Rating: 
Summary: Learning How Good You've Got It.
Review: This book teaches you that you really have it better than you think that you do. Just imagine if you had to live like that. Most of us have never had to live with a brother or sister dying let alone three. How many of us in this country have had to go with out food or live in one room? How many have had to go without shoe to wear to or had to make sure that there were no fleas in our bed? There have not been as man of us begging so that our kids can have something to eat or shoes on their feet or a bed to sleep in. This bool helps you to really see what we have and how lucky we are that we live in a warm house, with shoes on our feet, food in our belly, and healthy and happy kids at our feet. Also this book gives me more appriciation for my mother and everything that she did for us. Frank's mother did somethings for them,but, other things that should have been done she never did. She relied on the kinds of strangers a little TOO much. The things that she did with her cousin is outragous. There is nothing that would cause me to do that. I would rather cut my arm off, than have to sleep with someone, let alone a cousin of mine, to keep a roof over my kids head. I would have found another way to live.
Rating:
Summary: Never Forget Who & What Made You What You Are
Review: Frank McCourt has such an intrinsic writing style, that progresses as he ages throughout the book. He takes situations and stories that would normally bring you to tears, and he leaves you laughing at the irony and the matter of circumstance. This book takes you back to your own childhood and our mentality that was once innocent, but somehow becomes enhanced with impurity and self-righteousness. Ancestry is such a gift that can only be best explained by the people that struggled to get to where they are today. Frank McCourt's story is a wonderful memoir that inspires its readers to create their own destiny and work to achieve the goals we set.
Rating: 
Summary: Ashes in the Mouth
Review: This opinion is evidently heretical. I must admit to being only 150 pages into the book and am weary of reading how Dad spent the family's dole money in the pub (which has happened about 20 times so far)while his children starve and die of pneumonia. The portrait of Irish poverty is gripping but degrading in its constancy and pervasiveness. Enough is enough! The style is flowing (storytelling style, not, great literature) and had the book been written by anyone else, I wouldn't have slogged through the Limmerick mud even this far.
Rating:
Summary: If you read nothing else this year... read this.
Review: From the moment I opened this book until the moment I closed 'Tis', the sequel, I was utterly compelled by Frank Mc Court's incredible honesty and writing. He writes not only about the events of his poverty-stricken Irish childhood without over-emotionalising, but forces every one of us to re-examine our own lives, and wonder: what's it all about? This book is NOT depressing, it is enlightening, inspirational, moving. If you haven't read it yet, I urge you - this book will challenge, motivate and alter your perspective on life. Get it, read it - and then prepare to go straight out and buy the sequel!
Rating:
Summary: READ IT!
Review: I never wanted the book to end!
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: I never wanted the book to end. After I had finished it, I ran to buy the sequel 'Tis.
Rating:
Summary: Ach! 'Tis deeply disappointing!
Review: Frank McCourt's writing style is fantastic, but the content of Angela's Ashes leaves much to be desired. I like a book that teaches moral integrity, that shows that man or woman can overcome the filth of everyday life. This book did not meet that criteria.
Rating: 
Summary: GREAT STORY.....
Review: Delightfully rich memoir of Ireland......I just read a memoir called PERAMBULATIONS by CS BACK which reminded me of this book,,,,except PERAMBULATIONS is more descriptive and I could identify with it as an American male.
Rating:
Summary: An Impoverished Childhood Diet
Review: This memoir by Frank McCourt 's Irish childhood has been praised to the sky. Not only has it won major acclaim, but everyone I know has loved it. I can see why. It has great characters and tears at your heartstrings. You'd have to be made of stone to not relate to the sad and impoverished childhood of the author, and his matter-of-fact courage acceptance of it.The one word that stands out when I think about this book is "food", or lack thereof. It's surprising this man is still alive and kicking at the age of 68 when I read about his childhood diet. Mostly small pieces of bread and tea and sugar water for babies' bottles. He yearns for an egg as if it is the most precious thing in the world. And when there is nothing else, he licks the grease off the newspapers that have wrapped fish and chips. The family lives on the dole. The father is a drunk. And yet I can't hate the father. He comes across as a man with a problem who loves his family even though every penny he has goes to "the drink". There's lack of clothing, unheated living spaces, cruel relatives, illness, and the death of little children. All is sad. And very moving, And real. I think of my own childhood. More food than I could eat. Electricity. Plumbing. A warm house. A father who supported the family. A mother who wasn't worn out from hunger and overwork. There's a lot to be thankful for. It's a good book. I have to recommend it. And yet it took me over a week to read because every time I picked it up I kept falling asleep. I read a lot of books. Some of them pull me right in and I can't put it down till I finish it. That's rare though. I'll abandon others after the first few pages. Mostly I generally look forward to reading what I've selected though. I didn't look forward to reading this and found it a chore to finish. Perhaps I had heard too many rave reviews and expected more. Maybe it is as simple as that. There's a certain thrill about discovering a book on my own which was missing. However, it seems I'm the only one in the whole world who felt that way. Do read it for yourself though. It's certainly worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: Angelas Ashes - Wonderful!
Review: I am usually a mystery/thriller reader but this one caught my eye. Once I started reading it, though, I thought this was a really depressing book. I kept on reading, and thinking what I would do if I was so desperate. And I kept on reading. I continued to think how horrible it must have been to live in such poverty and ignorance and though the book was really making me feel sad, I had to keep on reading. It is a testimony to the human spirit and to know that no matter what the odds, a person can make it. I am starting the sequel "Tis" tonight. I applaud Mr Frank McCourt for this wonderful, albeit sad, story. I can't wait to start "Tis".
|
