ANGELA'S ASHES

Rating:
Summary: Humblinly Inspiring
Review: "Angela's Ashes" was an inspiring novel for any reader. Though the length may seem intimidating to those who not enjoy reading, the sentences are written simply and flow very well. Every sentence makes the reader want to know what happens nect and there is only one space between each sentence, making the motnotany of Frank's life come to life. Frank takes his life from the Depression in the US to poverty stricken Ireland. Every description of the non-existent plumbing and electricity to the electricity to the clothes that were never changed and food that never came in shows the reader how much they truly have in their life. Never once does the narrator preach that people should not be allowed to live in this manner, rather he tells of his life and how even he had a better life than some individuals. This book can make a person of any social standing value what they do have rather than regret what they never achieved. There is no real flaw in the novel, it is simply one of those novels that you never want to end.

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Summary: Step in the life a boy who lived through the impossible
Review: Angela's Ashes is a remarkable novel by Frank McCourt. He descriptively portrays his years of being a child growing up in the slums of Ireland. Frank lives through more pain and hardship than any child. He lives in a run down house with his Mother, Father, and younger siblings. Inside this household and among the streets of Limerick, Ireland Frank's life is unraveled. His father can not hold a sturdy job and when he does the third week he always drinks his wages. This leads him to lose his job the next day and the family again is begging for food, clthes and money. His mother, Angela tries so hard for her children to live a good life with food on the table every night. She results to begging relatives, neighbors, the church just for a small bit of food. Along with the fact that their family is always nearstarvation, Frank endures in so much more. Since he was born in America, he does not hold an Irish accent so the children at school mock and torture him. Frank tries to be a good Catholic by going to church and praying constently, however some relatives including his grandmother disipline him and tell him that he is a sinner. Frank is such a ninnocent Irish boy who lives a horrid life and tries to his fullest to make it everything that a life should be. His father's tales of an Irish hero and of an Angel keep him alive. This novel gives the reader unforgetable lessons, knowelegde and wonders about life itself.

Rating:
Summary: heartwrenching
Review: This story of the absolute and utter poverty of the McCourt family was incredible. Frank McCourt was so brutally open and honest in his story. It is hard to convey the feelings and realities of poverty, but Mr. McCourt has accomplished this. The details of their hunger will haunt you. While the heartwrenching poverty is laid open before your eyes it is the tiny flicker of hope that persists in his heart that makes his story so terribly wonderful.

Rating:
Summary: Root Canal without Novacaine!
Review: I don't know about others, but I can do without this repetitive self-pitying tripe.

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Summary: A Mother's Pain
Review: Angela's Ashes is not like most books. When you finish reading it and put it down you don't just say, "Hey that was a good book!" Or, "Hey that was a horrible book." When you finish reading Angela's Ashes you put down the book and sit there for a minute. Then you pick it up again and look at the cover. There is a picture of a little shoeless boy, dirty and smiling at you. Then you glance up at the title Angela's Ashes and your eyes get a little teary. Because it is then that you realize what a large part of the book was about...Angela. Angela's pain, Angela's struggle, Angela's sorrow, and Angela's losses. You think of her dead children, her dying children. She sits there daily and watches her children starving, cold, and dressed in rags and knows that there is very little that she can do about it. It is horrible enough for the children themselves to suffer this way. But to be the one who is responsible for it, for marrying a drunk who drinks all the money that is for their children, and for being weak, and smoking cigarettes, and having no idea what to do! To also be starving, cold, and dressed in rags yourself is a horrible life to have to live. Yet Angela's sense of duty and obligation to her children keeps her from giving up on herself and her children. When they were starving, she was desperate to feed them. When they had no shoes she would swallow what little pride she had and beg for them. Yet she wasn't a martyr she wasn't noble and selfless all the time. She smoked her woodbines, and laid in bed for days without doing a thing. Then she would feel guilt in the few "luxeries" that she took. Not only does this book make you completely thankful for everything and evryone in your life, it lets you see what love can sometimes be. In Angela's world, love is pain. It is the pain of knowing that everyone you love and who you want to be happy is suffering. She wants to help them and to bring in money to feed them, but the fact that if something happened to her at work no one would be left to care for them, beg for them, cook for them (when they had something to cook), shelter them, and love them. Though Angela could barely provide these things for them herself, she didnb't trust anyone else to do it for her either. In order to preserve her children, Angela must preserve herself. When she can't get a job, it hurts, when she can't control her husband it hurts, and when she eats it hurts because she knows her children are hungry and they need the food, but she can't give it all to them. SHe must keep herself alive in order to keep her children alive. Angela does not live for herself or her own happiness. She lives out of obligation to her children, so that they can escape the pain and suffering which has become her life. Frank says, "My mother's troubles started the day she was born." With a life like hers, full or guilt and pain and suffering,death is her only escape.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible! The first in a long time I could NOT put down
Review: As a writer myself, I read voraciously. But this book, I have trouble finding words to praise it. I cried, and I laughed and I cheered! As an Irish Catholic myself, I can truly understand the religious life he endured, however, the truth behind the poverty made me only want to open my cupboards and praise God that I have been blessed. Read this book if you haven't already! I beg you, read this book! Frank McCourt is a gifted man and I shall read everything he writes from this day on!

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Summary: It changed the way I look @ life.
Review: This book was truely a masterpiece. Frank Mcourt wrote it with such beauty. This book changed the way I look @ life. I used to be so braty, but I after I read this book, I felt sooo lucky for what I had!

Rating:
Summary: Angela's Ashes
Review: The truth is I don't think this is a biographical work at all. While all works of fiction must be based in reality, or at least allow the reader to momentarily suspend his or her disbelief, a fictional work disguised as nonfiction can get away with a lie and no one seems to doubt it. If anyone could survive the early life Mr. McCourt claimed to live, with all the bigotry, disease, hunger and poverty that went with it, well, no, I don't believe anyone could survive it and certainly wouldn't be able to write about it. If you like novels about these subjects, try The Cider House Rules by John Irving, its far more entertaining and does not disguise itself as a biography.

Rating:
Summary: An incredible book...
Review: This book cannot be explained in words. Beautifully written, beautifully told, just a beautiful book. From his early, poverish, dispensary days in Limerick, Ireland, to his promising mentality to be something in his life, the reader is left with an indelible impression. The story and life of Frank McCourt is a must read, a tale of hope and perseverance in a world which does not have much.

Rating:
Summary: An emotional story you won't able to put down.
Review: I really enjoyed this book. Makes you really think about your life and how lucky you really are. I am a freshman in high school and read this book for an english report. My teacher really enjoyed it, and I recommend others to pass this book on to someone else. Let them enjoy it too! I can't wait to see the movie and to read the sequal!