Rating: 
Summary: We take our lives for granted !
Review: I just finished Angela's Ashes....and I am about to begin Frank McCourt's 'Tis......I think it was the most wonderfully written story of anything I've read in a very long time, be it fact or fiction . Of Irish descent on both sides, hearing stories all these years of my grandparents arriving here in NY at the ages of 15 and 17 respectively, were just that...stories. Unfortunately, now they are all passed on and I am old enough to appreciate those stories there is no one here to tell them to me. Frank McCourt gave me those stories. I lost myself in this book.His tales of poverty stricken Ireland get the story across with just enough humor that you feel it but it doesn't seem as gut wrenching.It allowed me to appreciate what others went through so my children and I could enjoy the life we have today. WONDERFUL....one book I won't lend out as I will re-read this one !
Rating: 
Summary: Not a four-leafed clover in sight
Review: Let me tell begin by saying that I have been haunted by this memoir for months now. I didn't write a review immediately; rather I've been getting this aftertaste of this book since it's completion. I simply cannot stop thinking of the sorrow and pain this family endured and everyone around them for that matter. When I first delved into this book, I got a bit tired of the sing-song passages; but it's written with such simplicity and frankness that it ties in with the "complex simplicity" of McCourt's world as he knew it. His dark descriptions were so vivid I honestly felt hungry and damp while reading it! The most inspiring aspect is that Frank McCourt triumphed over all his diversities and actually survived, for starters, and became a success. I hadn't much knowledge of Ireland especially during this bleak period until reading this. When I envisioned Ireland, I saw leprechauns and sunny, green fields, and Irish eyes smiling; well, there was none of that here. ANGELA'S ASHES is a poignant testament of how the human spirit can prevail.
Rating:
Summary: Great for all ages!
Review: I just finished reading this book last night and have given it to my friend to read. We are both sophomores in high school. Even though I did not go through what Frankie did I can still relate to many parts of the story. It was serious, funny, and emotional all in one. I defintely reccommend this book for high school students to read for a literature class...you wont regret it!
Rating:
Summary: The Blacks of Europe
Review: Vuyo Mntuyedwa "When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood," This extract from Angela's Ashes is just a taste of what lies ahead in this books gripping pages about life and the reality of being poor, starving, wet and miserable in Limerick, Ireland in the 1930s. This book brings the reality of being white and poor in Ireland and one doubts that it would have seen the light of day in South Africa if the country was still under the yoke of the National Party government and its apartheid policies. Clearly this would have been contrary to what the government of that time believed in, that die volk were a superior race and divined to live the good life until eternity. Angela's Ashes depicts the McCourt family dogged by poverty, hunger, the death of infants due to starvation and an unemployable father who is a durnkard. Reading the book one could not help but to be stunned that these traits are supposedly associated with blackness. No wonder a colleague used to say that the Irish regarded themselves as the "black people of Europe" and through book one gets to understand the validity of that comparison. The plight of poor whites in South Africa led to the introduction of policies such as job reservation so that they could not compete with blacks for better paying jobs. Angela's Ashes, is at once shocking in its brutality about the poverty of Limerick and the family's battle to make ends meet and Angela's silent suffering while her husband fails to provide for the family. Even when he does find employment somewhere, he soon goes to his regular pub, drinks himself senseless and cannot wake up to go to work the next day. He comes home late at night singing, cursing all the way until he reaches what could be considered a shack in South African terms, a cramped, forever flooded "house" due to the unforgiving rains which are a permanent feature of this land of the Shamrocks. Another parallel with the black South African experience in Angela's Ashes is evident when Angela goes the charitable St. Vincent de Paul Society to provide them with furniture and a new mattress which is not contaminated with tuberculosis germs. She is cross-examined about her husbands job prospects and being humiliated by the officials. This could be anywhere in the welfare department in present day South Africa with all those high and might officials talking down to the multitudes waiting in the ever snaking queues. Angel gets tired of her husband who behaves like a gentleman who won't stoop low to beg for hand-outs from anyone and resorts to take two of her children with her to pick up coal which has fallen off a truck in order to warm the house. She even has to rely on the left-overs of the nearby clergy and usually come out a given times to give the group of women jostling to catch a wrapping of fried chips. Better yet there is part where she is offered i'skopo (sheep's head) for the family's Christmas lunch. Many South Africans consider i'skopo a delicacy but to them it was an insult, but as beggars they could not be choosers. The book constanlty took me back to the experiences of millions of black South Africans. As in the book drunkenness has been a problem for a number of years among working class blacks but this has not been confined to them only. Angela's Ashes shows that the story of suffering, poverty, drunkenness, unemployment is a indeed a universal phenomenon and it is up to each and every one of us to do whatever we can to pluck ourselves out of the situations that we find ourselves in.
Rating:
Summary: one of the best books i have read in a long time...
Review: angela's ashes is a very well written memoir about frank mccourt..no one particularly special, just a prize winning writer. I really appreciate and love the style of writing that mccourt used to tell his story. There was a lot of sadness to it, but great humor as well. After reading this, i realize my own upbringing wasn't so terrible. Certain members of his family were definitely not very caring or nice to him. but i think it was the way they showed they cared. mccourt has really had quite a life, and i thank him for sharing! for those who want to see the film, be sure to read the book first! it is so much better and reads more into everything the movie doesn't touch. but the movie is worth watching!
Rating: 
Summary: I don't understand?
Review: I was so disappointed by this book, especially the ending. I don't understand why people rave about this book. In my opinion it was poorly written, and exaggerated. I'm not doubting he had a tough life, but come on! I was anxious to finish the book so I could see the movie.. but now I don't even want to see it. Don't waste your time reading this book!
Rating:
Summary: humor I understand
Review: I was very impressd with this book. I liked it so much I read it in six days. I just couldn't put it down. I am waiting to get a copy of "Tis" because I feel like I need to know what happened to with the rest of McCourt's life. My father lent me the book to read and described it as depressing with a lot of dark Irish humor. I found the book very humorous and felt a common connection with McCourt. His experiences seem to be relative to all childhood experiences, just his are in a more depressing context. I felt the same way as he in many situations of my own chldhood experiences, which were simlar to his, yet in a middle class setting. I have to say that every Irish-American should read this book if not every American looking to laugh at life's depressing times, from a young Irish man's prospective.
Rating:
Summary: Angela's Ashes
Review: Wow! For 3 days all I talked about was this book. In spite of the stark sparcity in Frank McCourts childhood, he was indeed a very rich boy. My heart ached as his childhood story unfolded, yet his unique way of looking at things through a childs eyes and his humor was what made this book hard to put down. Angela's Ashes tempted me to look at the content of my own heart and challenged me to become a better person as a result. Thank you Frank McCourt.
Rating:
Summary: We Have It Good
Review: This book was kind of slow for the first few chapters but it sure got better with every page. This book makes you think that whenever you think you have it bad or don't always get what you want, just think of the McCourt family and all the other Irish that suffered along with them and know that you have it good and it could always be worse even though sometimes it does not feel like it could be.
Rating:
Summary: Really good book
Review: At first I wasn't interested in reading a book that took place in Ireland, but I agree with the person who wrote about Roma Downey. She's so beautiful and makes you feel so good that I decided I wanted to read about something that happened in her country. I'm glad I read it. Life must always have been hard in Ireland, whether during Frank's time or some 35 years later during Roma Downey's time. This book will make you laugh and cry!
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