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Summary: Angela's Ashes---A Review!
Review: "Angela's Ashes" was about Irishman Frank McCourt's childhood- living with his often-distraught mother, alcoholic father, and siblings. They were very poor, and went through numerous difficulties dealing with deaths, lack of food, lack of money, and housing conditions. Basically, the McCourt family had difficulties with everything. Their ultimate goal was to earn enough money to go to America, where they were convinced their troubles would be over.The reason I rated this book 4 stars and not 5 was mainly for boredom's sake. While it was humorous, and, for the most part, quite interesting- it remained practically the same throughout the entire book. What I mean is that it had no variation! "Angela's Ashes" was very depressing- mainly consisting of poverty, depression, and sadness. I understand that that's because Frank McCourt's childhood was made up of poverty, depression, and sadness, but personally- at times I found it rather uneventful. Overall, "Angela's Ashes" was very good, despite the occasional boredom. To learn about Frank McCourt's life in all its poverty makes me realize how lucky I am today to have everything that I need, and more. It was extremely moving, and I am glad to have read it. I assure everyone who reads it will also be!
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Summary: how did he survive it?
Review: This memoire of a poverty striken and chaotic childhood in Ireland is brutally honest and sad. WHile I believe that it has been over-praised a bit, it has a distinctive writing style that is very enjoyable. There are many details that stick in the mind: his discovery that his mother begged in secret, the smell of the sewer next to their aprtment, their dog eating the only bit of meat in the house before they could grab it. Well worth the read.
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Summary: Black humour thou name is McCourt
Review: This guy knows to write. Deserves every award in its category and perhaps more. It takes the reader through the meandering childhood of the author , who is pleasntly and sometimes shockingly truthful about it. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it shows you how to smile with tears in your eyes.
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Summary: BORING
Review: What a yawner! Highly recommended to put you to sleep. I was so mad so much of my precious time was put into this book. I really don't understand what all the hype was about concerning this. I guess I just must be intellectually challenged.
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Summary: Irsh Childhood with BIG American Dreams!
Review: This book is the account of Frank McCourt and the reminiscences of his childhood spent in Ireland. The story is told from the perspective of young Francis Mccourt, from the young age of 5 until he hits the age of 19, and we see him mature before our own eyes as the writing manner changes from chapter to chapter. This is a story of how Francis McCourt lived and survived through the desolation of his childhood, with a drunken father. The start of the book is very depressing, with the death of Frank's baby sister, following deaths of his twin brothers, many parts of the books still have funny descriptions. I found myself laughing along the way reading this book and defiantly putting a smile on my face. It is truly amazing the kid has not gone into depression in such an inconsiderate atmosphere. He even had dreams of going to America and earning big bucks, which many had tried to convince him to forget. Frank is one determined person to succeed. This is a book not to miss, the insight of Frank is truly amazing and you see life through a totally different light!
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Summary: Shockingly vivid pictures of a harsh childhood
Review: In an amazing way Mr.McCourt is able to present his thoughts as a child in the mature age he now is; There were moments that I cried reading this book and many others that I laughed out loud (being in Frankfurt International Airport as well) and I think that we all know that not many scripts can make a person laugh out loud in public; It's amazing, fulfilling, sad and funny, but most of all, a life statement and a good written one; I highly recommend it............
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Summary: The best book I've read so far!
Review: In this book, Frank McCourt is fabulous.
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Summary: In Support of Frank McCort
Review: This book offers real insight into the poverty and life of those in Limerick during Frankie's childhood and of the sadness and grief he and his family must have endured in those days. The loss of life, alcohol addiction, evictions, loneliness, and solitude are ever present in this work---along with the struggle to overcome and leave the ugliness behind. Frank's words filled my heart with sadness and at times with joy. I found this work to be incredibly enjoyable! It is a MUST read.
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Summary: A wonderfull tail of life through a childs eyes.
Review: While reading this book you realise what life was like for Frank Mcourt as a child. He draws you in and lets you laugh and cry as he tells the story of his childhood. You literally get to see him grow up on the pages, with a new tale in each chapter. You see how his mother had to cope, with no money for food and clothes, and how his father drinks the dole money. Please, if you love a good book, then this tuely is, a wonderfull, and enchanting read.
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Summary: Good fiction
Review: Angela's Ashes is the chronicle of author Frank McCourt's childhood, first in America, then in Ireland, or purports to be. The sadness, tragedy, ugliness, and despair are laid on so thickly as to become improbable in combination. Bad things do happen to good people, but in McCourt's world, the worst always happens. When the family moves, it is to the worst house on the lane, next to the only outhouse. When it rains, their house is the one that floods. When he develops conjunctivitis, it is permanent (he still has it years later). When other kids' alcoholic fathers go to England during the war to earn money, his is the only one who drinks his pay away and loses the job. Nothing is ever halfway for McCourt. If there is a tragedy to tell, it will be the most tragic conceivable. There are inconsistencies, such as time frames that make no sense, as well as improbabilities, like his grandmother making several walking round trips of over a mile, all in one night, months before her death. There is also the issue of whether McCourt could possibly recall such detail (as his lengthy story about the IRA refusing to helping his father out and why) during his very early years without any context. It would be as though you were four years old and heard your father talking about the New Deal, and you remembered everything about it even though you had no idea at the time what all the acronyms represented. Oddly, while McCourt goes into great detail about his early childhood, his timeline becomes increasingly compressed as he approaches adolescence. There is much less detail, and whole months are passed by just at a time when a person would be more likely to remember more -- and to be experiencing more. It almost feels like he grew tired of the tale (and fabricating it) and was in a rush to get to the end. Or perhaps, having gone through a sleazy conception, rats, fleas, sewage, open sores, tuberculosis, vomited blood, corporeal punishment, prolonged hunger, his mother's prostitution, etc., etc., etc. (no horror goes untouched), he simply ran out of material. So, from early on, I viewed Angela's Ashes as a work of fiction in which none of the characters is likeable. While many would say the father is the worst, as he is a hard-core alcoholic who cannot and will not support his family, I found him to be far more sympathetic a person than his mother as portrayed. When sober, the father often shows his sons small signs of affection and empathy, but Angela herself is nearly always cold, distant, and unsympathetic toward her children. She is always more focused on herself than on them. I'm not sure how many people could write about their own mothers as dispassionately as McCourt does. If she had one good quality, McCourt is careful not to present it. As a child, McCourt seems relatively balanced, likeable, and ethical, wanting to do the right thing, but adolescence seems to turn him into a different person. He lies, he steals, he takes advantage of people -- and the only guilt he seems to feel is that imposed by the Catholic Church. There is never a sense, even when he achieves adulthood, that he has any deep thoughts about who he is, what he is doing, and how he affects others. Even his agonizing over his belief that he is responsible for a consumptive girl's descent into Hell because he had sex with her is tainted by the selfishness of his focus. In the end, I must concur with an author acquaintance who said, "Angela's Ashes? 'tis as phony as the photo on the cover." But it is certainly well written and compelling, if you happen to have a large grain of salt handy. Recommended under those conditions.
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