Product Description

Angela’s Ashes is Frank McCourt’s sad, funny, bittersweet memoir of growing up in New York in the 30s and in Ireland in the 40s. It is a story of extreme hardship
and suffering, in Brooklyn tenements and Limerick slums – too many children, too little money, his mother Angela barely coping as his father Malachy’s drinking
bouts constantly brought the family to the brink of disaster. It is a story of courage and survival against apparently overwhelming odds.

Written with the vitality and resonance of a work of fiction, and a remarkable absence of sentimentality, Angela’s Ashes is imbued on every page with Frank
McCourt’s distinctive humour and compassion. Out of terrible circumstances, he has created a glorious book in the tradition of Ireland’s literary masters, which
bears all the marks of a great classic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155208 in Books
• Published on: 1999-11-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
"Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood," writes Frank McCourt in Angela's Ashes. "Worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." Welcome, then, to the pinnacle of the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. Born in Brooklyn in 1930 to recent Irish immigrants Malachy and Angela McCourt, Frank grew up in Limerick after his parents returned to Ireland because of poor prospects in America. It turns out that prospects weren't so great back in the old country either--not with Malachy for a father. A chronically unemployed and nearly unemployable alcoholic, he appears to be the model on which many of our more insulting clichés about drunken Irish manhood are based. Mix in abject poverty, and frequent death and illness, and you have all the makings of a truly difficult early life. Fortunately, in McCourt's able hands it also has all the makings of a compelling memoir.

Gramophone
"His understated voice throws into relief the admirable humour, spirit & humanity of the people who made the degradation of his childhood
bearable."

Evening Standard
'McCourt’s reading is captivating from the first moment.'

Customer Reviews

How an Irish child dreams
Angela's Ashes is a delicious novel of a child. The world's going to be understood by a young Yankie and I always find that gorgeous. Even if the story is completelly different, Frankie's glance is so similar to the one of Jennifer Johnston's Shadows on our skin that I feel moving to find again that particular way of living which is understanding ourself life. I'm Italian, and I think all of you would reproach my bad English, but I read without any problems the whole book, appreciating its irony and the need of a novel as a need of a story, in an existential way.

worth a read
I had this book for a while before reading it and even lived in Limerick for a while before reading it, but when I did get around to it, it was well worth it. I honestly don't know what to say about it. I would believe what the author has written and he describes Limerick well (it's a lot better now, except for the rain)

I don't think this book is about hard time as much as getting away from them. In the book Frankie refers to going to America a lot and is determined to get a better life.

I'm glad this book was written and I'm glad I read it, now all I have to do is read the rest of them.

A never to be forgotten story.
Much praise for this book, and the movie is even better. Well done to frank mccourt for finding the words..