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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
Frank McCourt's memoir of growing up impoverished in Limerick, Ireland, in the 1940s is alternating heartbreaking and brilliantly hilarious, and occasionally both at the same time.
Born in America, his mother struggled to hold the family together through an endless pattern of neglect and alcoholism by his father. After Frank's younger sister died, the family moved to Ireland to his mother Angela's home town of Limerick, where Frank grew up in the Lanes, where his father would drink the dole and his mother was left to beg for the bare necessities of life.
While the book is thick with the stark realities of the brutal cycle of poverty, it is also full of powerful moments of compassion, and some absolutely biting humor on everything from the culture of Limerick's street kids to the Catholic Church's endless cycle of sin, guilt, and absolution.
Frank's conflicting emotions toward his parents, and his struggle to forge his own path, are punctuated with moments of complete absurdity, both comic and tragic.
Born in America, his mother struggled to hold the family together through an endless pattern of neglect and alcoholism by his father. After Frank's younger sister died, the family moved to Ireland to his mother Angela's home town of Limerick, where Frank grew up in the Lanes, where his father would drink the dole and his mother was left to beg for the bare necessities of life.
While the book is thick with the stark realities of the brutal cycle of poverty, it is also full of powerful moments of compassion, and some absolutely biting humor on everything from the culture of Limerick's street kids to the Catholic Church's endless cycle of sin, guilt, and absolution.
Frank's conflicting emotions toward his parents, and his struggle to forge his own path, are punctuated with moments of complete absurdity, both comic and tragic.
One of the few books that actually surpassed the hype. This one covers the gamut of emotions and McCourt is, perhaps, the best story-teller of our times.
I loved the shit out of this book when I was a kid haha. I probably read it once every few months because we didn't have a lot of books but I think, for some reason, I wouldn't like it at all now.
This a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. The middle portion was a bit hard to get through, and sometimes the dialogue was confusing, but all together, a wonderful book!
Would recommend: Yes
Angela's Ashes was exactly what I expected it to be: vivid and sad. I cringed when Frank McCourt described the fleas in his bed and cried when children continued to be ill. I did not enjoy reading the book, simply because the dreary content was so well-written, but I am in awe of the author's skill. It's not a book for a light beach read, that's for sure.
Angela's Ashes was exactly what I expected it to be: vivid and sad. I cringed when Frank McCourt described the fleas in his bed and cried when children continued to be ill. I did not enjoy reading the book, simply because the dreary content was so well-written, but I am in awe of the author's skill. It's not a book for a light beach read, that's for sure.
Me reí demasiado para ser un libro sobre niños católicos pobres en Irlanda.
Angela’s Ashes has become so ingrained into Irish culture, both nationally and internationally, that it’s hard to believe it only came out twenty years ago. Frank McCourt’s story of growing up in the slums of Limerick received nothing but astonishing praise upon its publication, even Michiko Kakutani raved about it. Exploiting the fact that McCourt was born in the US, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Memoir in 1997. My copy once belonged to my grandmother who apparently received it for “Xmas 1999” according to my aunt’s inscription on the title page. The story is an extraordinarily bleak one. If abusive fathers and cot death aren’t your thing then I doubt you’ll get much out of this. McCourt’s genius however lies in his ability to write about the most heartbreaking of subjects and then make you cry with laughter on the very next page. It’s very Irish of him to be able to bring humour to poverty and death. I’m not sure if I can say I “enjoyed” this novel, it is aggressively melancholy, but I appreciate and applaud it. It’s a fascinating story that I cannot wait to continue in its sequel, ‘Tis.
medium-paced
Depressing, heartbreaking, breathtaking, brilliant. I'm so thankful that a friend of mine told me to read this one (and let me borrow her copy of it).
I'll be honest and say that when I first started reading it, I was a bit baffled by the way it was written. But now I think it worked this way. It's definitely not a book for everyone. But I will say that I hope everyone at least gives it a try.
I'll be honest and say that when I first started reading it, I was a bit baffled by the way it was written. But now I think it worked this way. It's definitely not a book for everyone. But I will say that I hope everyone at least gives it a try.