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Tis: A Memoir

Tis: A Memoir

List Price: $14.00
Your Price: $10.50
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 'Tis a pleasure to read this book
Review: I went out and bought this book the day it came out. It was a little disappointing after Angela's Ashes, but that was a hard act to follow.

This is a memoir, not a novel, so Frankie gets to be himself, warts and all. This is also the story of only his early years in New York. We have to assume that at some point Frankie settled down to become the beloved teacher at Stuyvesant, the job that occupied many years of his teaching career.

He is a great storyteller and I like the ironic, slightly bewildered tone he adopts in this book. Someone mentioned in another review that he couln't be expected to maintain the child's voice of Angela's Ashes.

Give the man a break. How many of us reach true adult behavior without floundering around a bit?

Martha

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A worthy companion to Angela's Ashes
Review: After spotting Frank McCourt shopping in downtown Santa Cruz the day before Christmas, I decided to go home and read my son's copy of 'Tis. I had put it off after reading a couple of negative reviews, but was delighted with the book. As a former teacher, I most appreciated McCourt's "teacher stories"--a scene concerning a closetful of years-old essays in his classroom is deeply moving without becoming saccharine, and is almost worth the price of the book. The portraits of his mother and father are also well-drawn, with complexity and without beatification.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A story of bitterness and resentment
Review: Angela's Ashes was wonderful-- I couldn't put it down. Unfortunately, the same style did not really work with this book which deals with an adult's perspective. This book reads as a whining downer! It lacked the brave humor of the previous one, and increasingly projected the bitterness and resentment that McCourt must feel in carrying the burden of being Irish. Hopefully 'Tis was cathartic for the author and he will produce future work in the wonderfully expressive and humorous manner of Angela's Ashes. Looking forward to future work by this very talented writer.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Continuation of a Winding Road
Review: This book was easier to read than Angelas Ashes in the sense that it was less depressing. You need to have read Angelas Ashes for Tis to make sense. I read it, because my sister and her friends had Frank McCourt as a teacher in Stuyvesant High School in New York. I was fortunate to meet him at a school event. They talked about him constantly and I can see why with the stories he told his classes that were repeated in the book. The philosophical choices and the decisions he has to make in Tis are a winding road that most of us travel. Take the journey, because you may have to make similar decisions.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Tis a sequel indeed
Review: After reading Angela's ashes, I was doubtful that Tis would be able to successfully pick up where it left off. I was pleasantly surprised, however. While certain sections of the book (especially the last 5 chapters) did drag a bit, for the most part Tis made for easy and quite entertaining reading. This book picks up where Angela's Ashes left off; on the ship that would bring Frank McCourt to America at age 19,where he would start his search for lodging and a job, but more importantly, he would embark on a search of himself. His perfect combination of humor, anger and sadness is what I feel has made both of his memoirs a success.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A long awaited arrival
Review: 'Tis was a book that was anticipated because of the joy we all got from reading Angela's Ashes. 'Tis isn't the same but it has the same feel and you love to look into McCourt's eyes on life and think how he thought. There are a few missing elements in the book that I wanted to see, but overral the book completed the curiosity I had from the ending of Angela's Ashes and it is a book you want to read, it isn't such a waste of money as others would put it. Read and enjoy it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Uproarious Humor for All
Review: 'Tis is one of the great works of human literature. The allegory of the Sheep and the French Ditch will be fondly recalled by generations of school children to come. Students will write long tomes on the symbolism of the Lieutenant and Sargent and the wee Sheep, Boo Boo. New eponyms will enter the English language, e.g. "I may have crossed the Rubicorn, but I've also just been petered." Res ipsa loquitur. Bees.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Angela's Ashes was a hard act to follow...
Review: I found that the innocent, breathless (no commas) style that made Angela's Ashe's so heartbreaking was unapealing in Tis, because now it seems that he's still thinking like a child in a man's body. Also he's quite self-centered. His first book was about triumphing over amazing adversity; in this one, he just seems to whine an awful lot. Frank you were by no means the only poor NYU student, not even close, and you are not the only person who worked their way up by cleaning up after people. But it was a good read. I wish there was more focus on his relationship with his brothers, though.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The acclaimed star review
Review: WOW! Is what first comes to my mind when I think of this book! I think Mr. McCourt is going to get numerous honors and awards on yet another book! To write like that at age 18 and to be alone in a new country with no family or friends to lean on that had to have been hard! I just have to say hats off to Mr. McCourt. You've done it again,thrilled me with yet another book!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The acclaimed Burton review
Review: I thought 'tis a memoir was great! It was written so well that you thought you were actually there with Frank in New York at the time! One of the reasons I liked this book was because at that time Frank was only 18 and to write like that at that age, wow! Not to mention how scared and alone he must have felt, it had to have been a hard journey! I think Frank McCourt is going to get numerous honors and awards on this book!


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