Take a photo of a barcode or cover
barrypierce 's review for:
Angela's Ashes
by Frank McCourt
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.