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ANGELA'S ASHES

ANGELA'S ASHES

List Price: $25.00
Your Price: $17.50
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Remarkable, perfect, wonderful
Review: Frank McCourt has created a wonderful, warm and witty memoir out of a life that could have justifiably and easily been turned into a miasma of self-pity, depression and angst. His humor and sensitive insights coupled with stunning use of dialect lift this book way above the level most memoirs. McCourt's also got a keen sense of perspective about him, not letting hindsight and the obscuring lens of maturity bog down the childhood years.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Both Light and Heavy; Funny and Sad; Hopeless and Hopeful
Review: At first I was sceptical about a book that claims outright monopoly on 'miserable childhoods'. There are plenty others in the world who have had to endure miserable circumstances as a child, so the opening passage of the novel rather turned me off with its self-pitying tone. But after reading past the first 5 pages I was transported to another world and couldn't help but be convinced of the harshness of the reality facing little Frank McCourt and his brothers, both in New York and then, in wet and cold Limerick. And the 'miserableness' isn't the point of it at all - what shines as a beacon through the dark cloud of poverty and depression described in the book is McCourt's matter-of-fact will to survive, and to find humour and grace in an otherwise adject existence. The book really made me both laugh and cry at the same time, and stands as a masterpiece in combining both humour and misery, without destroying the integrity of either. If the subject matter doesn't convince you to buy the book, then buy it for its unsurpassed language - McCourt has produced the definitive story told in an Irish accent. 'Tis a fantastic read indeed...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Angela's Ashes
Review: My book is called Angela's Ashes. Its written by Frank McCourt. The main characters of the book are Aunt Aggie, Grandma, Alpie McCourt, Malachy McCourt, Michael McCourt, and Frank McCourt. The story takes place in the 1940's. TheMcCourt's live in Limerick, Ireland in a beat up old house on Roden Lane. The story is about Frank McCourt living in a poor family. All he wants to do it make it to America. If I could of wrote one line it would have bee this,"A mothers love is a blessing no matter where you roam keep her while you have her, you'll miss her whe she is gone." page 357 The cover is a picture of a little poor boy. I think that the little boy represents Frank McCourt. I think that the title of this book represents Angels and how when she look at the fire there is never anything there but ashes. On a scale 1 to I would rate this boof a 5. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone because it is very sad and it wasn't something that really sparked my interest.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Book!
Review: This book was exquisitely written! I enjoyed the humor of it: it was amazing that the author retained such a sense of humor under the terrible circumstances he endured as such a small child. This book is a must-read! It will make you thankful for what you have when you hear about how some people have to struggle just to survive.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Staggering.
Review: Words can not really describe my feelings as I was reading this autobiography. McCourt captures the experience of the Irish Catholic childhood with faultless accuracy. The guilt, the shame, the humiliation, the systematic and completely accepted abuse (both physical and emotional) of the Irish Catholic child, which begins from the day they are born, is faithfully portrayed. This book will make you laugh, cry and seethe with rage at the injustice of it all.

For me it was a great source of comfort. Thank you Frank McCourt - how you survived you childhood is a miracle indeed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: heartbreaking
Review: I bought the book thinking it would be a very light reading material which I heard from those who read it. I don't know how one can write with such humor and lightness about a very unfortunate life... McCourt's attitude is very much reflected in the way he had written the book.. No bitterness, no remorse... I laughed and cried while reading it...... an excellent read!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Angela`s Ashes- The Child and Poverty
Review: This is a very interesting book, it make us think that the poverty, misery, alcoolism are an important problem, and the children are the principal victims. The author wrote us with an simple language, making easy understand the circunstances where the subject happened.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: disappointing
Review: Worse than the ordinary miserable memoir is the miserable Irish memoir. I wanted so to like this book. I didn't. The narration seemed somehow dishonest to the memories, through a lens that didn't just cloud them with gauze, but adulterated them.

I was put in mind at the beginning of Dicken's Mrs. Gammage, who 'feels it more' than anyone else.

Self pity is never pretty. There are so many better writers who have tackled the same territory. To be fair, it was not so much the narration of events that struck me as dishonest, but the characterizations. Memoirs are by their nature egocentric, but I found this one too maudlin.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Magical Book
Review: Like some reviewers, I found it hard to get past the initial extreme emphasis on poverty. However, poverty is not the point. Hope is the point. Reading this book can be a harrowing experience at times, but is ultimately a joyful one. Anyone who came away from this book with a sense of dread missed the point. The story may be sad, but Mr. McCourt writes it with such beauty and forgiveness that it is a cause for celebration.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Must read this book.
Review: This book made me laugh and made me cry. But most of all I felt that, as a young person, it gave me a really new perspective into the hardships that many people had to face during that time in history. It also reads like a novel and is very easy to get into.


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