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grunhub 's review for:
Angela's Ashes
by Frank McCourt
McCourt has done his country justice. The style of his writing is incredible; he somehow writes like a four year old and a poet simultaneously. I can't stress enough how wonderful something like that is to read. He also includes the most interesting little thoughts, ones that only a child would have, like how he doesn't understand why people need to sing other people's songs. His character's inner thinking becomes more focused as the book progresses--you can literally feel him getting older. I will say that parts were a little repetitive, but I suppose if you read the other two books the pacing makes more sense. It took 250 pages to go from ages four to eleven and another 100 for twelve to nineteen, which is a bit of a bummer because his writing about discovering "manhood" and "the excitement" through a religious perspective were so interesting. He also did an incredible job showing the pain that lies in a feud with a family member, where you don't really feel angry as much as you can't bare to look at them. And the way he described the world weighing down on him for a year after he condemned Theresa Carmody to the pits of hell--heartbreaking. Childhood emotions are simply nailed in this book.
My favorite part of the narrative were those days he'd spend in the fields around Limerick, lying under cows and thieving apples off trees. It was the only part that really felt like Frank was happy, that he'd get no comeuppance, because it was the only part where he knew he could get no comeuppance. The farmers weren't as fast as him. End of story. And I can taste the apples and the milk way over here in 2021.
So many interesting ideas, mostly about religion and WW2. So many beautiful scenes, mostly so because of death, poverty, and the sacrilegious wonderings of a child.
I can't believe how much I learned about America from a memoir about an Irish boyhood.
4.5/5
My favorite part of the narrative were those days he'd spend in the fields around Limerick, lying under cows and thieving apples off trees. It was the only part that really felt like Frank was happy, that he'd get no comeuppance, because it was the only part where he knew he could get no comeuppance. The farmers weren't as fast as him. End of story. And I can taste the apples and the milk way over here in 2021.
So many interesting ideas, mostly about religion and WW2. So many beautiful scenes, mostly so because of death, poverty, and the sacrilegious wonderings of a child.
I can't believe how much I learned about America from a memoir about an Irish boyhood.
4.5/5