Tis Unabridged : A Memoir

Rating:
Summary: A whiny narrative full of self-pity
Review: After enjoying Angela's Ashes, I could not wait to read 'Tis. The burning question we all had: how did the incredible Frank McCourt who survived so much adversity fare in the "land of opportunity". The answer, sadly, is that he held a grudge most of his life. Like most children of alcoholics Mr. McCourt remained the victim and prefereed seeing all the events in his adult life as caused by the flaws in others. He never took any responsiblity for the pain his own alcoholism caused his wife and family. The constant "poor me" outlook got very tiresome and boring. Grow up Mr. McCourt and learn some gratitude!

Rating:
Summary: +- 25% good, 25% mediocre, while 50% is filler.
Review: I was really looking forward to this book after reading "Angela's Ashes", but was very disappointed in "Tis". After the umpteenth time of telling us about his bad teeth - his weeping eyes (which had already been well covered in the previous book). The self deprication soon became VERY boring. Unfortunately, it seemed McCord was filling pages to write a quick book. My wife is from Ireland, and I thought I might be missing something in the culture and type of writing, but when she finished, her comments almost mirrored my own. The first and last parts of the book are quite good, and there is a great story here, but Mr. McCord missed it while he is the one who lived it.

Rating:
Summary: I felt like I was there. I cried. I laughed. I moaned.
Review: Tis is a perfect follow up for Angela's Ashes. Frank makes you feel like you're there. I experienced his life, like it was my own. I cried with him. I laughed with him. I felt every emotion. I was completely captivated. My Irish/Catholic background helped me experience it.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but not as good as Angelas Ashes
Review: The beginning of the book was good, but later on he starts to describe too many details about his teaching and classroom experience, that I had to skip several page. I still would recommend people to read it, but only after they have read the "Angelas Ashes".

Rating:
Summary: Very good but a little too cute in places
Review: This book was very interesting, told very well with rich detail, with crushing disappointments and rich humor. But the language was off-putting -- too much like the young Frank McCourt's language in Angela's Ashes. It's as if in some ways Frank grew up in New York, yet in other ways was as naive as the 7-year-old in Limerick. As if he remains incapable of understanding life's complexities as he grows up. He was disadvantaged by his childhood, of course, but he writes as if any happenstance diverging even the slightest bit from his expectations leads him to "wonder what kind of a world we live in where..." blah blah blah. It's an adult world! Children spend time wondering why they can't eat toffey morning, noon, and night. Adults don't. I think Frank McCourt, having found success in this type of writing, didn't adjust it for his later years. That's what's disappointing about this book.

Rating:
Summary: This books provides it all! Humor,Sadness,Anger,Sympathy,etc
Review: With "Angelas Ashes" I cried alot and laughed a little. With "Tis" I laughed alot and cried a little. Frank's style of writing is so compelling, so gripping, that it dares you to put the book down. Being a Protestant turned Catholic, totally non-Irish having spent my entire "Late-Baby-Boomer" life in the middle to upper middle-class of American society, spoiled from from the day I was born, I have almost nothing in common with Frank McCourt. Yet by the end of "Tis", I feel as if I am a part of his family having suffered and experienced, even if only in my mind, the horrific circumstances in depression-era Ireland and the struggle of an individual, with nothing but desire, to obtain the American Dream......whatever that might be! Through the reading of Frank McCourt's memoirs, I have learned things about myself that I did not realize. Mostly, that I too must have "my bladder near my eyes"!

Rating:
Summary: DISAPPOINTED-reads like it was copied from a daily log
Review: All the sentiment, emotion and spirit of Angela's Ashes is gone and in it's place is a tale of resentment and anger. I thought Angela's Ashes was written with a sense of pride and understanding but I must have been mistaken for neither can be found in McCourt's TIS. TIS contains too much whining and complaining and too little inspiration to be recommended. This book is depressing enough to make Oprah Winfrey's book list.

Rating:
Summary: My, God, what I'd give for old New York
Review: ASHES was marvelous, but this 'TIS really is something great, too. Just to read about New York, the greatest city in the world, during the 1950s makes me know I was born 30 years too late. To think you could live in Manhattan for $20.00 a day or some damn thing when now you can't even get lunch and a beer for that. I love the nostaglia this book incites. I love the author's beautiful gift for language. I love the Irish humor. It is obvious to me that Frank should have married the ballerina and lived in the Village.

Rating:
Summary: Tis: not
Review: The first half of this book was great. The second half was so dissapointing. We all have one great story to tell. He had his.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to put down, once you had opened the cover
Review: As with Angela's Ashes, an amazing read. Hard to believe that you can manage a smile in the face of such heartache. It made me feel proud of my family, as my grandad was Mr.Downes. Sure we'll hear more about Mr.McCourt.