Describe Books Concering Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt #1)
| Original Title: | Angela's Ashes: A Memoir |
| ISBN: | 0007205236 (ISBN13: 9780007205233) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Frank McCourt #1 |
| Characters: | Frank McCourt |
| Setting: | Limerick(Ireland) New York State(United States) Ireland |
| Literary Awards: | Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography (1997), American Booksellers Book Of The Year Award for Adult Trade (1997), Audie Award for Nonfiction, Abridged (1997), Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography (1996), Exclusive Books Boeke Prize (1997) National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography/Autobiography (1996) |
Frank McCourt
Paperback | Pages: 452 pages Rating: 4.11 | 515002 Users | 11458 Reviews
Particularize Appertaining To Books Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt #1)
| Title | : | Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt #1) |
| Author | : | Frank McCourt |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 452 pages |
| Published | : | October 3rd 2005 by Harper Perennial (first published September 5th 1996) |
| Categories | : | Womens Fiction. Chick Lit. Fiction. Romance. Contemporary. Adult Fiction. Adult. Humor |
Ilustration In Favor Of Books Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt #1)
Imbued on every page with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion. This is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic. "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 Pulitzer Prize winning 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-- 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.Rating Appertaining To Books Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt #1)
Ratings: 4.11 From 515002 Users | 11458 ReviewsComment On Appertaining To Books Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt #1)
Couldn't bear it. Whiney, self-obsessed and smacked of disingenuity. Using misery, either yours (imagined) or others (purloined) to make money seems to be the height/depth of cheap shots. Someone once told me of a review of the book that they had read somewhere'Baby born, baby died, baby born, baby died, baby born, baby died, baby born, baby died; it rained'.Admittedy there was more to it than that, however I read it a long time ago and the gloom of the misery and rain hangs still over the wholeThere once was a lad reared in Limerick,Quite literally without a bone to pick.His da used scant earningsTo slake liquid yearnings;In American parlance a dick.To get past a father who drankIn a place that was dismal and dank,He wrote not in rhymes,But of those shite times A memoir that filled up his bank.
Life is suffering.And the root of all suffering is want.And we want. Oh, we want.We want the husband to keep the job and come home sober. We want the kids to live. We want shoes and clothes that fit and don't have holes. We want to eat. We want a roof that doesn't leak and indoor plumbing, for Christ's sake.We want the priest with the servant not to kick us from his door and tell us our suffering is caused by sin. We want something kinder than guilt or shame. We want friendship. We want love. We
Impressive read...years ago already. Updating my library.
Picked this memoire to experience some more foreign countries through literature. Good choice. What could have easily been another misery porn (immense poverty, hunger, never-ending unwanted pregnancies, drunkenness, strict religion, deaths of TB and pneumonia on every other page) became something more because of the author's remarkable voice, filled with innocence, humor and almost unwavering optimism of childhood. Amazing that McCourt managed to preserve this voice well into his 60s.
I read his book, then I got to know him, and rarely will you find as similar a voice between the man and the writer as in this memoir. A tragic gem of a childhood story.
Before I get too deep into my review, let me just say this: "Angela's Ashes" is one of the most depressing books I have ever read. That said, it is also fascinating, heartbreaking, searingly honest narration told in the face of extreme poverty and alcoholism. This absolutely entrancing memoir follows an Irish-American-Irish-American (more on this later) boy who comes of age during the Depression and the War years in a country gripped in the stranglehold of the Catholic Church, tradition, rampant
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