Angelas Ashes Cd

Rating:
Summary: Charmingly written, but in the end, a disappointment
Review: Even though it wasn't a page-turner, I enjoyed this book at least half way through because it was written so candidly. However, by the end of the book, I found more reasons to dislike it than I did to like it.
#1. Yes, as many others have said, it was supremely depressing. I can tolerate a lot of depressing literature as long as there are small victories, or occasional heartwarming lessons, or true humor toward the situation, but I found none of that with this book. I'm not sure what had others "roaring with laughter." The most I could find were tiny oddities and ironies that could render no more than a smirk.
#2. Can you really win a Pulizer with that many references to masturbation? I really could have done wihout that.
#3. This was the most disappointing of all. I realize that it was an autobiography, and, therefore, isn't supposed to have a regular plot, but it did need some form of resolution. After reading a novel, one shouldn't have to read the sequel to find out the ending. Perhaps a good editor could have helped Mr. McCourt cut away some of the the masturbation so that he had room to finish the story.


Rating:
Summary: "I don't give a fiddlers fart." if anybody else liked the bk
Review: I loved it!! - If you don't buy, read and enjoy this book then you must have been "dropped on your head as a child." This reference is just one of Mr McCourt's MANY unique and orginal one-liners throughout the book.
Hard to believe he lived long enough to tell his story AND that he can tell his story in such a way that will make you laugh and cry at the same time.

I listened to the book on CD, which is aprox. 14 hours total in length and it was worth every minute!! The time flew by, it was as if I was sitting and listening to my grandfather tell a story.

Everyone should have been so lucky to have had just one teacher like Frank McCourt in school. What a storyteller!!

Thank You Mr. McCourt I REALLY enjoyed this book!!!
I think you will enjoy it too!


Rating:
Summary: A wonder memoir.
Review: In Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt describes his childhood in the impoverished town of Limerick with such lyricism and tongue-in-cheek retellings that the reader wants to laugh, cry, and raise an eyebrow in disbelief all at the same time. McCourt first lays down the foundations of his story in the events.
The book moves rather quickly from event to event: the reader sees his father and mother mourning over the death of their young daughter in America and then sees the entire family sleeping in a prison in Ireland because they have no money. McCourt so wonderfully recounts his memories, such as his experiences in the hospital to his adventures as a mail courier, with the same tone and opinions of his younger self that the reader can almost hear the young Francis talk to the angel on the seventh step or read aloud his composition to his class. McCourt manages to describe the most dismal situation with a tongue-in-cheek comment or an optimistic ending. Along with the tone, the imagery in this novel is vivid.
McCourt recounts such unique details, such as the newspaper wrapping of a hog's head falling apart to children competing for a teacher's apple peelings, that the reader is pulled into his life because it so different from their own and because there is so much emotion invested in these details. McCourt makes sure that when he describes his life, it will be totally singular in its description.
Overall, Angela's Ashes was simply amazing. Even though the reader is swept into a unique childhood full of hunger and starvation, McCourt manages to a "silver lining" in his despair.