Rating: 
Summary: A Great Read for the Season
Review: Angela's Ashes is one of the greatest books I have ever read. It involves the story of a young boy in Ireland and his struggle to survive the harsh realities of poverty. That little boy's name is Frank McCourt, an immigrant from Ireland to America, and back again. The story's plot develops itself slowly, but once you reach it, you can finally see why it's written in a first person, biography format. He is telling you the stories, the cold facts, of his childhood as a boy. He doesn't sugar coat anything, but he never directly comes out and says certain things. When he talks about his experiences with love, he never says, "I love her", he says, "She takes up space in my heart and I cherish her every word". The book's underlying emphasis on Catholicism and it's power in Ireland is clear more towards the end. You learn of the intolerance the people there have towards the Protestants and the English. It's also a matter of accepting the fact that they believe Catholicism to be the one and only religion. The book won a Pulitzer Prize, it's not hard to see why. The description and imagery are great, and the memories it brings back for the reader are incredible. The one thing that this book really does, and really pounds into you, is that you have to realise how lucky you are. "Frankie" came from nothing but poverty and a broken family. He had nothing to start with, but slowly worked himself up to become a respected man. It's no wonder you cheer for him the whole book. I wish that I had read this sooner, when my grandmother had recommended it. I thought I wouldn't like it. The dark humor shown is a little disturbing at times, but like any TV show or movie, it's gone and voer with before you have any second thoughts. It's the underlying sense of self-determination and self-reliance that will really hit you in the end. There is one fault with this book and it's style. There are no quotation marks. You don't have any knowledge that someone is speaking in some places so you have to go back and re-read it to make sure you didn't miss anything. I wish he'd had used them but the lack of them makes the style even more creative.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I throughly enjoyed this book and found it very hard to put down. It made me laugh and cry with tears of joy and sadness. Thank-you Mr McCourt. I'm eagerly awaiting your next book!
Rating: 
Summary: A total waste of time and mind
Review: This book is without any redeeming value that I can find. It is a disgusting walk down memory lane of what must have been the most dismal, sad and wretched childhood one WOULD NOT WANT TO RECOUNT IN VIVID PRINT.
Rating: 
Summary: An engaging read!
Review: I think that this book was a great look into the mechanisms of the present Irish demarcations in society. McCourt was specific, but he just wasn't as poetic and proficient as I expected.
Rating:
Summary: misery isn't necessarily literature
Review: Yes, it moves along pleasantly, yes, he has an enormous gift for constructing scenes. But, when I was reading it, I found myself gradually thinking here I am, inclined to give this man a lot of credit because he had horribly difficult beginings and his style of retelling them is so humble and warm. It's not a book to make you think - at all - that is, unless for some reason you've never had any other occasion to think of the misery of other people. It's not a book that challenges one's way of approaching the world, at all, unless one has never considered the differences between having and not having, before. In other words, if you're really smug and insular and have gone around all your life thinking that waiting in line at the supermarket is an inhuman punishment, Frank McCourt will rock your world. Otherwise, I'm not so sure. Otherwise, it's just a good book, not the best. Which is why the wild acclaim it's received makes me kind of uneasy.
Rating:
Summary: A good book
Review: this is one of the best books i have ever read. it reads like poetry. i reccomend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Most rewarding book I have read
Review: I read Angela's Ashes on the recommendation of a friend. Far from disappointed, I found myself enchanted by the delicate and humorous narration. Nearing the final chapters, I was disappointed only by the reality that I would soon finish this enjoyable book. A superbly written masterpiece. Possibly the most rewarding book I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: The best and the worst of humanity.
Review: To hell with Dickens and his Chistmas Carol. Here is a classic to be reckoned with. Imagine having a pig's or sheep's head as the main course for your Chistmas feast. Who needs ghosts to explain the meaning of life when you have an angel waiting to explain it on your very own step?Frank McCourt paints a tale more poignant and classic than any fiction in history. How could one find fault with a protagonist who is a mere child and one weaned on abject poverty, no less? How could find fault with an antogonist who is the child's father, plagued by hopeless alcoholism and who's dream of a Free Ireland has left him in the mere shadows of the Erin's fighting spirit and idealism? You can hear the accents of each character and the settings' period in McCourt's choice of words. You laugh along side the voice his memories portray, but by the end you are weaping for the meager existence of his family and the loss of his innocence. McCourt speaks volumes to the Irish soul in all of us. He makes us long to recall our own youth with the same sense of humor and pure empathy. If we could all love so well. God bless us each and every one.
Rating:
Summary: This book really made me appreciate what I have...
Review: I adored this book. It made me laugh, and it made me cry. Angela is the strongest person I know. I don't think that I would be able to go on after one of my children had died, let alone several. Above all that, she wakes up in filth, goes to sleep in filth, but never knows the luxuries that she is missing. That is why I think she survived. Frankie's story is that of a Catholic child. It is amazing to think that a child, growing up terrified of everything he does, actually turns out to be a decent person. Again, I loved this book and recommed it to anyone that needs a good eye-opener. It will forever remain in my memory.
Rating:
Summary: Simply a masterpiece.
Review: A haunting, heartbreaking, hilarious masterpiece. I loved this book as much as any I have ever read. Brilliant!
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