Angela's Ashes: A Memoir

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So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank's mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank's father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy -- exasperating, irresponsible and beguiling -- does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father's tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.

Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank's survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig's head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors -- yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness.

Angela's Ashes, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.

What Customers Say About Angela's Ashes: A Memoir:

Great novel. Makes you realize things about your own life, while giving you a fun read.

Family, loving one another, and being together are the true conflicts that the family endures the entire book. The protagonist, Frank McCourt, is the oldest of eight children. The father is unable to find a job in Ireland and travels far away to work, he promises to send money but he is never heard from and trying to feed eight hungry children is difficult for Angela. His parents are Malachaly, who is described as "shiftless, loquacious, and alcoholic," and his mother, Angela, whom McCourt calls, "pious, big-hearted, and overwhelmed." The big Irish family soon has to leave their home in Brooklyn and moves to Limerick after the tragic death of their beloved daughter, Margaret, just as the Great Depression takes hold in America. While reading Mr. McCourt doesn't take it all and use it to get drunk. Mam says, Next week, love, and he goes back out to play in the lane." This is an example of McCourt taking a deep and dark moment and using humor to lighten it up.

Eventually, the kids have to steal food just to get through one more day; they even become beggars on the streets at times. For years, the family only eats bread and tea because that is all they can afford on their welfare money, when Mr. Life in Ireland for the family is very brutal and harsh as the Great Depression and their own father's self-destructiveness swallows up their hopes as well on the other side of the Atlantic.Though the storyline is sad and heartbreaking, Frank McCourt does an amazing job brightening up the memoir at times. I don't think I've read a tome that has ever made me feel so many different emotions.

The memoir Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt takes place in Brooklyn, New York and in Limerick, Ireland in the 1930's and 40's. This moment is very symbolic to Angela's dreams and shows how the family struggles for food on a daily basis. As I was reading this passage (insert a comma here) I tried figure out why the title is Angela's Ashes, I think I've figured it out but I won't ruin it for you. McCourt's remembrance, it was clear money was always an issue for the family, but after finishing the book, I realized that money wasn't the real conflict. Michael. At one point, I got sucked into the book and I felt like I was one of the eight kids searching through dumpsters trying to find any scraps of food, and yet I managed to laugh at the funny and naïve things the younger kids say. Their home in Ireland isn't ideal to the family; their rented flat is a complete rat's nest and they share one bathroom with all their neighbors. This broken family sticks together and battles their miserable lives in multiple homes that they stay at throughout the town of Limerick.At first, this book was both depressing and sad, but as I read through it, I saw more than that and discovered that it has more of a deep and a more underlying meaning than I thought it would.

"Mam turns toward the dead ashes in the fire and sucks at the last bit of goodness in the Woodbine butt caught between the brown thumb and the burnt middle finger. wants to know if we're having fish and chips tonight because he's hungry. From reading this compelling memoir, I got a better understanding of how life can be so cruel but yet the McCourt family managed to carry on with little food and thin clothing during harsh winters. As one reviewer wrote when McCourt's book came out, "It brings tears and smiles together as close as they can ever be."

This is absolute heaven, to hear Frank McCourt read his own life story with that glorious accent. My favorite nonfiction book of all time, and favorite audiobook.However, BUYER BEWARE; I ordered the unabridged version, and was sent the abridged version. When I returned it to Amazon, I only received $1.99 out of my $10.00 purchase price. So, absolutely have this in your collection; just make sure you get every delicious word in the unabridged format.

What can I say that hasn't been said countless times about Angela's Ashes. Or maybe say I too am Irish. I see now why it has all the fans that it does. I wish McCourt were a Chicano so I could claim him. That's what I would say, that he made me feel Irish. If not for the "brogue," his story is not that different than what many of us go through growing up poor, and that includes many of us who are born and raised here.

This story lays out a compelling story of how Frank (barely) survived childhood in the hands of poverty and alcoholism. I read this book many years ago, and I still find myself thinking about it from time to time. This was a wonderful, yet morose, novel. Frank's story just gets more and more depressing as you read, but his need to survive is unquenchable. Truly, a wonderful book.