Rating: 
Summary: The one truly loveable character leaves a lasting impression
Review: Angela's Ashes is a good read, not difficult except for the excess of names in Brooklyn and Limerick which you think may be necessary to remember but are not. A strong point of the book is the subtle way author Frank McCourt piles superstition upon superstition, contradiction upon contradiction in his description of how the salt-of-the-earth and the not so salty Catholics live out their religion. He seems to speak to the folly of organized faith. A weak point is the mundane presentation of illness and death that slips by on page after page while eliciting little of the sympathy and none of the horror such tragedies produce in real life. I did not discover a truly interesting character until chapter four when introduced to cross-eyed Mikey Molloy, 114 pages deep. Here's an eleven year old book-reading boy with flair and personality who is creative enough or cunning enough to turn epilepsy to his own favor when the situation dictates. Mikey fades away as the story grinds on but not before he has helped point Frankie McCourt toward books. Frankie, himself, gradually develops a sympathetic personality, which is fortunate since he is Angela's surviving narrator. He is a smart boy who made me laugh when he ate white Bill Galvin's lunch. I laughed again when he was forced to learn how to Irish dance and was worried he'd look like he had "a steel rod up his arse." This poverty haunted, shoeless, snot-nosed kid didn't want to dance the Irish. He wanted to be Fred Astaire until--bedridden with typhoid fever--he discovered a love for two short lines of Shakespeare's poetry which led to "The Highwayman," and to P.G. Wodehouse and eventually opened the world to Frankie. I suppose I should have felt compassion for Angela, herself, but I didn't. She was no more a victim of poverty's circumstance than were her children or friends or enemies in the Irish slums. I was surprised to discover that she was never cremated. I mean the title makes you think her remains would be on a mantle someplace or buried and waiting to be dug up by her sympathetic adult children. Angela's were the stagnant ashes in the crummy fireplace at which she stared in order to escape her dismal reality. The title of Frank McCourt's book would translate just as well into "Malachy's Pints" or "Linus's Blanket." The one character I loved and cried for was Theresa Carmody, the sweet and fragile girl who finally brought pleasure and meaning to Frankie McCourt before he fled to America. Theresa didn't take up too many pages but she boldly grabbed a handful of excitement where she found it and followed her passion until she coughed up her life. What more can any of us hope to do?
Rating: 
Summary: WHAT THE BLOODY FRIGG IS ALL THE FUSS ABOUT???
Review: I found this book booooringgg! I call it a memoir/fiction.Not only was I distracted by the punctuation (or lack of) I found it too verbose, just endless chatter. There were numerous series of accounts of childhood, with no real substance and cohesiveness!! I fiiiinnalllly finished the endless stories. There appeared to be WAAAAY to much detail in each account. I cannot imagine anyone being able to recount their lives with such filling detail as this book. That's why I refer to it as a memoir/fiction.
Rating:
Summary: In the end, a disappointment.
Review: When I first began this book, I quickly became absorbed in the story, and found it very moving. Later, I found the repeated mention of the author's sexual discoveries disturbing, and the end was a complete disappointment to me. I found myself sitting with my jaw to the floor, questioning the point of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: 'Tis the Irish accent that made me a part of the book
Review: I read this book out loud to my husband. The dialog was written so well, I sounded like I was one of Frank's neighbors on his travels through life. I judge a book by how it stays with me . My life was touched , thinking about my own childhood which pales in comparison to the misery of Frank and his siblings. It is hard to imagine how anyone could survive. I salute Frank, and hope the end of his life he wallows in money. He certainly earned it.
Rating:
Summary: Masterful!
Review: The most compelling, captivating book I have ever read. Thank you and please give us more Mr. McCourt.
Rating:
Summary: I WAS THERE WITH FRANK, FEELING, CRYING, LAUGHING
Review: FEW BOOKS MOVE ME LIKE THIS BOOK DID. I WOULD READ AND THINK. I WOULD READ MORE AND LIVE WITH FRANK AND HIS FAMILY. I COULD UNDERSTAND HIS POVERTY AND PAIN. I COULD UNDERSTAND HIS WILL TO LIVE. I WOULD CRY FOR MORE AS I TURNED THE FINAL PAGE.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth the time
Review: I am amazed that Frank is still alive after suffering through all of the consequences of extreme poverty -- but he definitely takes the easy road at the end of the book. I got so sick of hearing about his self-indulging habits. I don't care if this is an integral part of the male species, I don't want to hear about it over and over again -- that's not why I started reading the book. How did this poverty affect the rest of his life? How did this poverty affect his family relationships later in life? I hoped there was so much more to this story but I was very disappointed. I can't believe that this won a Pulitzer Price. It just goes to shows how the standards have changed.
Rating:
Summary: Angela's Ashes: A Memoir --A young reader's view and opinion
Review: I think that this book, Angela's Ashes: A Memoir, really captures the poverty and depression of the era and place. The way that Frank McCourt begins the book is so direct and imformative, but it still says nothing about certain experiences. It doesn't tell about getting typhoid or the "knee tremblers" or of the deaths of his brothers and sister. It doesn't give away what will happen in the book, it is rather a thesis statement for the story. It tells you that the book is about his childhood and how awful it was. It really sets the scene and background. The joys and sorrows of this book, Angela's Ashes, are so realisticly told and described. You feel almost as you are there observing what's happening, staring in the window, standing in the shops in back of them in line, wishing that you could reach out and help and then drifting slowly back to reality.
Rating:
Summary: Ach! A lovely read.
Review: Coming from an Irish Catholic family I see the parallels in life. Franks' life reminds me of what my mother describes in Liverpool, England in the 1930's. Many of the relatives came over during the Potato Famine and lived those bleak lives. "Me Mam" as was said, told the tales. These tales have the flavor of Mr. McCourts. The juxtiposition of humor and pathos are what makes it "Irish". The Irish have a way of turning the bleak to funny and the funny to bleak in the twek of a word. Ironic, had to have started in Ireland.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, but could have been shorter
Review: How can you not feel truly sorry for Frank McCourt after reading about his tribulations? I feel guilty picking apart his work, but... The misery was relentless for me as a reader. I can only take so much before I start to get really depressed. (I'm not saying what he went through wasn't true, or denying his pain. He was true to his emotions as a child, and he was very good at depicting this.) But as authors know, one should keep in mind the audience. If he had kept it shorter, I would have given him a 10. Other reviewers have mentioned that other characters such as his mother, father, and brothers' futures were not depicted. I have to agree. I wanted to know what happened to all of them.
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