At 10, McCourt himself was hospitalized for typhus. During World War II, he left to try to find work in a munitions factory in England but rarely sent his pay home.
Vincent de Paul and sometimes was forced to beg. McCourt, who began stealing bread and milk for the family, dropped out of school at 14 and took a number of menial jobs, including delivering telegrams. We always wanted to give people the idea that we grew up in kind of middle-class, or lower-middle-class, circumstances.
After arriving in the U. Drafted into the Army during the Korean War, he spent two years in Germany. After graduating in , he got a job teaching English at a vocational and technical high school on Staten Island.
As a teacher, McCourt would regale his students with his horrifying and often hilarious tales of his childhood in Ireland. I would have to do it, or I would have died howling. We love it, too! Frank wanted to know how I might sell it, I told him I had no clue but sell it, I would. He may be reached at dermotmcevoy50 gmail. Follow him at www. Related: Books , New York. Toggle navigation. Kilkenny farmer launches bid to have Ireland be taken over by British.
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Based on the best-selling autobiography by Irish expatriate Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes follows the experiences of young Frankie and his family as they try against all odds to escape the poverty endemic in the slums of pre-war Limerick. The film opens with the family in Brooklyn, but following the death of one of Frankie's siblings, they return home, only to find the situation there even worse.
Prejudice against Frankie's Northern Irish father makes his search for employment in the Republic difficult despite his having fought for the I. The Hopes of a Mother. The Dreams of a Father. The Fate of a Child.
Rated R for sexual content and some language. Did you know Edit. Trivia Interior church scenes were shot in a Dublin studio. Because of its controversial content, the production was denied permission to shoot in any Limerick churches.
Goofs Frank uses the volume knob to change the station on his neighbor's radio at Quotes Narrator : [First lines] When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how my brothers and I managed to survive at all. Impressive read Updating my library. View all 3 comments. Oct 08, Beata rated it it was amazing. I just felt depressed while reading this novel. You can't imagine that people could live in such poverty and yet survive somehow. The book is gripping but makes you feel helpless.. View all 18 comments.
McCourt himself was born in New York, but this was in the s and the depression hurt everyone and everywhere, especially immigrant Irish with no resources. So back to Ireland they go to live near his maternal grandmother. Told with equal parts humor and sobriety, this swings rapidly from hilarious to heartbreaking. A good book. View all 4 comments. Oct 07, Jonathan Ashleigh rated it really liked it. I have to admit that I didn't love the first third of this book but I realize the information gained there made me enjoy the rest even more.
At times, this book was a beautiful dark comedy, "There is nothing like a wake for having a good time," and I think that some day I might make my kids promise to die for Ireland. Near the end, the young boy is trying to figure out what adultery is by looking it up in the dictionary; he is forced to look up new words with each explanation he finds and the re I have to admit that I didn't love the first third of this book but I realize the information gained there made me enjoy the rest even more.
Near the end, the young boy is trying to figure out what adultery is by looking it up in the dictionary; he is forced to look up new words with each explanation he finds and the result it priceless. There is also a part where an old man has the young boy read A Modest Proposal.
I love that essay and just read a parody of it within another parody, The Sorrows of Young Mike. I love books which reference the piece and would appreciate people to let me know any other works that mention the satire in the comments below.
Picked this memoire to experience some more foreign countries through literature. Good choice. What could have easily been another misery porn immense poverty, hunger, never-ending unwanted pregnancies, drunkenness, strict religion, deaths of TB and pneumonia on every other page became something more because of the author's remarkable voice, filled with innocence, humor and almost unwavering optimism of childhood.
Amazing that McCourt managed to preserve this voice well into his 60s. View all 5 comments. I had not planned on writing a proper review, so I began to read others'. Others claim that the author romanticizes the penury and destitution of the lives in his lane. In fact, as I read I liked that there were NO quotation marks used to indicate speech. I a I had not planned on writing a proper review, so I began to read others'. I actually thought that was a subtle way to indicate the author wholeheartedly admitting that it is impossible to accurately recall conversations from one's childhood.
Plus, who cares about inaccuracies--a good story is a good story. To say it is maudlin is extreme. There are many unfortunate events that take place; however, not once did I get the sense that McCourt was trying to manipulate his readers' sympathies.
Events were described as a child would experience them It is this fact that led some reviewers to claim that McCourt romanticized the rampant squalor and death. That would be like saying To Kill a Mockingbird romanticizes racial prejudice. Anyway, it was an absorbing read filled with personal tragedies and laced with humor.
Definitely worth a read. If I were not such a jackass in high school, perhaps I would have appreciated Frank McCourt speaking at my graduation and even read this ten years ago. I wish I had. If you are afraid of your emotions, whether the depth or variety of them, don't read this book. If you can allow yourself to explore them fully by being led through an incredible life's early journey and experiencing the range of feeling available to humanity, you will love this book.
View all 14 comments. It's been ten years since I've read this book. Like everyone else I was floored by it when it first came out. But time and age have made me wiser. I don't think it's stood the test of time and the more I think of it It's a one-sided, depressing view of life in Ireland. This book simply has you marinate in negativity. Maybe I've read too much Phillip Roth in the meantime and compared to his characters this book seems too whiny It's been ten years since I've read this book.
Maybe I've read too much Phillip Roth in the meantime and compared to his characters this book seems too whiny and annoying. Not so much. They were supposed to be an advance guard, followed by other French ships with the leader of the rebellion, Wolfe Tone.
Briefly they triumphed, raising hopes among the impoverished local peasantry our ancestors and gathering a group of supporters wouldn't be suprised if one of them fought But before long the insurgency collapsed in the face of a brutal English counterattack. Very few books succeed in registering the sudden terrible impact of historical events; Thomas Flanagan's is one.
Subtly conceived, masterfully paced, with a wide and memorable cast of characters, The Year of the French brings to life peasants and landlords, Protestants and Catholics, along with old and abiding questions of secular and religious commitments, empire, occupation, and rebellion. It is quite simply a great historical novel.
View all 22 comments. Jan 19, Kerri rated it it was amazing. I tried to read this about ten years ago and gave up after the first chapter - I just couldn't connect with it. This time around was a completely different story. I loved the way Frank McCourt writes, it's lyrical and beautiful even while describing a very bleak situation.
His childhood is one of poverty siblings die, his father is a drunk, there is never enough food, the housing sounds appalling. It's a very depressing book, as this was the reality for so many people, but there are also mome I tried to read this about ten years ago and gave up after the first chapter - I just couldn't connect with it. It's a very depressing book, as this was the reality for so many people, but there are also moments of humour and sweetness.
I'll be reading the second volume soon as I am very invested in Frank's journey. May 29, Teresa rated it it was amazing.
He manages to be humorous and heartbreaking, and hopeless and triumphant all at once. I laughed, I cried, I felt dearly for the disadvantaged McCourt family that struggled against all odds. The memoir borrows heavily from the art of realism -- as tales of impoverished childhoods usually are. McCourt was born in depression era Brooklyn to an alcoholic father who spent all his wages at the bar, and a mother disgraced In Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt paints a picture of a childhood mired in poverty.
McCourt was born in depression era Brooklyn to an alcoholic father who spent all his wages at the bar, and a mother disgraced and desperate to feed her starving children.
Here, we have a glimpse at the life of an Irish family living in a ratty but ethnically diverse tenement building. The children were often left their own devices, while the adults struggled with adult problems -- keeping a home, putting food on the table, etc. Loss is a prevalent and recurring theme in the book. Frankie's siblings, as young as several months, were victims of death many times. Things don't improve when they move back to Ireland to start over.
Their North-Irish and alcoholic of a father couldn't find work, drank all the charity money they managed to get, and eventually abandoned his family for good. Meanwhile, the rest of the family must overcompensate by stealing, begging, and applying for public assistance -- the shame of which deeply affect each member of the family.
Additionally, Frankie, a devout Catholic, must reconcile his church values and practices with stealing to feed his family, his sexual awakening, and the continuing deaths of his family and acquaintances. All in all, fantastic depression-era slice-of-life of a poor Irish family.
McCourt is soulful and has a way with weaving tales and building characters. He makes you laugh and cry with the family, and keeps you rooting for their survival. I was very engaged and was sorry it had to end a bit too abruptly too, I must say. Five stars. Oct 23, Mark rated it did not like it Shelves: never-again. Couldn't bear it. Whiney, self-obsessed and smacked of disingenuity. Someone once told me of a review of the book that they had read somewhere 'Baby born, baby died, baby born, baby died, baby born, baby died, baby born, baby died; it rained'.
Admittedy there was more to it than that, however I read it a long time ago and the gloom of the misery and rain hangs still over the whole Couldn't bear it. Admittedy there was more to it than that, however I read it a long time ago and the gloom of the misery and rain hangs still over the whole thing in a ridiculously hyperbolic manner.
The father, an irresponsible drunken wastrel I just wanted to hit about the head quite dramatically with anything I could lay my hands on and the mother, an horrendous slatterny doormat, I found massively unsympathetic. I can only think of one character who i warmed to and as i remember she was dying of something or other.
Did not enjoy this and that was not because it brought me into contact with the suffering and misery of my fellow human beings which I couldn't bear to see but because it didn't.
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