in an honest, many times humorous and shameless way. His pace throughout is impeccable.Book Review: Angela's Ashes
Summary: 4 Stars
Even at the worst of times people are able to hope for the better.
In the memoir Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, the McCourt family truly hopes for the better at the worst of times. Surrounding himself in poverty, Frank is born in Brooklyn, New York, moving to Limerick, Ireland at an early age, in the 1930s and 1940s. Only by the age of ten, Frank is soon immersed in a life with death, a father who drinks money away, and brought to the attention that he should die for Ireland. Even through the hard times, the impoverished McCourt Family's spirits remain strong.
Frank is absorbed in a life of hunger, sickness, neglect, and a father's alcoholism, "I know when my Dad does the bad thing. I know when he drinks the dole money, and Mam is desperate and has to bed at the St. Vincent de Paul Society and ask for credit at Kathleen O'Connell's shop but I don't want to back away from him and run to Mam. How can I do that when I'm up with him early every morning with the whole world asleep?"(208). All those effects characterize his reasons to escape from Ireland and rise from poverty.
Frank McCourt's writing and story truly changes your view and melts your heart. With its unique charm it entrances you within. It is narrated in first person, present tense, McCourt writes as he is experiencing it for the first time. It truly captivates you as a reader as it is told by Frank as a child, rather than reflecting on his past as an adult. With having it in immediate past it allows for the true culture of the time to come out. Religion and Irish sayings are used to convey how people really talked during his childhood. The author's tone is different from what you would expect. He writes in a style in which he states ideas as they are happening, which matches the tone as McCourt as a child.
I really enjoyed reading this book. This is the first time I have read a memoir about this time period, in Ireland, and it certainly encourages me to read further. Being of Irish decent, I appreciate how the author let the reader see how life was in Ireland. Reading it from Frank's point of view as a child made me further understand the life style he had and made me appreciate it even more. The reader learns the culture of that time period through Irish phrases and the use of the reoccurring appearances of religious aspects.
This memoir was a great read that in truly enjoyed. It teaches the reader that even with harsh times one can make the best of it and hope for the better. "When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived 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."(11)
Book Review: Angela's Ashes: a History Lesson through the Eyes of a Child
Summary: 5 Stars
The youth of Frank McCourt is one that I would never wish upon any other human being. Often starving or ill, his whole family is disjoint and falling apart whether in Brooklyn, New York or Limerick, Ireland. His father's alcoholism and his younger siblings' mortality rate both enrage and soften the reader of this tremendous memoir. He constantly captures these moments of his childhood wonderfully in his seven-year-old voice. His description of his father's desire for his sons to die for Ireland is almost comically scary,
"He's pushing in our door and singing, And if, when all a vigil keep, The West's asleep, The West's asleep! Alas! And well my Erin weep, That Connnacht lies in slumber deep, But hark! A voice like thunder spake `The West's awake! The West's awake! Sing, Oh hurrah, let England quake, We'll watch till death for Erin's sake'" (111).
The way that McCourt captures the voice of his drunken, patriotic father is heartbreakingly wonderful. Telling the whole story through his own eyes as he grows up himself adds a level to the storytelling that few other authors can mimic. If you liked Mary Karr's The Liars' Club, you will love Angela's Ashes in the same way. Both Karr and McCourt capture the voice of a child perfectly. Another thing that McCourt does with scenes like this is to present to the reader the rich passion his father has for Ireland and set the scene of his childhood even better. As Karr did with her father's loyalty to Texas, McCourt does with his father's obsession with his homeland. Both of them use specific scenes with each parent to really deliver the story of their lives. Angela's Ashes blew me away and I would recommend it to anyone.
Book Review: Angelas Ashes
Summary: 5 Stars
Angelas Ashes is about a life full of struggle and determination. Frank McCourt survived against the odds while the world seemed stacked against him. During a time of great poverty the McCourt family kept their heads above water, literally in some occasions. While issues regarding children may upset you the story of his 1st communion will have you laughing. This is a great book for all ages, nationalities and income levels.
Angelas Ashes is similar to To Kill a Mockingbird in a few ways. Mostly family unity. Where would Scout be without the lessons and understanding she received? Frank McCourt also learned very early how important it is for family to stick together. This book was very well written and very informative about the time period.