Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Angela's Ashes
Book Review: R.I.P Frank - thanks for the memories
Summary: 5 Stars
Angela's ashes was the book that got me into reading. Sad, funny, hopeful - all at the same time. The day I bought the book, I ended up spending the whole night in my college dorm and finished it in one sitting - something I never thought I'd do prior. Reading Angela's Ashes, like all his other books is an experience - like having an intimate chat with a long lost friend. It's human, it's real, it's raw - and it's the standard with which I continue to judge other books by.
Thanks for the stories Frank - you will be terribly missed and always remembered.
Book Review: Surviving the Great Depression in Ireland
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a unique memoir that harkens back to the privations and hardships previously described in the novels of Charles Dickens. The author Frank McCourt began his reflections while preparing to return his mother's cremains to her native Ireland for burial. Hence, the title "Angela's Ashes." The loss of his mother resulted in this award winning book.
Although McCourt was a native of New York, during the early years of the Great Depression his Irish immigrant parents made the fateful decision to leave the United States in the mistaken belief that their prospects would be better if they returned to Ireland. As McCourt wrote, they should never have left America. The grinding poverty that they experienced upon their return to Limerick proved to be far worse than the hard times that the impoverished family had known in New York. Ireland lacked the ability to provide any of the relief measures available to America's poor. Relations between the Irish Free State and Great Britain were bad throughout the period of McCourt's childhood and the economic sanctions imposed by the British on Irish exports made bad matters worse.
The entire family had to live in a tiny council home, which was little more than a hovel, opposite the communal lavatory which served the residents of an entire street. Every occupant of the block had to empty their slop buckets into the same filthy commode. Whenever the plumbing failed or heavy rains flooded their residence, the filthy sewage would back up into the McCourt's living quarters.
McCourt's alcoholic father was originally from Ulster. His in laws never fully accepted him nor did they stop criticizing his wife for having married a Northerner. He struggled to support his family, but he was an unreliable drunkard in a time when the most reliable men were hard pressed to remain employed. The family frequently tried to subsist on the minimal dole available from the Dublin government and forced to beg for charity from the St. Vincent DePaul Society. In order to obtain this meager assistance, applicants were subjected to humiliating inquiries.
The McCourts were oftentimes without the basic necessities of life and constantly poorly fed and clothed. Eventually, McCourt's father deserted his wife and children. Then things got appreciably worse. Frank McCourt counted himself lucky if he had a meal of potatoes. His mother's sole luxury was borrowing or finding a penny with which to buy a Woodbine cigarette.
There is much to recommend in this autobiography, but it is not easy to read. McCourt does not follow conventional rules of punctuation. He never uses quotation marks, so it is confusing for the reader to understand what words were spoken and what words represent internal thoughts. There is a good deal of repressed anger in the book. Under the political leadership of Eamon De Valera, the role of the Catholic Church was emphasized in Ireland's political and cultural institutions. McCourt was naturally embittered by his impoverished childhood and his residual resentment for the Church is obvious.
Ultimately, this book is a testament to the survival of the human spirit. McCourt is able to escape from Limerick and return to New York and begin a new life. There is some humor to be found amongst the buckets of salty tears, vomit, feces and spilt pints of Guinness, but this book is devoid of the Irish travel brochure romance that is so familiar to Irish-Americans. McCourt and his family (his brother is character actor Malachy McCourt) are to be admired and respected for their indominatable spirits. Lesser persons would have been broken and destroyed by such trials.
Book Review: Touching and Insightful
Summary: 5 Stars
Angela's Ashes is a lovely book that presents growing up in Ireland during the 1940's. The book comes from a child's perspective of innocence in a world that is neither fare nor kind. There are rays of light in the child's life that will make you smile, maybe even laugh out loud, and maybe see a piece of yourself.Book Review: my favorite biography ever
Summary: 5 Stars
I love stories that have the rare ability to make you laugh and cry in the same sentence. This book has it. McCourt is so funny and quirky and at the same he has no problems revealing his heart-wrenching vulnerabilities... in all their sorrow. It really is a beautiful story and remains in my top ten list even today.