Angela's Ashes (AUDIO CASSETTE)

Rating:
Summary: Angela's AShes
Review: This novel was more than just a tale of misery and poverty, it creates an image for readers of the Irish Catholic Childhood and brings to life that time period. Although depressing at times it jumps out at you with wit and intelligence. It catches your eye and keeps you reading on and on.

Rating:
Summary: Angela's Ashes: Death and Poverty
Review: Most people would agree that life is frequently difficult. Life may seem easy after reading Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. Angela's Ashes is a true classic. It is timeless, addresses the history of Ireland, and evokes emotion. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt is a memoir of the hard times he and his family experienced during his life in Ireland during the 1930s and 1940s.
Angela's Ashes is a timeless memoir that will last through the ages. Twenty to thirty years from now people will still read and enjoy this book. People are easily taken into the well-written memoir about families that are poor, living under inhuman conditions. There was little heat, food, or clean water. Christianity was and is the main religious belief in Ireland. Today people continue to attend church each Sunday and Limerick is still the holiest place in Ireland. The description of the life of the McCourts, sixty to seventy years ago, is so vivid and tragic, many readers were waiting for a sequel, hoping that some good could come to the lives of these children who lived with abuse and hunger.
Readers may not easily relate to McCourt's stories of Ireland, the church, and the suffering experienced by the poor Irish, but they can feel the pain and suffering through McCourt's descriptions. Angela's Ashes actively involves the reader with the hardships the McCourts experienced. Frank McCourt addresses the history of his place of birth, Limerick, Ireland. Malachy, Frank McCourt's father, often made the children promise to die for Ireland. Frank McCourt's father demanded, "I want you to jump out of that bed and line up here like two soldiers and promise to die for Ireland and I'll give the two of you the Friday penny." (111) England was Ireland's enemy for many years. The times were hard and men were asked to die for Ireland, if needed. Frank McCourt was a part of the history and suffering of the poor Irish. The reader will feel the pain his father puts upon his family, due to his beliefs, his anger, his drinking habits, and his lack of good work ethics.
The well-written memoir of Frank McCourt's life evokes emotions. Three of the children die depressing deaths. Margaret, McCourt's only sister, died at a young age. Oliver, one of the twins, then died and soon after Eugene appeared to have died of a broken heart. The family fell apart after the death of each child. The story is written with an emotional impact for the reader.
Angela's Ashes is a classic of the highest quality. Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt, is a memoir that is visually stimulating. It evokes emotion and should be read and enjoyed by all. The memoir is so moving that McCourt stated, "I could never have written this book while my mother was alive, she would not have liked it. We were always ashamed to have grown up in the slums.... She suffered a lot.... She was a depressed and angry woman." All readers will definitely feel compassion for Mrs. McCourt and her family.

Rating:
Summary: McCourt Delivers Stunning Memoir
Review: As McCourt recalls, life was never easy. Angela's Ashes proves just that. If you've ever thought that your life was rough, give this one a try. Every page reveals yet another tragedy that this young Irish-American must try to understand.
Written from the first-person perspective, the book begins it's setting in New York where everything is seemingly flawless. However, in an ironic twist, the aleady Irish immigrants traverse back to their homeland, battling the mobs and mobs of new immigrants coming to the 'New World'.
Once in Ireland, the McCourt's begin their struggle to live complacently among their own. Going through many, many decrepit houses, the McCourt family expands and shrinks like a beating heart. Angela, Frank's mother, has a miscarriage, a daughter that dies, a son that dies, and twins that both perish as well leaving the family with father, son, and three brothers.
Malachy McCourt the older, Frank's father, deals with getting a place in the work force with his "North of Ireland accent", unacceptable to those living in Limerick at the time. When Malachy does get a job, he spends all of the wages on the dreaded 'pint' and comes home singing through the streets, waking everyone and disgracing himself in front of the entire town.
Throughout all, Frank begins schooling, a religous life, sexual experimentation, getting a job, and finding his place in life. With Frank's unique way of questioning everything, he draws in the reader and makes it truly believable that a child wrote the book.
With all the trials and tribulations of Irish life come many valuable lessons which McCourt inserts as prevailing themes. Angela seems to offer up the most advice to young Frank and the climax of the book seems to come when she tells him, "never let anyone slam a door in your face again, Frankie." This proves to be a valiant offering from a woman who begs for food scraps and bits of coal from the church.
With this, Frank is determined to go back to America where he can live happily among the hardworking, wealthy, 'cowboys' of the Western world.
This book truly delivers something special into every reader's heart. It has met praise and unexpected success, "I had no expectations. As I said to my wife, recently, I might be reviewed in the New York Times Book Review under "Briefly Noted." And then I'd get my Library of Congress catalog number. And then I'd recede into obscurity and I'd get a job like everybody else."
This is most certainly untrue. Pick up a copy of Angela's Ashes and the sequel, 'Tis in a bookstore near you today.

Rating:
Summary: Angela's Ashes wins the crown
Review: Angela's Ashes is a wonderful book. It will make you laugh, cry and want to give all of your money away to poor children all at the same time. The book follows Frankie McCourt, a young Irish boy, through his many houses all of which are barely standing, through his many adventures through the streets of Limerick, through the deaths of his brothers and sisters, and through all the times waiting late at night for his father to come home drunk with no money from work and making the boys stand up and promise to die for Ireland. Frankie is so poor that he has no shoes he's had the same clothes since he was about three years old. Frankie struggles to survive in the tough streets of Limerick and earn money for his family. He finally sails to America with hopes of a new life and prosperity. This book is a masterpiece that will forever be an emotion-provoking novel.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: Angela's Ashes is by far one of the most touching novels you will ever read. Once I picked it up, I could not put it down. It keeps you on your toes, and you wonder what's going to happen next? It's innocent and sweet. You see the story through the eyes of young Frank McCourt, where he takes you through journey's, some sad, some uplifting. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading true stories that come from the heart.

Rating:
Summary: In a different light
Review: Almost everyone who's read Angela's Ashes praises it as one of the best autobiographies/memoirs ever - a statement I would hesitate to agree with. Dont get me wrong: I do think it's a very good book. The best thing about Angel's Ashes is its lack of sorrowfulness - you dont see an author sobbing over a painful childhood and asking for your sympathy. Instead it's treated with great humor (this book does have some of the funniest passages you'd read in a serious autobiographies) and a lack of egoism. The narrator describes things for what they are and show a geniune interests in the psychologies of others. Even when it comes to an unsympathetic character, the protrait is drawn with great understanding and warmth. The oceanic existence of the child is particularly well-done, with great immediacy, that we get drawn into his universe in great sympathy. These are among the greatest achievements an autobiographer can have.
The only thing I am uncomfortable with is the ending. It's a very deliberate construction of McCourt 'giving up' Ireland (symbolized by the Priest) for U.S. and its values (think of the woman who grabs him - and the affirmative answer he gives to the question: isn't America wonderful?). The book ends well - but I can't get rid of the feeling that it is a bit too 'market-oriented', which undermines the previous narrative a little bit when you go back to read it again.

Rating:
Summary: Angela's Ashes Review
Review: After I read the book, Angela's Ashes, I felt as though I had lived and experienced a whole different life. This new life, was in Ireland, and I faced the same harships as the protagonist, Frank McCourt, went through. This book made me realize that you should be happy with the little things in life that you take for granted, because some people might not even have those items. I can't even express in words, what kind of impression this book made on me. I think that this has to be in the top 3 of my favorite books. I learned a lot about the culture and values of this family, which makes it a book worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: the story of a young boy named frank mccort who is born in america and moves with his family to ireland. the time is depression era amercia and things are not much better when they move to ireland. sometimes funny, sometimes stark and horrifyingly sad. this book is a great read about the poor and destitute life of young frank mccourt.
my only question is this: if franks's mother(angela) is so poor then why in the world would she keep reproducing? they cannot afford to eat themselves and yet they crank out the babies. even after some of their children die of various disease/starvation, they continue to reproduce.
other than that, the book is ok, showing that even in the worst of circumstances there is fun to be had and laughing to be done. this book will make you laugh and cry.

Rating:
Summary: Yet Another Review
Review: If you haven't read the book you've probably seen the movie ... oh well.
But the book offers something that the film doesn't ... it's clean, straightforward, and although the movie does have some narration, it's not all from a child's/adolecent's eyes. The words he uses are simple, and it's that simplicity which gives them their power. There are no cluttery words and flowery phrases, what's to be said is said, and there's only one way to interpret the author's meaning. It's not at all barren of description, the word choice is simply limited to the most basic of sorts; it makes for a beautiful read.
If that isn't your incentive, I assure you that the story will create so much pity that you can't help but love Frank and his family.
It's such an honest and outright tale ... honest in the fact that he admits to things one normally wouldn't, and also honest in the fact that his words are so simple.

Rating:
Summary: Katy's Review of Angela's Ashes
Review: My book is called Angela's Ashes, it is by Frank McCourt. I found my book very interesting, because it was rough to learn that they were so poor. I really liked the spirit Frankie and his family had for Ireland and their heritage. I agreed with Frankie about how the most miserable childhood is the Irish childhood, and worse yet the Irish Catholic childhood. Sometimes things would get so bad to the point were he thought he couldn't go on. I felt that Ireland is somewhat similar to what America was once, when we were divided into the Confederacy and the Union. It angered me to read about how everyone was critical about people, and where they were from. For example on page 247 Frank said, "She calls me scabby eyes, she says I'm the spitting image of my father, I have the odd manner, I have the sneaky air of a northern Presbyterian, I'll probably grow up and build an alter to Oliver Cromwell himself, I'll run off and marry an English tart and cover my house with pictures of the royal family." It seemed as if most Irish people were biased where the McCourts lived, they were so particular. In addition, I didn't understand why even just one person would be smart enough to not drink or smoke. And why didn't anyone even limit the number of drinks a person could have? I felt really sorry for all the people of Limerick because not only were they in poverty, but also they were so unhappy from getting drunk too often.
In Angela's Ashes the theme or message that the author was trying to portray was to make the best of your situation and be happy with it. Frank and his brothers were so excited when they got a piece of toffee or went to the Lyric Cinema; it seemed to me like it was the best thing in the world to them. I definitely agree with that. I feel it's so important to make everything special regardless of how horrible the conditions. This book doesn't relate to my life, but I learned so much from it like about how what life is like for people with a completely different childhood than mine. There seemed to always be one more challenge or problem that Frank had to face, which I had never had to deal with. As I read more I became more thankful for the little things that came upon him, and for what I have experienced growing up.
I would recommend this book to people who can handle reading anything sad, and have an interest in other cultures. This book was very well written and realistic. I became involved in it, and couldn't stop reading. This book, Angela's Ashes, is a great true story.