Rating: 
Summary: great overall, not as good as Angela's Ashes
Review: Much of this book, chronicling McCourt's life in America from the end of Angela's Ashes through the mid 1980's is immensely whimsical, introspective, insightful, and entertaining. I laughed out loud at the best parts and especially loved his private observations of how Americans reacted to his Irishness. The major weakness lies in McCourt's attempt to read into too much. He would have been better off, leaving the more mundane parts of his new life in America out. For example, he goes on and on about his first taste of Swedish glug on Xmas, or the uninteresting details of his boarding house roomates. BUT he redeems himself by recapturing much of the flair and charm of Angela's Ashes when describing his first day as a teacher in a NY City public school, or his attempt to eat a lemon marangue pie in an American movie theater. Overall a must read, but tis a wee bit of a let down.
Rating: 
Summary: A pleasant sequel to Angela's Ashes
Review: "T'is" receives the neutral three star rating from me. I enjoyed it very much and found it to be a humorous, informative sequel to "Angela's Ashes". Unfortunately, "T'is" lacked the raw literary power of its predecessor. Where "Angela's Ashes" was as monumental as biographies can be, "T'is" read more like a collection of transcripts of various stories that McCourt told to friends and dinner guests.This pecadillo aside, I loved the humor in "T'is" and especially it's unique language(interfere with myself). It was also interesting to see how a newcomer like McCourt survived and succeeded in this country and how ordinary Americans appeared to him then. I was a little bit dissapointed by his recounting of the time he had sex with a "prostitute" in the former concentration camp of dachau. It seemed strange that McCourt, who experienced poverty and starvation in his childhood, did not understand that this woman--a World War II survivor and refugee--was selling her body out of utter desparation. But I can't fault McCourt for honestly recounting the moral judgement he had as a young service man. While "T'is" is dwarfed by the literary accomplishments of "Angela's Ashes", it is still a great read and I recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Delightful Read
Review: After 'Angela's Ashes', I was quite sure Frank McCourt couldn't top it, and he didn't. However, I didn't enjoy this book any the less. From the first sentence, you know who the author is. 'Tis suffers by comparison only; taken on it's own it's an amazing book. While both books are rich with characters, 'Tis dwells on new people, people Frank McCourt is only getting to know in the U.S., not the family he's had a lifetime to observe. Nonetheless, his observations are priceless, and his uncanny stream of consciousness is a joy to read. As with it's predecessor, I hated to see it end.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I read Angela's Ashes and loved it so I had to get "Tis". It is extremely well written and I can't put it down. One of the best book I've read in a very long time.
Rating:
Summary: I never put it down.
Review: As an Irishman, I sometimes found Angela's Ashes too harrowing and close to the bone. As an Irishman in the US, I found 'Tis to be deeply inspiring. It drags you from page to page and somehow perfectly catches the emotion of growing up - from having your faced pressed against the window of 'society' to ultimately rejecting it. By the end you fully understand what makes McCourt tick and you like what you see.
Rating:
Summary: Angela's Ashes forces you to read this one
Review: When I finished Angela's Ashes (which was one of the most touching books I've ever read, that was five stars in my review), I was left with many questions of what happened to Frank and family members. His brother Malachy's "A Monk Swimming" answered some questions, but "Tis" satisfied my curiosity and concern about Frank and his family. I am a true fan of McCourt. I just plain like him. Although this sequel isn't as mesmerizing as its predecessor, it is still interesting to learn how a poor immigrant with little education, uses his intellegence to his advantage, and takes on the selfless service of a high school teacher (and draws to one's attention the large flaws in our educational system). And let's face it, an adult's life is never as mesmerizing as a child's. What a brave soul. In his writing McCourt takes the reader on the same emotional roller coaster ride that he's on. I believe that if he gave into his desire to scrap a conventional life, he could have infiltrated the East Village writer's scene (which was a dream of his), and become a writer right off the bat. However, being so impoverished all his life and in love with a suburbanite, he opted for the middle-class American road, which gave him more experiences to write about. I am left with two questions (Mr. McCourt, if you read this please answer nsj1@cornell.edu). At the end of "A.A.", you have an encounter with a prostitute (if I remember correctly), after arriving in America. In "Tis" you enter the New World with a priest. So which was it? Also, did you ever cure your eyes and how? They seem to plague you throughout "Tis". My son (16 year old who hates school) and mother (81 year old who never reads more than magazines), both read your books and loved them, they are truly for everybody!
Rating:
Summary: Great storyteller
Review: I read "Angela's Ashes" and loved it. Heard iffy reviews about "Tis" but read it anyway. It is such a well-written book. Frank McCourt is a wonderful story teller and I love reading his WORDS! If you read "Angela's Ashes" then you deserve to find out what happens to young McCourt as he wanders the streets of New York and into NYU! A very fine book, indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Frank McCourt is a brave, brave man . . .
Review: Writing a memoir invites accusations of myopia and self-indulgence. Writing a sequel begs comparison (with novelty often tipping the scales in favor of the first work). Along comes Frank McCourt who combines the two and manages to succeed admirably. Picking up where Angela's Ashes leaves off, 'Tis recounts young Frankie's impoverished early days in New York, his broadening stint in the Army, and his subsequent development from an unschooled laborer to a teacher of creative writing able to inspire others to make that same arduous climb. McCourts narrative voice is a paradoxical wonder. Muscular prose and keen observation lay bare dire circumstances and woeful ignorance. Financial poverty stands in sharp contrast to an abundance of imagination and desire. Indeed, it is his driving hunger--both physical and metaphorical --that spurs him to read and write his way out of despair. McCourt's style captivates with his underlying Irish lyricism and his overlay of poetic repetition. Young Frankie's incredulous tone reveals a touching, often frightening, lack of sophistication. It's a wonder the lad survives his youth. Ever so slowly, he trades that innocence for a college degree, a young wife, and teaching jobs that range from thankless and intimidating to purposeful and rewarding. Never stooping to sentimentality, McCourt evokes plenty of genuine emotion, a skill that serves his reading public as well as it must have served his students. It is in the final quarter of the book that McCourt stumbles. His hard-won (and much described) sweetheart mutates quickly into a difficult wife, then fades to near obscurity. That they eventually divorce is no excuse for this disappearing act. McCourt needn't have trashed the ex-wife to expose his own grappling. His daughter, with whom he ends up on better terms, suffers similar abridgement, aging years in the space of two pages. Subtext (not to mention the character of the author) suggests a backing off due to pain and guilt but that's an inexcusable squeamishness in a memoir. This abbreviation and lack of candor give the reader a sense of having been rushed through important territory. His relationship with his parents is drawn with a bit more detail but then it's generally easier to focus on others' failures than to examine your own. Case in point--McCourt spoke of the abysmal effects of his father's chronic alcoholism and admitted he saw himself making some of the same mistakes, yet his reactions seemed to stay on the surface. I kept hoping he'd make peace with his father's fallibilty even as he came to grips with his own but he retains his judgemental tone till the end, missing a valuable connection that might have shed some light on a man he regarded as something of a mystery. Despite these deficiencies. McCourt's story vibrates with honest intensity and the great ache of anyone whose passion intially exceeds his eloquence. Whatever he turns his hand to next (surely this isn't the last we've heard of him), the lad with the bad eyes, the bad teeth, and the gnawing belly grew into a man with much to be proud of.
Rating:
Summary: Good but not great
Review: Maybe if any of us had read this book first, we would not have leapt into the trap of comparison. Angela's ashes was great and it was interesting that although it belonged in the autobigraph section at bookshops, it succeeded in capturing the feelings and imagination of many around the world. McCourt wrote Angela's ashes from the point of view of a child laced with the beautiful innocence of a very young irish boy coming to terms with live's ambivalence. The reason why many did not like 'Tis just as much was the absence of the satire, irnoy and sardonic rendering that made us all smile while attempting to hide the twist of hearts. 'Tis is about a 'big' Irish boy making his way across the Atlantic to land in the arms of a different type of misery and ambivlance. Maybe the ingredients are different, but the simplicty and naivate are there and I suspect McCourt will always possess the spirit of the young wretched Irish boy who left in serach of a dream. Read this book as an autobigraphy not a novel, and you will learn to savour the meanings containted in McCourt's self-deprecating tone. I say the book was good but not great because I cannot undo the beauty of Angela's ashes and therefore cannot be but human and compare...
Rating:
Summary: Tis
Review: Frank McCourt has another hit. This is a timeless story which puts the reader in the New York of the 1940's. McCourt tells his story in first person,a tender story of a man coming of age in America. The memoir is enriched with friends, family, and acquaintences that touched and changed his life. I laughed, I cried. McCourt, What's next?
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