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Summary: Angela's Ashes
Review: Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, tells the harrowing tale of his poverty stricken childhood in the lanes of Limerick, Ireland. McCourt proclaims the beginning of the book, "Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." Angela's Ashes shows the truth of his statement through the horrors and hardships of Frankie McCourt's miserable Irish Catholic childhood. These feelings are shown through many small memories and some more important experiences of Frank McCourt's childhood and teenage years. Despite the sadness and depression displayed in the memoir, McCourt is able to laugh at his poverty and is constantly using irony and his dark humor about his upbringing in Ireland.
Frank McCourt is born Irish Catholic in New York City, but when his only sister dies soon after her birth Frank's family decides to move back to Limerick, his mother's hometown in Ireland, thinking times would be better there. They could not have been more wrong, the depression is at its worst, and the rest of Ireland is trying to leave while they are returning. Malachy, Frank's father, is a severe alcoholic, and cannot provide the family with any money except what the dole, a payment given to the unemployed, gives him. Even then the family of six has to live off practically no money. The children's diet consists of solely fried bread and tea, hardly enough for growing boys to live off of. Their tiny apartment is constantly flooding and the McCourt's are forced into one room with one bed for most of the year. After a year of extremely meager living conditions the two twin baby boys of the family die of malnourishment. Frank's dad, eventually leaves to work in England in a munitions factory, but only after leaving his wife with two more baby boys to feed. As expected Malachy never sends back any money to his family who continue their poverty-stricken lives.
Frank's home and school life is extremely structured around his Catholic religion. During Angela's Ashes Frankie McCourt goes through many rites of passage in the religious world, as well as in the Limerick community, which mark his growth into a man. His first confession, first communion, and confirmation were all ceremonies in which Frank and the town of Limerick looked upon as great events which marked moments in a boy's growth into a man and a member of the Catholic Church. But also in this memoir McCourt mentioned occasions which meant the most to him while growing up. The time of the most pride for Frank is when he starts earning some money when he is a young teenager and is able to help feed his family. That however was short-lived and he soon has to return to school. When Frank finishes school as a young adult he begins a real job at the Limerick Post Office as a message boy. Also as a tradition in Ireland he had his first pint of beer the night before he turned 16, an acceptance into the man's world in Limerick.
I believe that Angela's Ashes is a great inspirational memoir as well as a very entertaining story. McCourt not only writes in the perspective of a child or teenager, he makes it convincing that the writing is coming from an adolescent, not a forty-year old English teacher as he is. However that does not stop him from using wonderfully descriptive language and intelligent writing which is consistent throughout the book. The incredible story of his childhood kept me captivated, and funny anecdotes made me laugh out loud, and stopped me from being too depressed by Frank's sad tale.
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Summary: A Good Memoir
Review: Angela's Ashes recalls Frank McCourt's Irish Catholic childhood. He and his family suffer disease, death, alcoholism, and poverty. McCourt's style of writing is so affective. It is a good memoir making each scene come to life. This book may be compared to other coming of age non-fiction writing, but it is unique in its setting and style. McCourt's creative non-fiction style is strong. It has both imagery and reflection. The writing has great chronological structure and organization. Because it is written from memory, there are some gaps, but it can still be read as stream of thought. The gaps also make the writing realistic. No one can account for every moment of their childhood. Reading this book was enjoyable. It made me aware of historical situations that I did not have knowledge of previous to reading this book. The writing is unique and compelling. McCourt's story telling keeps the reader wanting to know more, even though it entails poverty and disease.
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Summary: Mrs. Bisson's history class review
Review: Angela's Ashes was a real exciting read for me. Going through the growing process of Frankie McCourt proved to be more captivating than i had expected. He revealed personal details about himself that you would not expect and overcame great poverty, getting virtually no help from his drunken father. It's a great read and i recommend it to everyone.
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Summary: Great Book!
Review: This was a great book. One of the best books i've read about hardships that people went through during the times of the war. I love reading non fiction books because it lets me put myself in their position and makes me think about how hard life would be in those days. I usually dont hear about many stories about Irish familes and what they went through. I hear about Jewish or American familes. Turns out that Ireland had many poor areas and didnt have much money during the war. Frank McCourt and his family lived in Ireland during this time and they went through many diffuclties living. Especially with a father that is an alchoholic and uses most of his money on drinks. if you love reality books and you like to know how people used to live, like Frank McCourt, than i recommend you read this book.
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Summary: Angela's Ashes Book Review
Review: Angela's Ashes is definitely a book worth reading! Frank McCourt, the author of this memoir, retells the story of his childhood first in Brooklyn, New York and later in Limerick, Ireland. McCourt suffers a cruel life of poverty, neglect from his alcoholic father, and relentless pressure from the Church and his school yet is able to overcome these obstacles in the end and return to the states to start his life over. I loved this novel and i promise that you will too! Go now and start reading it!
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Summary: Universal
Review: This book is so universal in its portrayal of pain, suffering, hope, love, life, and the human condition, that it would be impossible not to relate to it on some level. There are so many memoirs, or memoir-hybrids, floating around out there (Sedaris's "Me Talk Pretty" which is funny, McCrae's "Bark of the Dogwood," which is funny and disturbing," "Memoirs of a Geisha," which is wonderfully colorful and paced) that one hopes this one, "Angela's Ashes" won't get lost in the shuffle. McCourt is a genius when it comes to translating his feelings onto paper and we can only hope for more books like this in the future from other writers. This is a great book, full of warmth, fun, and ultimately, love. A beautiful read with a beautiful story. Pass it on.
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Summary: Wonderful
Review: I loved this book. If you are interested in learning about poverty stricken cultures and how they survived than you will want to read this. It gives a descriptive account of a child's life as he grows up in Ireland with many death's in his family and an alcoholic. It is revolting the things children have to bear, and it gives the reader a hope and desire to help those in alike posistions.
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Summary: Book review For English ( Angela's Ashes)
Review: Angela's Ashes is a great book for anyone who likes to read. It takes you through the life of An Irish family, who's kids were born in America, with the family now back in impoverished Limerick, Ireland. Working hard, trying to find jobs, money, food, shelter, and even friends in the community. Author (Frances)Frank McCourt; is the oldest son in the family, and the story is told through his eyes. It is very interesting, and has a lot of Irish and American history. I highly reccomend this book, and although it is depressing for the most part, it is a real uplifter afterwards, and your life doesn't seem so bad all of a sudden. READ IT!
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Summary: Couldn't put it down...
Review: Everything I'd like to say has already been said by everyone else, but I just wanted to say I could NOT put this book down. This book also made me cry..and I never cry when I read a book. I cried for three days at least, because a mother's pain translates universally and I was just imagining what if this was my family, and all this stuff was happening to my children? Read this autobiography..you won't be disappointed.
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Summary: Angela's Ashes by Brittany Pierce
Review: Angela's Ashes is a tale of an American born boy who moves to Ireland as a small child. The book reveals his entire life. Francis McCourt, son of Angela and Malachy of Limerick Ireland. WIth a family if constantly changing numbers Francies battles through the worst challenges that the Irish slums can throw at him. Malachy is a depressed alcaholic who never holds a job for more than 2 weeks. Even when he does work he drinks away his pay check and leaves his family to suffer through life without his assistance. Angela is severly depressed and doesn't know herself well enough to know her own children or anyone else either. Francis is her first child, one of 8 he soon learned the value of being independent and remaining primarily self sufficient. Around age 7 he takes on the role of taking care of his younger siblings. With no heat, shoes, shabby clothes, little to no food and a life of eviction and confusion Francis rose above all the odds to concor his dreams of moving to America and making a better life for himself and his family if he couuld. By working hard and getting any job he could he tried to save everyone, espeacially himself.
I highly applaud this book and think that everyone should read it at least once in their life. The story reveals remarkable clarity and unique perspectives of a world seldom explored by choice and all too often overlooked. The new view of an old clishe flows with interesting details and remarkable feats. Life is constantly changing and this book reveals the details of survival in a harsh world where life is often taken for granted and things are worse than they appear. The inncent clarity on the bitter reality proves the true intention of the book. Not to change the reality of that life but to realize its there, perhaps not as obvious as it once was but it is still present and will remain so for a long time to come. The book wasn't perfect but it was the truth. The hardest part for me was reading Angela's views and decisions. I think her hope was sadly misplaced and often did more harm than good. Being optomistic in the worst of situations is admirable but providing false hope when life repeats failure again and again only hurts those people.
This book is one that almost anyone could read and the vocabulary level is simple yet precise. Anyone is capable of reading this book and easily understanding the text as well as the underlying messages. I would highly recomend this book for everyone and think that it is a highly inteligent and informative. It is truly a wonderful book and a welcome addition to anyone's personal library.
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