Rating: 
Summary: Good and original but gets repetitive after 1st half
Review: This book is interesting because the tone is original, and there is humour, and also because of the circumstances at the time.One the reader has digested this there is still about halfway to go, and the second half makes for much less fun, original, interesting reading. Well worth reading - but, in my view, not worth keeping or re-reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Angela's Ashes
Review: "Angela's Ashes" is about a young irish-american boy named frank MCcourt,who lives through the poverty of the 1920's. He is born into a poor family in New York to his parents Angela Sheehan And Malachy MCcourt. They later move back to limereck,Ireland hoping they will have a better life. Frank tells about his harsh life growing up at those times. My favorite part the book was when his baby sister was born.Frank had many siblings in the past, but most of them starved to death back in New York. His sisters name was Margaret and looked like her mother with black curly hair and blue eyes. margaret was so special because she was the first daughter to be born in the MCcourt family. Her father loved her very much. Every time she started to cry,he would sing to her until she stoped crying. I thought this was very nice of the father. I would recomend this book to people who like to read about the harsh realty of life. This book helped me realize that I should appreciate what I have. this book goes into detail about the how hard it was to live at those times.
Rating:
Summary: Angela's Ashes
Review: "anngela's ashes" is about a young irish boy,named Frank McCourt, who was born in New York, with his parents and little brother,during the "1920's".He later moves to Limereck, Ireland and lives there.He and his family are very poor and they always go to bed hungry.His parents can barely afford to pay for Catholic school for frank and his little brother Malachy.Since this is a true story, based on Frank McCourts life, frank talks about what it was like to live at those times.
My favorite part of the book is when Franks little sister Margaret is born. His parents loved her alot,because she was the only girl in the family,besides the mother.Frank's father would always hold her and sing to her.The father never did this to his other children.
I would Recomend this to People who like Biographies on people of the past.Some people might think this was a really boring book,but to me it was one of the best book i have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Angela's ashes
Review: I chose this book because,I have seen the movie and I wanted to know what the book was like.This book is about a young irish boy named Frank Mcourt who was born in New York in the 1920's with his two irish- immagrant parents and little brother Malachy jr.He moved back to limereck ireland whe he was four.His mother's side of the family really dislike his father, because he is from Northern Ireland and has a funny manner also because he dosn't take care of his family.you might think that's not fair, but the father isn't very caring. whenever he gets paid money from his job, he goes to bars and spends all his money getting drunk, while his wife and children are starving and go to bed hungry.frank and his family are very poor and can hardley pay for catholic school.this story is very sad and helps you appreciate what you have. This story is true and the author is the little boy, Frank Mcourt, which this story is about.I enjoyed reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: First Class Memoir
Review: If you still haven't read Angela's Ashes, you need to get it in gear and do so. This is a future classic in the memoir genre. A must read.
Rating: 
Summary: Utterly Baffled at All the Praise
Review: After 52 pages, I had to stop reading. My free time is too precious. And I feel terrible about the money spent -- I now have a renewed commitment to use the library. If you want to read an intelligent, compelling memoir I'd highly recommend Jill Ker Conway's "The Road from Coorain." And an absolutely incredible book about diaries and memoirs is Alexandra Johnson's "The Hidden Writer." Another great memoir is Kathleen Norris's "The Cloister Walk." These are just a few that come to mind.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book!
Review: McCourt's memoir is sad and entertaining all at once. While commenting on the condition of the social classes, the author manages to instruct and charm the reader; carefully weaving honesty and naiveté together to reveal the experience of the 'miserable Irish-Catholic childhood'. I would definately recommend reading this book. I hope 'Tis is just as good!
Rating:
Summary: A Child's Odyssey
Review: Beautiful and moving. Lingers in the mind after the story is done. A friend said they had trouble with McCourt's writing style and I told them to read it like you were reading music lyrics...because in a way it is a song or a collection of them. Very bittersweet. I won't retell the plot, you already know by now, doubtless. He paints a picture of life so bleak that it's hard to believe it's occuring in 20th Century Europe and not some Dickensian urban setting. I never in my life knew that an egg could be so highly valued until I read this memoir. It's good soul food for the eyes. Read it. I also might recommend Helias' The Horse of Pride if you're interested in the history and ethnography of fading European cultures.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Memoir of the Last Century...
Review: This is possibly one of the best memoirs of the last century... It tells of the life of Frank McCourt, ages 3-18. The book is wonderful and well-paced. It runs a bit long, but it is worth the time as every page is better than the next. I was personally shocked by some parts, because it describes the scenery so vividly it's almost haunting. The special thing is that Frank does not write this from an adult point of view, but from a child's, never writing what he regrets now or lamenting too much on his mistakes or tortures. I also read "Tis", his second book about his life in New York, and i have to admit it's not as good, partly because he's all grown up and partly because Ireland thoroughly fascinated me... I would recommend this book to absolutely everybody.
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: Angela's Ashes is a gloomy, yet humorous, biography about growing up from the eyes of a child during the depression era in Brooklyn, NY and Limerick, Ireland. The story explains what it was like living during this time in poverty, while captivating the reader with vivid imagery and detail.
" From October to April the walls of Limerick glistened with the damp. Clothes never dried: tweed and woolen coats housed living things, sometimes sprouted mysterious vegetation. In pubs, steam rose from damp bodies and garments to be inhaled with cigarette and pipe smoke laced with the stale fumes and spilled stout and whiskey and tinged with the odor of pee wafting in from the outdoor jakes where many man puked out his weekly wages." (p. 12)
Angela's Ashes begins in Brooklyn, NY where Frank McCourt was born to Malachy McCourt and Angela Sheehan. His parents were both Irish immigrants. Frank McCourt writes about his very early childhood stories in New York such as when his family had to sleep in a. Frank, along with his three brothers, his sister, and his Mom and Dad, soon move to the slums of Limerick, Ireland, in hopes of finding a better life back home as well as a well earning job.
Life wasn't nearly as easy as they expected back in Ireland. Frank's mother Angela, a depressed mother, has little money to feed her children. Frank's father, Malachy, rarely worked because of his drinking problem. When Malachy finds a job, he immediately drinks his weekly wages away. Frank and his family have to survive and live through appalling and dire living conditions. They are forced to live in a flat so miserable that every year Frank's family had to pack themselves into one upstairs room when even the winter floods made the first floor unlivable. "The upstairs room was "Italy" because it was warm and dry and downstairs was Ireland, for it was wet and cold." (p. 96)
Though life may have been depressing for Frank's family, Frank finds humor in his miserable daily life. The book follows Frank McCourt through the pre-mature deaths of his brothers and a sister, his depressed mother, and the sacrifices she makes to feed and shelter her family. It also highlights his adventures with his Catholic school friends, and at his Catholic school brought on by a strict teacher who convinced him of damnation if he did not perfectly behave. Angela's Ashes highlights a number of jobs that Frank has to help aid his family upon the departure of an alcohol-enslaved father, such as working for a poor Englishman who is handicapped, and finally his own departure to start a life of his own back in America.
" When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood; the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic Childhood." (p. 11)
The answer is clear how Frank McCourt survived through his childhood. Frank McCourt finds humor through everyday life. Although Frank shows anger towards his father many times throughout the book, he loved to hear his father's stories. Frank lived to hear his father's tales of the Angel on the Seventh step, which brings his mother's babies and Cuchulain, the hero who saved Ireland.
Frank McCourt tells his story honest and realistically. Though there isn't a clear climax, after Frank is dropped from his current job, he has to beg for any food or money he can obtain. Frank is near starvation, he is cold, has no shelter, and even catches typhoid fever. But Frank's dream of moving to America is not ruined because of his near-death situation. Will Frank ever be able to live a healthy life back in America?
Unlike other biographies or non-fiction books I have read, Frank McCourt right his story as it was. Proper English is
Angela's Ashes is by far the best book I have ever read. Though Frank McCourt may have had a distressing childhood, he uplifted the book with his unique and enjoyable humor. His writing is hilarious. I chuckled at even the little things. Frank described his threats of eternal damnation because of the naughty things he thought of in his boyhood. I was uplifted by Frank's hopeful perspective of life and his funny little anecdotes of his childhood. My favorite anecdote was when Frank and his brother try on their parent's fake teeth, and Franks brother get sent to the hospital to get the removed. The ending of the book was not as captivating as the rest of the book. It was long and tedious as it described Frank's job as a telegram deliver.
Frank McCourt shares with his readers an honest, vividly detailed, and humorous memoir of his childhood. This is a fascinating book that I would recommend for ages 13- through adulthood. As I finished the book with an uplifted spirit, I was blown away by the reality of what it was like growing up in Irish Catholic poverty. It definitely taught any reader to not take things for granted. Angela's Ashes is truly an incredible and marvelous book.
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