Rating: 
Summary: McCourt weaves a wonderful tapestry of characters
Review: I managed to read most of this book on a plane to New York and could barely look up to eat my in-flight meal. FM's hero has all the helpless raffishness of JP Donleavy's Darcy Dancer and inhabits a world populated by absurd characters who could almost pass unnoticed in a Flann O'Brien novel.I know it is annoying when a neighbouring passenger bursts out laughing, but in my defence I would say that Angela's Ashes has some of the funniest scenes I have seen in a novel in an awfully long time. ("Forgive me father I have sinned, it has been 2 minutes since my last confession" is a wonderful line) There is sufficient pathos to give the book balance and charm and the pithiness of some of the death scenes make them particularly moving. I have deducted one-star from the review for the very unsatisfactory ending. The whole pace and balance of the book is dented when our hero, Frank arrives in America. Suddenly, McCourt shifts into a grab-it-now-while-you-can-mode and the final page leaves us with the impression that he is saying to us "You've paid your money, you read the book, so now clear off!" Or maybe this was a metaphor for Frank's new world and I simply missed it. A must read!
Rating: 
Summary: Heartrending and hilarious. Keep the tissues handy.
Review: I finished this book months ago, and it still haunts me. I plan to be the first in line (on-line?) when the sequel is released this fall. Although born and raised in this country, I am Irish through and through, and I responded deeply to the absolute authenticity of McCourt's voice. After finishing this book, I felt that I understood my mother's family much clearly. Yes, just as you've heard, terrible things happen in "Angela's Ashes", many of them, but just when you think you can't take any more, McCourt turns the tables and leaves you laughing and crying all at once. In thinking back on this book, I can't help but quote (sort of) that other famous Irishman with a fine appreciation for black humor, Beckett: "We must go on.... I can't go on...... I will go on!" Now that's Irish for you. So quick -- get the book!
Rating:
Summary: Exellent
Review: I really like this book. She's is so full of beauty that you can't put her down. The author's humour make this book exellent and you laugh as many times as you cry!
Rating: 
Summary: DO NOT READ!!!!!! DO NOT READ!!!!!!
Review: This is a horrible book. And that is an understatement. It is more boring than watching paint dry. It is more depressing than a funeral. It is very repetitive. The entire book is the author complaining about his poor Irish childhood. Like anyone cares that he was poor as a child.
Rating:
Summary: Not for the faint-hearted.
Review: Powerful yet disturbing. Definitely a must read. Next to Catherine Dunne's "Interior Designing For All Five Senses" this is the most impacting book I've read in a very long time.
Rating:
Summary: Uplifting in Content, and Groundbreaking in Style
Review: Frank McCourt shares his painful and poverty-ridden childhood, including very flawed, but colorful characters, who never figure out a way to overcome their circumstances. Frank himself, does cleverly and slowly find his way out, and is evidence that one can never predict the final outcome of a human being raised in even the worst circumstances. This book is also evidence that the literary community is capable of recognizing great literature, even when it comes from an unknown writer. Frank's style is a type of stream of consciousness, that takes on a different dimension than Joyce or Wolfe. It is funny, lymerical, tragic, goes from character from character, and comes to age as Frank comes to America.
Rating:
Summary: Remebering more than the strife.
Review: Last fall, I read this book for a LIT class I was taking. I found it to be one of the most touching novels I have ever read. From the perspective of a middle class family located in Mid-America in the 1990's, I was completly overwhelmed by the amount of striff and terror that Frank McCourt accounts in Angela's Ashes. Reading some of the other rewieves on this page, specifically from the person who on 5/24 gave this phenominal book 1 star, I had to write one of my own. The essential part of reading this book, regardless of how you viewed the finished result, is that if Frank McCourt had not retold every "ugly" detail of his youth, there would be no story. NO life is void of disgusting events. Every life, including that of the McCourt family, has to endure pain and suffering inorder to come out on top in the end. It is the fact that Frank McCourt is able to look back on the events of his childhood and write about them with a mixture of agony, laughter, and triumph the speaks volumes for the character of the man that is Frank McCourt.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific tale of human exsistence!!
Review: What a phenomenal story of life in Ireland...all the struggles and hardships and Frank still managed to come out strong. I hope that he continues to write and would love to hear more about his life after he arrived back in America!! Two thumbs up!!
Rating:
Summary: I really want to visit all the places Frank talks about!
Review: Powerful! A true tale to lead a person in appreciating the life they have had. Well written and the pictures painted by his words are clear. I wanted to reach out to his mother and hold her hand. If I can be half as strong as her for my son I'd be thrilled.
Rating:
Summary: A great book from a great teacher!
Review: Mr. McCourt (I can't think of him as Frank) was my English teacher at Stuyvesant High School in 1979-80, where I had two terms of creative writing with him. He told a number of the stories that ended up in Angela's Ashes (and will no doubt be in 'Tis) to our class, and we all urged him to write them down, to write a book. It sure took him long enough, but it was well worth the wait. That he survived a childhood he had no right surviving and then wrote about it without anger and animosity is a tribute to a great man, a great teacher, and a great book. It proves that the human spirit lives within us all, and triumphs over adversity. Mr. McCourt wrote my college recommendation, and I can honestly say that it is due to him that I am a successful Senior Editor at a major publishing house today. Viva McCourt! P.S. A little known fact is that one of Mr. McCourt's favorite authors is Mickey Spillane.
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