Angela's Ashes: A Memoir

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Summary: Angela's ashes
Review: If you like a sad story then "Angela's" ashes is a compelling story about a poor Irish family who move from America back to Ireland because they felt they would have a better life. Well it didn't work out that way. The children kept dieing. Angela felt that she could no longer live in a house where she lost a child.
Angela's husband was a drunk who sunk what little money he earned when he had a job in to the Irish pubs. He was a man who loved his children very much and he loved Ireland. Soon Angela could no longer take her husbands drinking spells. So he left her children could no forgive him for the pain he caused the family.

Rating:
Summary: Angela's Ashes
Review: Angela's Ashes is a good book for a person who likes sad stories. It's about a really poor family in Limerick whos husband is a drunk and won't work. Their babies keep dieing and Angela is going stir crazy. They have to keep moveing because of the fact she can not stand living in a house where she lost her babys. Soon after she has another son.There dad moves and her oldest son eventualy moves to America.
If you like a sad book then I really recomend that you go and get this book it will really make you think about the less fortunate people in this world.

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Summary: common man's autobiography, a good book
Review: Who says publishers are not interested in your life. Frank McCourt proves otherwise. The book is very informative about the life in Irland in the age described by the author. The language is simple, including understandable accent. The story is very touching and realistic though sometimes I got the impression author is taking sadistic pleasure in so thoroughly describing painful experiences.If one is successful in life past painful memories are not painful in present but they give a triumphant feeling having conquered difficulties in life. I am sure Frank McCourt is enjoying his success. The presentation of dialogues has been done in a very peculiar fashion - an unorthodox way for sure. I also enjoyed a comic twist given to otherwise sad situations - kept me reading, otherwise I would not have continued. I am looking forward to reading 'Its.'

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Summary: A book to commit suicide by...
Review: I picked up this book with great expextations and was quickly let down. This is a is not only depressing, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. I truly felt bad for his family, but I don't know how anyone could give this a good review...

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Summary: This is not Maeve Binchy's Ireland
Review: I have read a lot of Maeve Binchy novels set in Ireland, and from that gained a love and respect for the it, but this is not Binchy's Ireland. Frank McCourts Ireland is one of poverty, disease, death, loss, alcoholism and stringent religious ruling.
He begins the with "My parents should never have left New York" and I think that speaks volumes about the Ireland he endured. My Grandfather grew up during the same era in America and his family was also very poor, but next to the McCourts his family could have been the Vanderbilts. Not only is Franks family poor in the daily necessities - food, clothing, blankets, shoes, furniture, healthcare, etc. but there is no extended family support the grandmother, though she does help them monetarily a few times, is the proverbial "old bat" she is mean to the children, and terrible to her daughter. The Aunt is so bitter over her own infertility that she can't a find an ounce of love or compassion in heart for needy nephews, although her husband Uncle Pa Keating provides something of a male role model for young Frank and possibly the only compassionate member of his extended family. Inside Franks immediate family though you find a different story altogether, though you don't word for word read the brotherly love, you can tell by his actions how much he loves each brother, and his mother, what more his alcoholic father, who leaves them all to starve. Though Frank understands that his father is basically worthless, you also come to understand that he loves him, and in his own way he knows that though he is a hopeless drunk he loves them as well, from the way he never finishes a meal, leaving it for his children to eat, to the way that he tells each child stories meant only for them. Which is why I loved this book so much, he never tells you this is how I felt or what I saw, he tells you what as a child was perceived and lets the reader intuit the truth. I felt a bit abandoned in the end as I never learned what happened to the rest of the McCourt children, or Angela herself.
In all this was a book that was rife with sorrow but also made me laugh, Franks follies are so typical of a boy coming of age, and he is so honest in his depiction of his humiliation. I think I would like to know Frank, he must be an interesting and wise individual.

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Summary: OK - Here is another 5 star vote.
Review: Rarely do I read a book that holds me to the end like Angela's Ashes. I read a lot of the popular bestseller prizewinning fiction and this one is one of the best. Add my 5 stars to the overall rating. It deserves it.

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Summary: horrible
Review: I did not like this book at all! I have never disliked a book so much. I read it because I like biography style book but this one was filled with whining. He should never have used the X-rated parts at all and the ones that he did were VERY excessive and explicit. DON'T READ THIS BOOK UNLESS YOU HAVE TO!!!

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Summary: A very well written memoir with more than a touch of humor
Review: This book was a wonderful break from the average traditional memoir. The story is not only told through the eyes of the subject (in this case, young Frank McCourt himself), but it is told through the eyes he had at that time. For example, when recounting events from his very early childhood, he writes as a very young boy would think. He doesn't understand death, he doesn't know why his father is an alchoholic, he doesn't know why his mother is always crying. As the story progresses and he gets older, his perception changes and he begins to see the world with the greater understanding that each passing year brings.
In the midst of this tragic tale of poverty and despair, one cannot help but notice the humor. Oddly enough, this fits in very well with the tale. We have to laugh as the young 'Frankie' attempts to understand the elements of life (death, poverty, etc.), and does so by creating for himself explanations which, though they seem to us absurd, could easily be conjured by a young boy.
The great strength of this book lies in the way Frankie looks at the world. He lives in horrible circumstances, and as he ages he becomes increasingly aware of this fact, and yet he still manages to find pleasure in life. He does not, of course, think his life is perfect, but he knows it's HIS life and he seems to accept it.
If this book were nothing more than complaining and whining about his poor, miserable childhood, it would be a waste of time. Angela's Ashes is just the opposite, however. We truly can see a childhood filled with sadness and poverty, not from the point of view of a grown man looking back, but through the eyes of a dirty little Irish boy.

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Summary: a touching memoir
Review: Angela's Ashes has to be one of the greatest books i've ever read. it was written with so much love and candid honsesty. i laughed, cried, got angry, and laughed some more. Frank McCourt writes with so much detail and precision that you feel as though you are actually there in Ireland with him. Though at times you can feel his bitterness you can also hear his forgiveness in the way he writes. you grow up with him and by the end of the book you are sad to put the book away. Angela's Ashes is now one of my most treasured books. i don't let anyone borrow it for fear they might dirty it up. i do highly reccomend this and its sequel, "Tis" to anyone looking for a great and classic read.

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Summary: boring
Review: Firstly: we already know how the story ends, though we may not know how the book ends. He grows up, writes a boo-hoo story, and gets rich. It may be too late since it's been out for a long time and made into a movie and all that, but if it's not too late: DON'T READ THIS BOOK. Secondly: I don't know how it won the Pulitzer. It was not well written. Thirdly :It was so boring I couldn't finish it. Granted, great books are often boring. Moby Dick, for example. Took me weeks to read that, but at least it was WELL WRITTEN. My dad said "give it time, it gets better." I said, You mean sadder? "yeah, that's what I mean." Give me a break. Let's all feel sorry for rich Frank McCourt who has more money than we've ever seen.