Tis Unabridged : A Memoir

Rating:
Summary: A worthy companion to Angela's Ashes
Review: After spotting Frank McCourt shopping in downtown Santa Cruz the day before Christmas, I decided to go home and read my son's copy of 'Tis. I had put it off after reading a couple of negative reviews, but was delighted with the book. As a former teacher, I most appreciated McCourt's "teacher stories"--a scene concerning a closetful of years-old essays in his classroom is deeply moving without becoming saccharine, and is almost worth the price of the book. The portraits of his mother and father are also well-drawn, with complexity and without beatification.

Rating:
Summary: A story of bitterness and resentment
Review: Angela's Ashes was wonderful-- I couldn't put it down. Unfortunately, the same style did not really work with this book which deals with an adult's perspective. This book reads as a whining downer! It lacked the brave humor of the previous one, and increasingly projected the bitterness and resentment that McCourt must feel in carrying the burden of being Irish. Hopefully 'Tis was cathartic for the author and he will produce future work in the wonderfully expressive and humorous manner of Angela's Ashes. Looking forward to future work by this very talented writer.

Rating:
Summary: A Continuation of a Winding Road
Review: This book was easier to read than Angelas Ashes in the sense that it was less depressing. You need to have read Angelas Ashes for Tis to make sense. I read it, because my sister and her friends had Frank McCourt as a teacher in Stuyvesant High School in New York. I was fortunate to meet him at a school event. They talked about him constantly and I can see why with the stories he told his classes that were repeated in the book. The philosophical choices and the decisions he has to make in Tis are a winding road that most of us travel. Take the journey, because you may have to make similar decisions.

Rating:
Summary: Tis a sequel indeed
Review: After reading Angela's ashes, I was doubtful that Tis would be able to successfully pick up where it left off. I was pleasantly surprised, however. While certain sections of the book (especially the last 5 chapters) did drag a bit, for the most part Tis made for easy and quite entertaining reading. This book picks up where Angela's Ashes left off; on the ship that would bring Frank McCourt to America at age 19,where he would start his search for lodging and a job, but more importantly, he would embark on a search of himself. His perfect combination of humor, anger and sadness is what I feel has made both of his memoirs a success.

Rating:
Summary: A long awaited arrival
Review: 'Tis was a book that was anticipated because of the joy we all got from reading Angela's Ashes. 'Tis isn't the same but it has the same feel and you love to look into McCourt's eyes on life and think how he thought. There are a few missing elements in the book that I wanted to see, but overral the book completed the curiosity I had from the ending of Angela's Ashes and it is a book you want to read, it isn't such a waste of money as others would put it. Read and enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Uproarious Humor for All
Review: 'Tis is one of the great works of human literature. The allegory of the Sheep and the French Ditch will be fondly recalled by generations of school children to come. Students will write long tomes on the symbolism of the Lieutenant and Sargent and the wee Sheep, Boo Boo. New eponyms will enter the English language, e.g. "I may have crossed the Rubicorn, but I've also just been petered." Res ipsa loquitur. Bees.

Rating:
Summary: Angela's Ashes was a hard act to follow...
Review: I found that the innocent, breathless (no commas) style that made Angela's Ashe's so heartbreaking was unapealing in Tis, because now it seems that he's still thinking like a child in a man's body. Also he's quite self-centered. His first book was about triumphing over amazing adversity; in this one, he just seems to whine an awful lot. Frank you were by no means the only poor NYU student, not even close, and you are not the only person who worked their way up by cleaning up after people. But it was a good read. I wish there was more focus on his relationship with his brothers, though.

Rating:
Summary: The acclaimed star review
Review: WOW! Is what first comes to my mind when I think of this book! I think Mr. McCourt is going to get numerous honors and awards on yet another book! To write like that at age 18 and to be alone in a new country with no family or friends to lean on that had to have been hard! I just have to say hats off to Mr. McCourt. You've done it again,thrilled me with yet another book!

Rating:
Summary: The acclaimed Burton review
Review: I thought 'tis a memoir was great! It was written so well that you thought you were actually there with Frank in New York at the time! One of the reasons I liked this book was because at that time Frank was only 18 and to write like that at that age, wow! Not to mention how scared and alone he must have felt, it had to have been a hard journey! I think Frank McCourt is going to get numerous honors and awards on this book!

Rating:
Summary: A work and a life in progress
Review: ......but what a hard act to follow after the whole world took Angela's Ashes to it's heart. What a book! I resisted reading it for so long as I felt it was in danger of becoming over hyped. In the end it won me over of course, so I wasted no time in reading 'Tis when it arrived. Frank is now in the process of becoming a man, so the perspective is a little different. There's not the same amount of good natured forgiveness towards his parents anymore, rather Frank has to work through some of his feelings, especially when he returns to Ireland, and when his mother arrives in New York. Although there's not as much humour as in the first book his eye for character is as spot on as ever. I particularly loved the tenderness of Frank's description of his workmate Winston, and his feelings for his wife Mike. Imagine being able to evoke those feelings again, I don't know how the man conjures up the memories. I'm looking forward to the next book, and I hope that other readers will remember that it's someones life we're dealing with here and not some work of fiction. (Or, to borrow from Frank, it's not Charles Dickens where the main character turns out to be the long lost son of the Duke of Somerset, and all live happily ever after)! My feeling about 'Tis is that it was Frank's long dark hour of the soul, and having exorcised a few of his ghosts he may write a book that offers a little more hope next time. Bring on the next instalment I say, this man has things to say about life and those who live it that are quite unique. I can't help but want a happy ending, Frank McCourt deserves nothing less from life.