I have read hundreds of books in my short lifetime and I there
have been only a couple of books out of that large scale that I did not
care for. I'm sad to say that Angela's Ashes was one of those books.
Here is my review:
Angela's Ashes
Frank McCourt
363 pages
Overview (Direct from Barnes & Noble website: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/angelas-ashes-frank-mccourt/1100608827#):
“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”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.
"Angela's Ashes: A Memoir." Barnes & Noble. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2013. <http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/angelas-ashes-frank-mccourt/1100608827#>.
My Opinion:
I did not like this book at all. It just infuriated me. I was required to read this book for school and once I had read my required chapters, I skimmed the rest of the book (I never like to leave a book unfinished even if I didn't like it). Well Angela's Ashes started off slow, but eventually it picked up. The book was beautifully written and created this whole world of despair and determination in Limerick. This despair pulled you in and made you sorry for Frank and his family, but then something happens. By something I mean Frank. Frank's attitude and personality started getting on my nerves. He was a follower not a leader and seemed to not have a mind of his own. Certain parts of the book are nice and beautiful, but as an overall I did not like it. Frank McCourt might have had a miserable childhood at certain parts, but so did a lot of the people around him and they weren't acting and complaining like him. The book even has controversy surrounding it. Angela's Ashes is supposedly a memoir, though some sources from the town of Limerick, where the story take place, say that most of the things in the book were utterly fabricated and tall tales. I don't know who was technically right, but at certain parts in the book it was a little sketchy in the detail department. I suggest you don't read this book, but surely as my heading says this is just my opinion. Some of my friends enjoyed reading this book, so don't let this review deter you from it. Just be careful and wary, it might not hold up to your expectations.
PS. On a happier note, read:
The Battle of the Ampere by Richard Paul Evans
Erebos: Its a game.It watches you by Ursula Poznanski
