Rating: 
Summary: The unfolding of an imperfect life
Review: Those who found this work depressing or the adult characters to be weak are correct. But to say this is the complete sum of this work is highly inaccurate. "Angela's Ashes" does three things: 1. takes a very unconventional storytelling approach (namely the lack of quotes) and still manages to give each person a distinctive voice as we witness a young man's growing love for storytelling. 2. Demonstrates the amount of love and forgiveness and joy that can exist in the least likely of situations. and 3. Tells the story from the boy's point of view. The repetition, the way it slowly dawns on Frankie that he's not just poor but destitute, the way he discovers the emptyness in his family's life, the way the same events look different to him as he grows older ... it's searing and poetic and powerful. If you never want to read about imperfect people, and you only want happy endings, then don't look here, and don't pay any attention to Irish folktales and songs. If you love a well-written comic tragedy, "Angela's Ashes" is for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Gritty and brutally honest
Review: Frank McCourt's portrayal of his childhood spent in poverty left me with many vivid images:
Two small boys picking up coal from the road to boil their charity pigs head for Christmas dinner; A distraught grandmother dragging a five year old boy off to the priest for confession because he "thrun up the body and blood of Jesus" into her backyard after his first communion.
I was especially impresssed with the realism and humour of the dialogue.
I look forward to reading the sequel when its written.
Rating:
Summary: Just when I thought I would cry, Frank made me laugh!
Review: I was amazed at the lack of self-pity throughout this wonderful read.
Rating:
Summary: An Irish Family Saga
Review: As a devoted reader of fiction, I reluctantly decided to read Angela's Ashes, by Frank
McCourt. Praised by all who had read it, I was skeptical. Not only was it nonfiction, but it was also a story of a young boy in Depression- era Ireland. I also wondered
just what the title, which referred to the author's mother, actually meant. I certainly
had grim thoughts! My first reaction was that it would be a depressing, "uncomfortable" story to read.
What a wonderful surprise I found! Yes, the story tells of a time in which one wonders how anyone could survive,(and there are plenty of those who did not), but the way in
which McCourt tells of each character and the surrounding circumstances is done with an optimistic slant. I found myself reading of grim happenings, and then in the next minute,
laughing aloud at a description or a statement made.
Thank God that McCourt did survive so that he could bring us this wonderful story. The book reads like the best of novels. Depressing? Yes, but in the face of the sadness and all of the distressing events, this story of a young boy growing up is also a joy to read!
Rating:
Summary: Hmm...What to Serve?
Review: We just read this in my book club and I can't wait for our review session next week. We are serving food and drink in the spirit of the book (we might all end up drunk and famished when it's over). I'm recommending this book to everyone who wants to read a very important story on human nature. I'm dying to know what happened after Frank arrived in America.
Rating: 
Summary: Over-rated
Review: I expected this book to be one of those that I would not want to put down. Instead, it was one of those that I could not wait to finish just to say it is over. I thought that the author belabored his trails and tribulations to the point of no return. At least, I'd never return to reading this book again. It is a depiction of the life and times of an Irish family coping with unbelievable hardships. However, by the end of the novel, the 'hero' seems to have fallen almost as far as his father - stealing, consorting with lowlifes, etc. And, to me, the worst thing he did was to turn his back on his family. People who grew up with hard times and hardships usually tend to help their own when and if they make it. He didn't seem to worry about helping anyone but himself when he made it. Another reviewer said to those who thought this a great book -- read more! I second this thought -- read any great piece of literature and this will pale in comparison.
Rating:
Summary: Its a memoir dammit!
Review: Like several other readers, I was amazed by those reviews which found the book "repetitive" or "depressingly full of details: or even more oddly, "not representative" ( they presume their own memories were, I suppose...). Some complain that McCourt's entry to America and the events leading up to it were less than perfect, as if the mere comtemplation of great US of A should have somehow enobled him. And one or two think his mother should have shown more strength, and his father more restraint....in other words, should have been different people, so that the book could have been easier (more like their conception of how they want to believe life is for everybody I gues) I was a little uncomfortable with the adolescent sexuality myself, but this is a memoir dammit, not as one reviewer put it, "some Danielle Steel". It was a great memoir, recalling a time past relived with compassion, humour and wit - and not inconsiderable style.
Rating:
Summary: Frank McCourt, A True Survivor
Review: Angela's Ashes written by Frank McCourt (born in 1930) is a memoir of his life until the age of 19, beginning in New York then in Limerick, Ireland. The author writes the story from the perspective of a child which he often shows through his child-like interpretations of things adults take for granted and never explain to a child. This innocence and amusement with everything going on around him helps him survive this poverty stricken life. The story begins with the introduction of his mother, Angela Sheehan who went to New York and met Melachy, an Irishman from Northern Ireland, who did the "knee trembler" with her. Her family forced Malachy, who had the "odd manner" to do the right thing and marry Angela since she was expecting little Frankie. Malachy could never provide for the family and was always spending his sparse earnings on "pints". The family moved back to Ireland for a better life and found things to be worse there than in America. In Ireland, Frank really brings the reader to feel as if they are going through everything with him. Since the family never seems to have much to eat, any time they get some food the reader enjoys it vicariously. While the story is written from the memories of Frank and of course by Frank you always have the sense that Angela is really the focal point of the story. Frank never lets the reader know what Angela is thinking because he is writing it as a child and wouldn't really know her inner thoughts and she never explains anything to him. Therefore, he only describes her behavior and leaves the reader to imagine what Angela is feeling. The reader knows that she is trapped and the only happiness she knows is the love of her children and her occassinal woodbine cigarette. But because her basic physiological needs are not being met she is not able to be the mother she could. She is either lying in bed grieving over the death of her children or out begging for food and clothing. You feel her pain as she finds out that again her husband has gone to the pub and spent the week's wages or their government assistance "the dole" on the "pints" while she and the children are sitting up in "Italy" starving and freezing for lack of food, and wood for the fire. As a teenager, little by little Frank begins to understand many of the things he was confused about as a child. The "Angel on the 7th Step" did not bring his mother her babies, the "excitement" caused that to happen. Then he began to experience the excitement for himself and continuously had to go to confession for breaking the 6th Commandment which meant thou shall not have impure thoughts, impure deeds or impure words. This excitement left him in a state of constant sin in which the enjoyment of it all outweighed any guilt. Just to be on the safe side though, he found an old priest that was deaf to confess his sins to daily. I gave the book a 10 because I thought it was extremely well written and I didn't want it to end.
Rating:
Summary: Heartbreaking yet Fantastic
Review: When reading Angela's Ashes, I had a difficult time imagining that all those events in McCourt's life could actually have happened, but I was amazed at his story-telling. He told the story through the eyes of a child allowing the reader to feel, see, and even smell the heartache around him. I was surprised at every page because something new and different was happening, even though McCourt's memoir was always bleak and depressing. I highly recommend this book to everyone. It is a very humbling experience.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, especially for Irish descendents
Review: I bought this book in Ireland only because I was in a bookstore and was looking for something to read as I flew home on the plane. I had been traveling on business for quite a while and missed all the hype the earlier reviewers mentioned. So I was not prepared for the emotions this booked evoked in me. I found this book difficult to read only because it made me so depressed. I have lived and travelled in the poorest states of Africa and India but never have I felt the poverty and hopelessness that this book recounts. This book was not just about Ireland but about the turn of the century. It is truly enlightening to know what people have gone through. Especially we of Irish descent who tend to glorify the homeland. Angela's Ashes has made me curious for other historical books on Ireland and leaves me wanting to know more than the fanciful side that we've been inundated with lately. Present day Ireland is absolutely beautiful and the people are the amongst the most courteous and friendliest on earth. I had wondered why so many had left but with Frank Court's book I have a better understanding.
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