Angelas Ashes Cd

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Summary: Excellent
Review: "Angela's Ashes" is a wonderful piece of writing. Tricia Marrapodi

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Summary: A rare autobiography of an unusually impoverished childhood
Review: I am only one of a legion of readers who have found this book extraordinary in its precision, its eloquence, and at the same time - with every reason for bitterness - its embracing full-heartedness. Certainly one of the finest books I've read in a long long time.

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Summary: ABSORBING!
Review: If you have a soul, you will find yourself lost in the youth of Frank McCourt and his family. I've heard the story dozens of times, and still I listen. His colorful and witty way of spinning the yarn, his mastery of twisting a dreadful situation by seeing the humor in it is something only the very gifted could do. This man is a wonderful story-teller and his memoirs are well worth the reading. More than that, you may well find yourself reading/listening over and over and over again. Some have wondered how his childhood could be so clearly remembered. They had no TV, no radio, not much of anything besides hunger, sickness, misery and fleas. A major attractions was watching the wash on the line; two sheets and three towels dance and jump in the sunlight and breeze. Malachy Sr. had some good points and was loved by his children, and his wife. Still, his love of the pint came before his love of his family and he often drank the money that would have put a bit of food on the table. In his ignorance, he put his vision of "dignity" before his children as advice: "Never go out without a collar and tie. Never let people see you carry things." Yet to be falling-down drunk with starving, sick children dressed in rags was acceptable! One cannot imagine the horrors such ignorance, especially ignorance saddled with pompous righteousness can do! I'd love to know what happened to Michael and Alfie. I've seen Frank and Malachy Jr. on TV and feel a kinship to them, I'm glad they're alive and well and laughing!

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Summary: McCourt is the truest of the Irish, he is CREATIVE!
Review: Frank detailed the Irish personality completely. All Irish are creative human beings, because of there experience in having to survive such horrific events in their past. Remember the story takes place during the famine in Ireland. Frank McCourt finds the honest side of the Irish child/adult and the uniqueness of the Irish/Catholic no matter how good or bad. The outcome he scribed is the brilliant spirit. To break away from such hardship sometimes means doing so in the most sinful, non-Irish/Catholic way. Frank, great ending! As children of alcoholic (Irish, Catholic) parents there are so many areas the child has to come to grips with. Frank in his own family dynamics showed us how the Irish are survivors, through and through. We have the humor to survive but we have the most important gift, TO BE CREATIVE IN OUR SURVIVING, which comes from our heritage. Finding ways to eat, stay warm, etc. never would have been possible without the creative force. Our instincts help us find our creative with humor in our everyday lives. In my family history, think twelve kids, one income, little nutritional food, watered down milk, juice, Catsup, now noodles, noodles, noodles. Wow how creative!! By watering down the rations there is more for everyone. No wonder I have such a taste for the BLAND! Think cold winters with shoes that are too small with holes in the soles and toes. Wow how creative!! Plastic bags from the vegetables will keep our feet dry! There are so many examples. The important thing was not feeling shame for it was replaced by pride in mom's creative. The gift now plays out in my everyday life and I find myself to be one of the most efficient creative people in my place of work. I can find a way out of no-way! My creative and Frank's creative are the product of our heritage. My parents, being in their mid-seventies, have found their remaining 11 children as friends. They work hard to put aside their judgements and replace the judgements with pride and recognition that their children are THEIR children. A lesson learned in this day and age is to not find fault with your children but instead find their beauty. Don't waste time with (Catholic) judgements because the judgements will take away the time in the future with your children and grandchildren. Remember they are your children and you have raised them to be wonderful adults. They are better having come from who and where they came from. Thank God for all my families' blessings and for all the talents on earth bestowed, no matter how big or small.

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Summary: Thank you, Frank McCourt!
Review: You brought back feelings long suppressed about being a child in a poor, Irish Catholic family. Words fail me in talking about this book. Only my deepest of emotions which cannot be conveyed.

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Summary: Deep appreciation for a story well told.
Review: This book is a compelling and deeply moving account that succeeds in drawing the reader deeply into the lives of the McCourt family and, in particular, young Frank. When the final page is turned one is anxious to read the sequel. The author's vivid word pictures are at times very hard to bear because of their profundity and yet one is coaxed to smile through the tears.

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Summary: Amazing story !!
Review: McCourt is apparently in the process of writing a sequel and is titled 'Tis. It is due for release late 1999. I am waiting with baited breath !!!!!

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Summary: Honest about Sex and The Catholic Church
Review: This completly refreshing book about the growing up of a poor boy in Limrick Ireland is unique among books. It is special because McCourt is so honest about his feelings as a young boy. It was sad because of the poverty and related deaths but it was really funny also. Now I know where the saying "pissing contest" came from. Frank told of his youthful experiences and thoughts relative to the Catholic Chruch and sex, a very rare accomplishment for an author.

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Summary: Danger in Over-Hype
Review: If I discovered this book on my own, without all the media hype, I might have liked it better. The danger in media over-hype is my expectations were greater and thus my critical antennae tuned to a higher frequency than would be the case if this were a normal first encounter with a new author. Frank McCourt begins this book with prose that makes me fall in love--"The rain dampened the city from the Feast of the Circumcision to New Year's Eve. It created a cacophony of hacking coughs, bronchial rattles, asthmatic wheezes, consumptive croaks. It turned noses into fountains, lungs into bacterial sponges..." The first few pages are a feast for a lover of words, but this banquet doesn't continue beyond the first few pages. That's OK. Frank has a serious story to tell and his childhood was no bed of prose. Still I thought he lost control of his story-telling toward the end and simply got tired. The result is a book that goes down hill from a wonderful start. Do I regret reading this book? No. Do I wish the author more success in a sequel? Yes. I think he can do better and I hope he will.

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Summary: excellently written memoir
Review: My mother and father were born 2 and 4 years earlier in the city of Limerick and were not well to do, so it gave a very interesting look at life at the bottom there during the depression years. I wish they were alive still to let them read it and discuss it with them. What hardship. I cannot understand the critics in this review who condemn an honest memoir, that is so well written, and deserving of his acclaim. I would like to meet the man, and also look forward to the sequel. Well done Frank. Maybe a book from young Malachy too, to confirm what some might think a fiction. (I still have a hundred pages to go.)