Anyone read Angela's Ashes?

[leyton]

Almost posted this in the fiction forum, then remembered that it was a memoir and thus belongs here.

I'd love to have a discussion of it... my thoughts:

+ Loved the writing style. At the beginning, it reminded me of a small child who just blurts everything out without taking a breath. It became somewhat more reflective towards the end, but not much.

+ The climax of the book for me was when Frank tells his confession to the statue of St. Francis and to the one priest who actually opened doors. (This is the confession where he wants to find out if Theresa Carmody is in hell, not the series of three confessions in twenty -four hours.) This part broke my heart.

I'd love to hear the thoughts of anyone who has read this work.

[Dookus]

1. Yes

I loved it. I was amazed to find myself laughing out loud while he described the most abject, horrible conditions, but did it with a tenderness and love that few people could muster had they experienced it.

Can't say I cared for the follow-up work or his brother's work, though. But Angela's Ashes was a masterpiece. Unfortunately, it spawned a whole industry of copy-cat memoirs, none of which was remotely comparable to Angela.

[troubleinwinter]

2. I read is some years ago.

It is wonderful.

His bother's book, "A Monk Swimming" is excellent, too. Though it may be most interesting to people of his/my generation? 50ish.

[many a good man]

3. The most amazing thing about it

We read a story about poverty as seen through the eyes of a child.

McCourt does the greatest job of anyone I've ever read in conveying the experience from a child's unique viewpoint.

Sadly, it eerily echoes the lives of some people in my background...

[Trish1168]

4. I read it

I loved it.

It allowed me to imagine what it must have been like to be living in poverty. It was a tragic and touching book.

[Coexist]

5. Fantastic read

although, "Tis" left me wondering if the same person wrote both of them. One was a touching memoir that painted a picture that reminded me of good southern fiction, the other was a slow descent into boredom.

[CBHagman]

6. I was surprised by the book.

I didn't expect to warm to the writing style (I'm a stickler on things such as punctuation), but I was immediately swept in.

A friend of mine tells me that in interviews, it appears that Frank McCourt has some resentment towards his brother Malachy, the actor, but I felt none of that in the book. Malachy was so vividly drawn and such a charmer that I was immediately taken with him.

[leyton]

8. I could see some resentment in the book.

Malachy is drawn as a charmer - but I always got the sense that McCout resented exactly that. The fact that Malachy could always steal the attention, steal the stories, etc.

[DemBones DemBones]

7. It was an amazing book. I say "amazing" because

I (and presumably all of us) knew the plot going in, because stories about abusive, drunken fathers have been done quite often, because it's a story of an Irish drunk; in short, because it's a cliche. I resisted reading it for a long time because I didn't think it could possibly be as good as people were saying. But it was wonderfully written and you could really see the father as the two people he was, the one who told young Frank the old Irish stories vs. the lout who drank up his paychecks. The family went through some horrible times but it was clear that there was love there and that they had some fun, too, which was made their life, and reading the telling of it, bearable.

[JitterbugPerfume]

9. Frank Mc Court is a warm and compelling

human being I enjoy his work

Tis" was not as inspired as Angelas Ashes though

I enjoy Malachys work too. I remember seeing him on talk shows of years past.... He was a HOOT
Frank was recently on a Book TV panel with Pete Hammel and Jimmy Breslin

Now THAT was tv as it was meant to be !!!!!