Rating: 
Summary: niamh o' mahony
Review: When this book first came out, i was quite reluctant to read it. As I am a native of Limerick City which is where McCourt is from.However, once I began to read the book. I couldn't put it down. Every scene in the book was so well described, I could feel myself going back in time. I enjoyed the way each of the characters were portrayed. However, cruel he was to his Mother. What appealed to me most about this book was the way in which he described his school days in such an animated and fun way. Its hard to believe in parts that he is no longer a young man, long gone from his native city. I found myself laughing loudly as he described certain events that happened at school. All in all, this book is a great success for its wit & also for McCourts amazing ability to vividly remember his childhood, even though it was not a happy one.
Rating: 
Summary: An Exellent book
Review: I really enjoyed this book! I couldn't put it down for the suspence of what was going to happen next. I really got to know the characters and felt that I was in the story sharing all their worries of poverty and how the family were going to survive the next day. The factual book made me realise how hard it was during the war with so little to eat and so little to survive on. I would recomend this book to anyone who is willing to read a true story which is full of emotion and poverty. An excellent book, highly rated!!
Rating: 
Summary: Relentless misery and a quirky style ....
Review: ... I can handle one but not both. I am afraid that this is one of very few books that I stopped reading about a third of the way in. I'm now of an age when I no longer feel that I am obliged to read a book just because it has been venerated or is somehow defined as a landmark, though I admit that I will persevere longer in those circumstances. But when I decide night after night that I am not enjoying it in the least, and even that I am finding it a chore to read then I am old enough and ugly enough to consign it to the charity box. I'm sorry, because I love Ireland, and Dublin in particular ... my job takes me there several times a month and I am very fond of the people. I really looked forward to a good read. This wasn't it. Shame, really.
Rating:
Summary: a great book!
Review: This was an excellent story, one that I would recommend to almost anyone looking for a great book. McCourt's writing style is very different from any that I've read, and the way he can remember the smallest detail from a childhood experience is amazing. This is a gripping story that will keep you reading until the end. I also enjoyed this book better than the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful book reflects its stark surroundings
Review: Through the eyes of a child. Frank McCourt's New York Times best seller is one of the most vivid and beautiful books ever written. His way of writing from an innocent boy to a teenager is so appealing and so brilliant. This book is the story of Frank McCourt, who was born to an alcoholic father and depressed young mother in the Depression in New York. His earliest memories are in New York where his brothers, Malachy and the twins Oliver and Eugene were born along with his sister, Margaret. After the death of the infant Margaret, the McCourts move to Limerick, Ireland, Frank's mother's hometown. There he experiences more deaths and more births along with rude Catholics, a mean aunt, strict teachers, an uncle who works in the coal factory (therefore his face is always black) and fleas. Hilarious compared to its darkness, this book deserves more than five stars.
Rating:
Summary: absolutely mesmerizing
Review: This book was one of the most wonderful discoveries that ever happened to me. I am amazed by the way the author transformed himself into two, three and so on old child. Being an immigrant myself there were a lot of things I was able to relate to. I think it is an astonishing book, worth spending time on it. It can also make a good book for children. It is also good way to start to appreciate good things we have here.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: I loved listening to this book. The author did an excellent job, and the story keep my interest from beginning to end. I hated to see it end.
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Summary: Pub tales
Review: As I began to read this memoir I was immediately struck by Frank McCourt's unusual writing style. It occured to me that it resembles the narrative style encountered in Irish pubs. Mr. McCourt's inclusion of Irish speech patterns and patois further added to my reading. This in conjunction with Mr. McCourt's detailed accounting of his formative years lends one the sights and sounds of Limerick at the early part of this century. While life was indeed hard, Mr. McCourt conveys the wonderful sense of humor that has seen Ireland through its troubles.
Rating: 
Summary: Insulting to the Irish
Review: McCourt's memoir perpetuates every existing stereotype about the Irish, and caters to a few new ones. He seems to indict an entire country for his family's most particular kind of poverty, which is misleading and unfair. James Joyce's works, with their less-than-flattering depictions of Dublin life, seem almost nationalistic in comparison. No non-Irish person should read this book believing that it represents the true state of affairs in Limerick, much less Ireland as a whole.
Rating:
Summary: Real world drama - excellent book. Not for the sensitive..
Review: If you enjoy a book that peeks into the lives and hardships of others without over-glorifying the content (though how he manages to remember his life in such great, descriptive detail is incredible) - and you can sit through the tragedy and squalor that mark this book, page after page, Angela's Ashes is an excellent choice. Frank McCourt lived (remarkably) to tell the story of his impoverished and tragedy-striken family who's hardships followed them from Ireland to New York and back again - unrelenting, and unforgiving. His detail is both intriguing and disturbing - his story memorable and his style brilliant. Highly recommended.
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