Rating: Summary: Humility Review: Aside from the dull color of the cover, Angela's Ashes is filled with a gripping color that makes it hard to tear away from the book, that is without feeling a little ashamed of the complaints I harbored as a child. Frank's childhood shows not only the anguish he faced as a child, but presents a logic that the reader must adapt before finishing the book. The simple yet imaginative mind of young Francis kept me reading hours on end, and when I finished I had no choice but to find it's successor, 'Tis, in order to continue on his personal journey to find something worth living for.
Rating: Summary: A Great Read Review: Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes has certainly lived up to it's quickly established good reputation. From the very first page, McCourt grabs you with his poor Irish mother bearing him in America during the Depression and doesn't let go until age 19. Even then you're left curious about where his life will lead. After the sad death of Frank's baby sister due to lack of nurishment and warmth, his mother, Angela and father Malachy, bring him and his three brothers to there homeland in hopes of a better life. Life in Ireland is full of sickness and hard times for the McCourts. Through out the book you follow Frank's life of being a poor Irish kid with an American accent. School's rough, home is rough, and work is rough. So, by age 16, Frank's goal is to raise enough money to go back to America and later on send for his family. By the end of the book every reader will surly have their fingers crossed in hopes that he'll make it. This is a book that will tug at any age of heart and come alive for any reader's mind. Angela's Ashes gets my total recomendation. It's a great read.
Rating: Summary: Captivating Story, Original Style Review: This is one of the best books I have read that's been written within the last 50 years. The story follows, in grand detail, the life of a young Irish boy and his family. The author, telling his own life's story, writes in a voice reminescent of both the nature of memory and the wonder of childhood. Certainly there are moments in the book that will seem utterly sad to a reader today, but one should expect that--Irish stories are rarely happy. This one, however, manages to toe the line between grief and triumph in a way that never compromises the reality of it all. All in all, you've had a wonderful life, Mr. McCourt. Thank you for taking us along for the ride.
Rating: Summary: Angela's Ashes Review: This book was a moving work of literature. It showed the hardships that the Irish had to go through. Frank made me feel as if I was there experiencing these hardships. From a heartless father to a sacrificing motheer who would give up her life to provide food for her family, Frank McCourt paints a vivid picture of what life for an Irish Catholic was really like.
Rating: Summary: touching Review: Angela's Ashes is a book about the life of Frank McCourt, told by him. This book is both heart warming and incredibly sad at the same time. The book begins in America with Frank at four and his three year-old brother Malachy, whose name is the same as his fathers. It also tells the tale of the infant twins, Eugene and Oliver, and the memories of Margaret, who died. The mother, Angela, keeps the family together and has to worry about her husband bringing money home and the children's health. The father was a mean drunk who often spent his and his family's money on liquor for himself. The McCourts move from house to house, hoping that life will improve while it only gets worse. Frank has the nerve to wind up in a romance with a lady named Theresa Carmondy and even strike his mother while drunk. However, even though all of this has happened to Frank in his childhood, there are times when you get happiness and even hope for the family while reading. I enjoyed reading this book and would highly recommend this book to any reader. Frank McCourt wrote this book with all his heart and was a joy to read.
Rating: Summary: Such a wonderful book, I could never say it in 1,000 words! Review: Angela's Ashes is such a splendid work of literature, that one's eyes cannot belive what they have before them. A drizzly, dark lane, filled with the smell of coal, the wet, and, above all, the lavatory. You may think it was nasty, but, ah, this was only part of the early childhood of Mr. McCourt and his family. I, personaly, would give anything to live in Ireland, as it's history is such one that one can only stand on the shores of America and gaze over the Atlantic, dreaming of the goings on over in Ireland.
Rating: Summary: Catching! Review: I read this book in two days. What amazed me most was the way Frank wrote about his childhood, expressing events, thoughts and the surround in a very accurate childlike language. It is only a proof of reality. I enjoyed the book very much. I gave it four starts because not everyone is capable of taking all the misery described.
Rating: Summary: Hope Inspiring Review: Angela's Ashes is a book so filled with remorse and sadness, it's amazing that the reader somehow finds themself completely and joyfully satisfied. The novel revolves around the penniless childhood of Frank McCourt and begins in America with four-year-old Frank and his three year-old brother Malachy, who bears the same name as his father, and the infant twins, Eugene and Oliver, and the memories of the baby Margaret, "already dead and gone." Your heart goes out to the poor family, blessed with a loving mother, Angela, and yet cursed with a father who means well, but is constantly drunk or yearning for the "pint," as they call it. Early in his life, McCourt's family moves to Ireland, with help from his aunts and grandmother. Unfortunately, money is not easily found in Ireland either, and the McCourt family migrates from home to home, barely surviving on the few shillings Malachy McCourt doesn't spend at the local pub. The McCourts experience tragedy upon tragedy. His physical romance with a young lady named Theresa Carmody sick with consumption, his unfortunate habit to "interfere with himself," and the sad moment when in a drunken stupor on his first pint he strikes his own mother causes Frank to fear he is doomed to an eternity in hell. Unbelievably, despite all of the terrible things that happen in Frank's childhood, there are moments described in the book that give the reader a complete sense of joy and hope. I immensely enjoyed this memoir and would recommend it to any reader. I was especially enamored of the style of writing in which Frank McCourt chose to write. The words seemed as if they gently tumbled directly out of the mouth of the seven-year-old Frankie, or mischievously flew from Frank as an thirteen-year-old "working man." This novel was exquisitely written and is a jewel to read, as well as a treasure to remember.
Rating: Summary: Moving & Humorous Review: One of the more compelling books I have read in many years. Heartbreakingly grim in its description of McCourt's childhood, yet without self-pity or regret. His sense of humor and umistakably Irish prose made it a true joy to read. I hated finishing it because I felt as though I had lost a good friend. A great read throughout, as is 'Tis.
Rating: Summary: It's good Review: This book gives an incredible depiction of what it was like to live during the Depression in both the US and in Ireland. It engages the reader from the beginning and pulls at their heartstrings as the story is told from the point of view of a young child who knows nothing else but poverty. I picked it up and never put it down. Definitely recommended.
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