Rating: 
Summary: A classic...Instructive, funny, sad, unforgettable.
Review: Of comments here, no one has mentioned the hospital scenes. In the fifties, I was hospitalized at age seven for expended periods and these scenes mean the most to me. The isolation and the power of goodness and literature....in fact, for both Frankie and me, these hospital experiences shaped us in positive ways. Irony: a serious, painful disease that brings enlightenment, self-discovery, intuition, and will to survive. Also: Compares to THE GOOD EARTH in showing the effects of famine, disease,universality of themes.
Rating:
Summary: Painfully compelling
Review: Frank McCourt's memoir is one of the best memoirs i have read (given that i have only read one or two other memoirs). It tells the painful tale of an alcoholic father and neglecting mother. Strict and cruel realatives and school teachers, disease, famine and bitterness. The bitterness of the people around him is overwhelming. What makes this book so painful is the inhumane suffering that he and the people around him have suffered. yet this book is compelling in that one reads on in hope things take a better turn. I found that reading this is like watching someone in quick sand up to their necks and continuing to sink at a rapid rate. This is quite an easy book to read, it flow's quite nicely apart from the rules of grammar that seemed to be ignored. I did find myself having to read things over. But overall a very good book and I givve it high reccomendations.
Rating: 
Summary: A strange concoction of mediocrity and spirit.
Review: The sole merit of this memoir is Frank McCourt's perserverance through poverty, famine, and filth. Humanitarianism and altruism are replaced by sanctimony. Any alleged humor existing in this story is lost on me. Desperation leading to absurd circumstances hardly qualify as humor. It really is amazing how much suffering humans can endure. McCourt really is a Robin Hood of hearts. The story teaches an important lesson-- gratitude --- and succeeds inspite of itself. The prose and narration of the story is dismal at best. McCourt's style is one of a middle-aged man attempting (and failing) to write in the style of a young boy growing up in destitute Ireland. Often, he fails in this endeavor. There is a peculiar mix of old and young story-telling which truthfully doesn't work. Incessant, excessive italicized poems and recitations do little to enhance the reader's appreciation of the rich Irish culture or even, to elevate the story. After the first dozen, I ignored these automatically. Endless pages describing excrement and other bodily secretions are repulsive and unnecessary. The point is clear, yet it is made over and over again. Though I felt a sense of relief at the end of the story because of McCourt's opportunity in America, I was also very disappointed. Perhaps the editor should have eliminated the entire middle section (tedious) and included a last BRIEF paragraph on McCourt's life in America--where he attended university, marriage, relationship with his family, how he decided to write the memoir.... Even considering all these negative elements of the story, I still believe that McCourt deserved the Pulitzer for his intensive compilation of all these memories, if not for his style of writing. He is a great man, and very rich as he deserves to be.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This is a continuation to my previous review. After I wrote my review, I went back and looked at others. I realized I didn't put near enough. I want to add that while reading Angela's Ashes it kept my interest from page 1. It is very hard to do that. I don't usually read many books lately, only the Bible and Sunday School lessons. Someone let a friend borrow this and I took one look at the cover and said I want to borrow it. I could not put the book down. The way Frank wrote the book and the details in it made it feel like you were there feeling everything he and his family went through. It was just superb! I am telling many people about it and recommending it to many.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This is the best memoir I have read. Very good. I read the whole book in 8 hrs. I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: A must/read tale of survival through creativity and luck
Review: Of comments here, noone has mentioned the hospital scenes. In the fifties, I was hospitalized at age seven for expended periods and these scenes mean the most to me. The isolation and the power of goodness and literature....in fact, for both Frankie and me, these hospital experiences shaped us in positive ways. Irony: a serious, painful disease that brings enlightenment, self-discovery, intuition, and will to survive.
Rating:
Summary: A book that REALLY makes you think
Review: In reading this book, I became quite familiar with this Irish family, and began to relate closer to their hardships and struggles. I was able to follow along with them in their confusions, emotions and struggles. It amazed me how strong Angela was as she struggled so hard to make the ends meet with the lack of help from her husband. In reading this I began to grasp more appreciation of the life in which I have now. This is one book that I especially found difficult to put down, and one that created such angry emotions towards the characters. I finished reading this book with the feeling as if I personally knew this family. I greatly enjoyed this book and look forward to any upcoming books by Mr. McCourt.
Rating:
Summary: Enlightening and inspiring
Review: Angela's Ashes effected me by changing my outlook on life. Frank McCourt's stories of surviving extreme poverty, and overcoming cruelty from extended family members and many others, are inspiring. Even more amazing is the fact that he had the strength and discipline to write down the memories of his bleak upbringing. This should be required reading for any member of "Generation X" or any overindulged teenager who dares to complain about life. A co-worker loaned me the book, but I am buying my own copy because I never want to forget some of the people Frank described. I did find the ending abrupt, however, and I want to know more about his life, and his family. A sequel, please!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant but kinda fell apart at the end
Review: I am 25 and Irish. I grew up in comfortable middle class surroundings and never wanted for anything really. This book opened my eyes to just how different my upbringing was to that of my parents. I finally understood the stories from their childhoods about walking to school barefoot and "going without". My mother said that she found this book too difficult to read in parts as it was a little too close to the bone! I was amazed; I always thought being poor was slightly romantic. When I read the book's graphic descriptions of poverty (even if it was through the eyes of a child), you can imagine what the parents must have been going through - the shame of it all. That's why the father drinks constantly. It's not just the fact that he was weak, he needed an escape and drink and dreams of Ireland being free provided that. You could say the parents should have been stronger but how? It was like they were cursed, everything always seemed to go wrong. No matter what they did, the situation just seemed to get worse. Ireland in those days was a terrible place and I'm just glad it's got a lot better. Now, people have choices then, they did not. The only slight critism I have of Frank McCourt's wonderful book is the ending. I didn't feel part of it. Up to then, I went through all the pain, humiliation and humour with him. But at the end, it felt very detached. Is this because he had to detach himself from his home and his family to go to America. I think so but am not sure. All in all, what a great book. A homage to Ireland, warts and all. I wonder if the brothers and priests would turn their backs on Frank McCourt now?
Rating:
Summary: I cried I laughed, but mostly I cried.
Review: Growing up Irish, catholic in the mid-50's- this book really hit home. Just when you think your own life growing up Irish-catholic with an alcoholic father and a weak mother was too much to bear and you start to feel sorry for yourself; then you read Angela's Ashes and realize that compared to his life - your life was almost paradise. I laughed and I cried, but mostly I cried. Once I picked up this book I couldn't put it down. I am not an avid reader, but this book was wonderful. I haven't stopped talking about it and I am anxiously looking forward to his next book "Tis"
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