Rating: 
Summary: Angela's Ashes is a moving testimony to the human spirit
Review: Mr. McCourt has given us a rare and touching glimpse into what must have been a very difficult childhood. As devastating as poverty of this magnitude can be, he was able to raise us above the sadness with humor, wit, and heart warming stories. I can honestly say that I did not want to read this book. I knew it would be a downer. That it was, in some ways, but it also lifted my spirits and made me think about the resilience of the human spirit. I felt such a connection with this book because it helped me remember the details of my life with new reverence and appreciation. Thank you, Mr. McCourt.
Rating:
Summary: an emotional rollercoaster
Review: Angela's Ashes was a thought provoking emotional roller coaster. It was a book that I could not put down, and when I had to, I could not wait to get back. At times my husband would feel my sobs in the night and question as to what made me cry so. I also laughed out loud some times at work when a phrase from the book went through my head. The "excitement" was one particular phrase. I have not seen the film or have spoken to anyone who has, but I doubt that it will give as much pleasure as the book because films rarely do.
Rating: 
Summary: An Eye Opener
Review: This book had me rivited right from the first sentence, and I had to continue reading until I ran out of sentences! The writing style is one of gentle humour and sensitivity - couched in the terms and phrases of the streets of Limerick. It had me crying with sorrow in some places, and crying with laughter in others. I feel a new insight into the plight of the poor of Limerick in the 1930s and 1940s now - a better sense of what their priorities were, their hopes, dreams, and the harsh reality of everyday life. This is a very sensitive and revealing book, and I was almost embarassed to look at the photograph of Mr McCourt at the back of the book because I felt I knew so much about him, yet he is a total stranger. I will always remember this book and the lives of the people therein.
Rating: 
Summary: Read it, and Decide for Yourself :)
Review: After reading a good portion of these reviews, it seems that people either love this book or hate it. I do not think it is the best book ever written, but I am not sure there is such a thing. I enjoyed the book for many reasons. I thought the style was a refreshing change. The opening of the book, for example, with it's discussion of how everything was wet, was to me, poetic. It could almost stand alone for a discussion in English class. I was entertained by his humorous choices of words and interesting perceptions of the goings on around him. I could picture the scenes as they were happening, and wondered how he could have humor amidst all the screwed up actions of those around him. I don't think anyone could not blame Frank's father for contributing to their situation, but Angela didn't do much to help either, although I'm not sure there was much she could do. Most of the people in her family weren't much better either. I can't imagine having such an indifferent attitude to my starving family members. And, I was inspired. I used to mindlessly pray at dinner, thanking God for our food and to bless it to the nourishment of our bodies. Amen. Whatever that meant. Now I know what it means, and now I am truly thankful. Some people who hate it claim that the writing style is horrible because of his lack of attention to conventional grammar, etc. I would like to point out that, perhaps, that was a stylistic choice he made on purpose that actually, in my opinion, adds to the beauty and intelligence of the writing. The story is told, at first, from a child's point of view, and it is told as if it is happening in the present--he does not write his memior from the view of a 70 year old looking back on the past. To me, the voice created by the words illustrates the fact that it is a story told through the eyes of a child as it is happening to him. If you look closely, the style does change (mature, if you will,) just like Frank does throughout the couse of the story. Although this style of voice still prevails, it is a little less rambled toward the end, which I think reflects the fact that he is older. It is a memior, which is a personal account, which again, might be another reason for the style he chose. To me, this is one aspect of the novel which makes it great. It is NOT told or written in a common style. In addition, some people who disliked this book say that the only people who liked it did so because of the emotional appeal. I realize that how the book makes you feel is not the most sophisticated measure of a literary classic, but there is no harm in a reader's identifying with the storyteller, learning a lesson from someone else's experience, or being inspired to be a more thankful person from reading a book. Literature intellectuals may not want to be bothered by emotion, but it is one reason many people read, and even though they may not be as sophisticated and scholarly, in the end, when you die, what will matter more?
Rating:
Summary: Gave me more sense of where im from
Review: I am of mostly irish descent..but like my parents was born and raised in the US..i found this an excellent read..the family described in the book is not at all like mine, but im sure somewhere along the line,before my time, it was...i disliked the father in the book, that because he was much like myself..hellbent on getting drunk and high my life swiftly left me..until recently when i found a way to live sober a day at a time..i look forward to reading Tis..thanks Frank for showing me where i come from
Rating: 
Summary: Did I Miss Something?
Review: After reading this book following a couple of years of hype, I'm left scratching my head. I found Mr. McCourt's book a slow moving compendium of seemingly unconnected anecdotes. I'm an experienced reader of memoirs so I am familiar and comfortable with the format. Angela's Ashes recounts nothing exceptional in the three hundred and forty odd pages. But maybe that's the whole point. Maybe there's a Pulitzer lurking in all of our childhoods, most of which are as unexceptional as Mr. McCourt's. To be fair, the ending salvaged the book. I breezed rather than labored through the final forty pages. Then again, perhaps I read the final few pages quickly to bring an end to this boring book.
Rating:
Summary: Harrowing, hilarious, and uplifting
Review: I'm a huge fiction buff, but , hearing about Angela this and Angela that, I approached the book with a desire to appreciate more non-fiction. To be absolutely frank, I found the style of writing very charming and inquisitively innocent, yet about halfway through the book, I found it a little pretentious because the style was always like that, never changing. I suppose I opened the book with a fiction lover's mind. About three-quarters through, my interest came back and peaked, and I rushed helter skelter into the novel, plowing through the rest of it in a mere hour. I'm giving it four stars for several reasons: 1) some people may not appreciate the charming style; it's a most interesting style, but I had friends who thought it was too much of the same thing, 2) for some people, the story seems to lack a definitive goal, a definitive plot. Personally, I found the book at times amazing. My interest in it was greatly unbalanced, but even now, I do conclude that people should read this. Not only for the fun of it, but for the experience of it; it is a really harrowing, hilarious, and uplifting account what some of us don't experience.
Rating:
Summary: Thanks for the story, McCourt. I won't soon forget it!
Review: I avoided the clamour when this book was on the best seller list and I especially avoided the movie when it came out. For one, best sellers are not something I typically rush out to read, but also the last thing I was interested in hearing about was yet another woeful "poor me" story about somebody's awful life. However, while wasting time in a bookstore one day I saw the book, read the first page, "...But worst of all we were wet." and was (almost begrudgingly) hooked. When I got home I read the first 100 pages immediately and, as many others have remarked here, I could not put it down. I have never before experienced a book that made me laugh so hard that tears came to my eyes, while at other times absolutely broke my heart so severely that I had to set the book aside until I was ready to go on. Written from the perspective of a child, the humor of the book is often wrapped up in simply how a child thinks. "If you ask grown-ups anything they just give you a thump on the head and tell you not to ask so many questions." If you don't care for this interesting perspective for story-telling then, of course, don't buy this book. On the other hand, if you are wondering whether or not it is worth the read-- despite all the hype-- then definitely you should take a look. The only "story telling" drawback I can see is that, it being a memoir and not a hollywood movie, the ending left me dangling: Of course I suppose that's what sequels are for, eh?
Rating:
Summary: Readable, but rather mediocre
Review: Definitely overrated. I admit that it is readable, but thae fact that this book was such a success in America is more indicative of Ireland's changing image in the States than of the book's quality. Ireland used to be portrayed in a sugar-sentimental way in Hollywood movies; now the tide has turned, and Ireland is supposed to be portrayed in a vicious, negativist way. I do not question Mr McCourt's right to dislike Ireland, his emotions are genuine and authentic. However, his unashamed admiration for America, although probably an authentic description of the postcolonial Irish mind in his youth, is not tempered by any kind of distance or irony, and makes the end of the book look like a kind of American egoist-nationalist crank pamphlet: Soviet-style disgusting propaganda, no literature. The love-affair with the dying girl smacks more of errand-boy folklore than experience, and as a pornographic story motif it is a well-worn cliché. It should not be inferred that this kind of harshly critical view of Irish society is something new in literature about Ireland. This has been done before, in Ireland, and in the Irish language (Breandán Ó hEithir's Lig Sinn i gCathú, and Pádraig Ua Maoileoin's novels, for instance).
Rating:
Summary: How can anyone not like this book?
Review: It's been on the bestseller list for how long now? And it's no wonder. Angela's Ashes is one of the best books I have ever read. It Tells the true story of author Frank McCourt's life living in the slums of Limerick. It's amazing how you'll be laughing on page and crying the next. If you like reading books where everything is always ok and really corny (like an episode of Full House) don't read this. But if you want to read about how the human spirit can triumph time and time again buy this book.
|
