Rating: 
Summary: Frank's Memories
Review: Angela's Ashes is a memoir of Frank McCourt's childhood in Brooklyn, New York and Limerick, Ireland. McCourt and his family were extremely poor and resorted to begging at times. They relied mostly on the goodness of neighbors and friends and the charity of the St. Vincent DePaul society. It is a tale of humor and sadness alike in which McCourt is very effective in portraying some aspects of his impoverished childhood and not so great at others.McCourt does an excellent job of characterizing his parents, especially his father who liked to come home from a night of drinking and make the boys line up and promise to die for Ireland, who was at war with England at the time. He also does a great job of capturing the methods of the priests and nuns in their attempts to make their congregation more devout Catholics. Many of McCourt's confrontations with priests are somewhat comical, especially when he tries to explain to one priest during confession why he was doomed for "going at himself." The priests used the threats of Hell and Eternal Damnation to ensure the proper behavior of their congregation, the children especially. It is with great perspective that McCourt represents how his views on life were influenced by the Catholic Church. Lastly, he paints a very realistic picture of what it must have been like to live in the abject poverty of Limerick, Ireland. From his descriptions of "going on the mooch" in farmer's fields to scrounging for scraps of fish and chips outside pubs at night, McCourt is able to capture the methods by which the impoverished people of Limerick made ends meet. There are, however, a few areas in which I felt that McCourt came up a little bit short. For instance, I think the book gets a little bit repetitive at times. Almost every story was some variation of another in which McCourt was worried about his father's drinking, his mother's health, his eternal damnation for "going at himself," where his next meal was going to come from, or earning his fare to back to America. I was also opposed to McCourt's justification for stealing from one of his employers. He stole just a few pence at first, but eventually 50 pounds from his deceased employer. He fancied himself a Robinhood of sorts, but to me he came off as just another petty thief. All in all, McCourt did a great job with this book. I did not give it the full 5 stars because of some monotonous and boring portions and the persistent rumors that this was only loosely based on his childhood and is in fact a work of Fiction. If this is true, it would be a great testament to McCourt's writing ability, but I would feel betrayed.
Rating: 
Summary: angelas ashes
Review: Frank McCourt was born during the Depression-era in Brooklyn. Later, his family moves to Limerick, Ireland, where he is raised in the slums. Both of his parents were from Ireland originally. His mother, Angela, didn't have any money to feed the children. Frank's father, Malachy, is an alcoholic who drinks away the family's little money. He can't get or keep a job because of his drinking. Although Frank shows anger towards his father many times throughout the book, he loved to hear his father's stories.
Through his life, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the cruelty of his relatives and neighbors. Yet he tells his tale with courage and a lot of forgiveness without being bitter.
Frank McCourt writes in a way that will keep his audiences attention. It captured me because of its unique experiences and its vivid details. The extreme poverty that he lives in made me appreciate everything that I have. The way McCourt wrote made me feel like I was living his life with him. I felt his sorrow when he was sad, I laughed when he laughed, and I felt his anger toward the people in his life that he did, which is rare in a book. The book will keep you up turning the pages, waiting for his next jovial remark about his miserable life.
Frank McCourt was often angry at everything. He was angry at the Church, at his father, his mother, and his poverty. Most people, after reading this book will be amazed with Frank and his ability to forgive everyone without being bitter. Frank manages to survive on his wits, and return to America to start his life over.
"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I manages to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse that the ordinary childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." Frank shows that even through the hardest times, there's always a way to get through. I recommend this book for everyone. Whether you laugh, cry, love, or even hate, this book will touch you in some way, and teach you to truly cherish the things you have.
Rating: 
Summary: I was so happy to find out it was not true.
Review: McCourt is a brilliant writer and on that basis alone this is a worthwhile read even though I always felt it was biased against Irish-Catholicism. Oh, well that's fair game in a memoir. So why one star? The book pretends to be a biography. There is now an overwhelming amount of evidence that Ashes is a fictional novel loosely based on boyhood anxieties. McCourt may have intended this as a literary device but I'm sorry a lie is a lie is a lie.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: This was one of the best books I have ever read. Even though McCourts life seemed like a never ending hell, the way he writes, he just doesn't seem to be mad at the world. I also liked how he never made himself out to be the "hero" of the story and included all of his flaws in his story telling. I must say the story is rather depressing, but McCourts wit and sarcasm relieves some of the empathy one would feel for the family. The book also made me realize how much I have and that I should be thankful for my gifts. It truly is a heart warming tale, in which you not only learn about a family's plight, but you also get to watch and learn how a boy grows up inspite of all his hardships and becomes a man.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, a Joy to Read
Review: In "Angela's Ashes," Franck McCourt recounts his turbulent childhood in Ireland, ranging from the extreme poverty of the McCourt family, his father's alcoholism and the death of three of his siblings in a memoir that is both witty and full of sorrow. McCourt was able to grab my attention from the first page; unlike other books that tend to drag along at points, I found "Angela's Ashes" gripping and impossible to put down. Born in Brooklyn in the 1930s, Frank McCourt takes the reader through his early years in New York, the McCourt family's return to Ireland and the daily struggles of his life (including some humorous scenes with his headmasters in school). "Angela's Ashes" is one of the few books that I have read in the past year that keep my interest, caused me to laugh out loud and feel extreme sorrow, anger (at Malachy, the father) and pity for the McCourt family. The movie version was excellent, but I recommend reading the book before viewing the movie because it is the only way to fully appreicate McCourt's prose, humor and optimism. I'm looking forward to reading "Tis," the sequel to "Angela's Ashes."
Rating:
Summary: A funny thing about HELL
Review: One might question the sanity of a person who could laugh at the painful impoverishment depicted in Angela's Ashes, but I shamelessly laughed out loud many times. McCourt's memoir is so cleverly written that good readers are sure to see his bittersweet tongue in his cheek as he uses humor to recover from a woeful childhood. I think the moral of the story is that if he can survive the Irish perdition, there is much hope for all of us. WARNING: the movie does little justice to this fine work by McCourt.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing. Absolutely Amazing.
Review: Growing up in an Irish family, I always knew that no one could tell a story like an Irishman. So reading Frank McCourt's moving tale of his childhood in the slums of Limerick, Ireland, was like a flashback to my childhood, to those days of listening to Aunts & Uncles and my Grandmother telling stories about their younger days; Specificlly the way they could tell the most horrible story, and still manage to get a belly laugh out of it, while also bringing a tear to your eye. I can't tell you how many times I laughed out loud reading this book, only to find myself crying over the very next paragraph. As Frank himself says on the first page, it's a miracle he (And his Brothers) managed to survive childhood. This book truly deserves all the accolades that have been heaped upon it. I finished it last night, and I'm already reading Malachy McCourt's book, A Monk Swimming, and I can't wait to start the sequel to Ashes, 'Tis. This is a remarkable book, one of the best I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: America or Bust
Review: Frank McCourt's memoir of his childhood in Depression Ireland is a tale of a struggle against poverty, orthodox religious affirmations and nationalistic fervour. What lifts him from human degradation is ambition and the sheer will to live. His fascination for America is his salvation as he drives himself to achieve the ecstatic vision of the Statue of Liberty. McCourt's depiction of human strength is simple yet profound. He is a talented storyteller. This is a must read for all who are in the brink of giving up hope.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Mother
Review: Despite the misery that the McCourt family had to live through, there was a tremendous amount of love and warmth holding the family together. Angela, the mother, did everything she could for the children, often depriving herself of food and clothing to give to her children. In the end, it was the love and nurturing that greatly contributed to the strength of character that her children developed with at least two becoming successful authors in the US. A good story about parenting even in the harshest of conditions.
Rating: 
Summary: Angela's ashes
Review: This book is about poverty with a very poor family in irland and the book takes you through a bunch of things that the family endures in their life so if you are into reading about these things this is a book for you.
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