Tag Archives: Ireland

Angela’s Ashes- Frank McCourt

Posted in Non-Fiction by

Angela’s Ashes- Frank McCourt (1996)

Short and Sweet Synopsis:

“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 is the beginning of Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt’s memoir of his childhood growing up in Limerick, Ireland. It is a retelling of the trials that his family faced including, poverty, drunkenness, death, and his own struggles with the Catholic church.

Review:

My love for this book and this author cannot properly be expressed with the words that exist today. Simply put, Frank McCourt has a gift for telling a story. I love his honesty and humor as he recounts horrible things that happened to his family. This book is written as if Frank McCourt was sitting at your kitchen table, telling you the story first-hand. He involves you in the story by talking to you as though you’re an old buddy- often omitting punctuation as a way of achieving this conversational style of writing. This is the first of three memoirs (followed by Tis, and Teacher Man) and after I read each one, I passed them along to my mom. We were never in short supply of things to talk and laugh about together.

Rating:

A++++++ Read this book. I’m serious.

Your Turn:

Did you love it as much as I did?