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Dec 17, 2009

Eric rated it:

Before I get too deep into my review, let me just say this: "Angela's Ashes" is one of the most depressing books I have ever read. That said, it is also fascinating, heartbreaking, searingly honest narration told in the face of extreme poverty and alcoholism. This absolutely entrancing memoir follows an Irish-American-Irish-American (more on this later) boy who comes of age during the Depression and the War years in a country gripped in the stranglehold of the Catholic Church, tradit More...

3 comments like (37 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

David rated it:

But the worst offender of the last twenty years has to be the uniquely meretricious drivel that constitutes "Angela's Ashes". Dishonest at every level, slimeball McCourt managed to parlay his mawkish maunderings to commercial success, presumably because the particular assortment of rainsodden cliches hawked in the book not only dovetails beautifully with the stereotypes lodged in the brain of every American of Irish descent, but also panders to the lummoxes collective need to feel supe More...

54 comments like (40 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Teresa rated it:

In Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt paints a picture of a childhood mired in poverty. He manages to be humorous and heartbreaking, and hopeless and triumphant all at once. I laughed, I cried, I felt dearly for the disadvantaged McCourt family that struggled against all odds.

The memoir borrows heavily from the art of realism -- as tales of impoverished childhoods usually are. McCourt was born in depression era Brooklyn to an alcoholic father who spent all his wages at the bar, and a m More...

0 comments like (16 people liked it)

Mar 16, 2008

George Bradford rated it:

“If you had the luck of the Irish
You’d be sorry and wish you was dead
If you had the luck of the Irish
Then you’d wish you was English instead”

How can ONE book be so WONDERFUL and so HORRIBLE at the same time? I have no idea. But this book is both. Big time.

It’s difficult to imagine anything worse than a childhood crushed under the oppressive conditions of abject poverty, relentless filth and unmitigated suffering. The childhood described in this boo More...

1 comment like (27 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2007

Angela rated it:

It's been ten years since I've read this book. Like everyone else I was floored by it when it first came out. But time and age have made me wiser.

I don't think it's stood the test of time and the more I think of it... my grandmother is right. It's a one-sided, depressing view of life in Ireland.

"Woah is me..." is the book in a nutshell. This book simply has you marinate in negativity. Maybe I've read too much Phillip Roth in the meantime and compared to his cha More...

13 comments like (12 people liked it)

Apr 13, 2009

Beth F. rated it:

I ended up really enjoying this book, in spite of my earlier frustrations with it.

To say this book is depressing is one of the grossest understatements I've made in the past year. The book is narrated by the very young Frank McCourt and follows a child's stream of consciousness to describe the things he sees but doesn't always understand. As he gets older, the narration implies less and becomes more stark as Frankie develops the ability to see and understand what is happening in More...

3 comments like (7 people liked it)

Oct 19, 2008

Louise rated it:

Though this book was a bit gritty in its portrayal of the poverty in Ireland, I felt I caught a real glimpse of how desperate the times must have been. It made me think again of all that I enjoy. I can't even imagine how the people could live on so little. The writing style is different, but it felt natural, like he was telling you the story, first hand. It was easier to read, even for the awful circumstances described. It was this description that was hard to digest, not the style of writin More...

6 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2008

Alicia rated it:

There are not words to describe how horrible I felt this book was. First, I was somehow under the impression that it was a WWII novel, so that was a disappointment to begin with. I really felt like the theme of this novel was how to survive life's trials and difficulties by masturbating. Someone please tell me if I am way off here.

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Sep 15, 2011

Dervishi rated it:

Angela's Ashes was really not the sort of book I would enjoy. In fact, I found that the further it progressed, the less enthusiastic I became. McCourt uses the modern technique of describing the protagonist's struggles and life day by day. The intention is to make his own unique experiences feel universal because people look past each individual day and look at it as a whole, and see the supposedly universal themes.

However, I am not a believer or practitioner of this contemporary wri More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 16, 2008

Eileen rated it:

If I could give this book negative stars, I would.

Not only is McCourt a poor writer, but the exaggerated (and villifying) depiction of his father is grotesque. Yes, the man was an alcoholic but look at the circumstances which drove him to drinking in excess. He initially has his family's best interest at heart, but due to the political and social circumstances in both America and Ireland begins to despair. One can only imagine the stress, depression, and loss of pride McCourt's fath More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Apr 22, 2008

John rated it:

Overpraised and insubstantive, the first installment in Frank McCourt's memoir cycle, Angela's Ashes, is mostly based around such an obvious cycle that its mind-numbing: "Times were tough and we were on the dole. Me father drank and came home late at night waking us up and making us swear we'd die for Ireland. Me mother and me father fought and he shaped up. Got a job, but nobody liked him because he was from the dirty north. So he drank his first Friday's paycheck, was late to work on Satu More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Nov 11, 2007

Ryan rated it:

I am currently touring Ireland. I have been here for two months and I leave in a few days. Since I have been here a while I have become more and more interested in Irish life. I have a few Irish friends and I have been fascinated in Ireland's rich and tumultuous history. This book is a heartbreaking and at times humorous story of Frank McCourt's impoverished childhood, the atrocity's the Catholic Church reigned upon the very people they were to be helping and the determination for a better l More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jun 05, 2008

Gail rated it:

What, did NO one find this book funny except me??? I must be really perverse.
Although the account of Frank's bad eyes was almost physically painful to read, the rest of the story didn't seem too odd or sad or overdone to me. My dad's family were immigrants; his father died young of cirrhosis of the liver, leaving my grandmother to raise her six living children (of a total of 13) on a cleaning woman's pay. So? Life was hard. They weren't Irish and they lived in New York, but when you hear t More...

9 comments like (19 people liked it)

Oct 09, 2007

M is for Mallory rated it:

I can't put this down! I'm getting such a dark kick out of Frank McCourt's childhood. Favorite line that had me laughing out loud: "Oy, you Irish. You'll live forever but you'll never say challah like a Chew." I'm devastated this book is ending; it's been the most pleasurable part of my days over the past week. It's of course depressing, I mean, like he says in opening "Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhoood, and worse yet is the miserable More...

4 comments like (7 people liked it)

Apr 30, 2008

Vivazoya rated it:

One of my most favorite books and authors of all time. I can't get enough of Frank's stories. I also listened to him tell it on an audio recording, and it's even more awesome listening to his Irish accent. The most compelling characteristic of his writing is the ability to write about a subject as dire and despairing as poverty and neglect, and make it so blisteringly funny, I'm in tears. Then in another chapter, I'm crying with grief over the loss of his siblings and the humiliations of his More...

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Ivy's Mom rated it:

I read an interview with the author who said he was surprised by the number of American students who said they wished they had had a childhood like his. After reading his story of extreme poverty and loss I think I understand his students. McCourt had a childhood, that while extreme and difficult, was at least filled with spiritual grace. An American middle class child of strip malls, Chuck E Cheese parties, and television is certainly more comfortable but can leave one with a deadened soul. More...

3 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2009

Jan C rated it:

I loved this book. I started out buying it as a gift for my mother. That might have been the last time I visited her at Christmas time (I'm not crazy about driving trips in the winter). And while there, I started reading it. I knew it I had to buy it for myself when I returned home. I did. And I read the book in about a week, if that long.

I'm part Irish. But you don't have to be Irish to like this book. Matter of fact, a lot of the Irish didn't like it because it exposed just how po More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 15, 2009

Carolyn rated it:

Angela’s Ashes is the first of three memoirs written by Irish author Frank McCourt. Angela’s Ashes was published in 1996, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. The story was made into a film directed by Alan Parker in 1999.
Frank McCourt begins his story with the tale of how his parents meet in Brooklyn, New York. When Malachy gets his mother Angela pregnant with Frank, she marries him and the two start their life together in a small apartment in Brooklyn. A More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Apr 24, 2011

Elisa rated it:

Dal camposanto vedo le alte rovine del castello di Carrigogunnell e ho ancora un sacco di tempo per risalire la stradina in bici, sedermi sul muro più alto, guardare lo Shannon che scorre verso l'Atlantico sulla via per l'America e sognare del giorno in cui anch'io prenderò il largo.

Ci sono i romanzi in cui i personaggi sono fittizi. Concentrati di vizi, virtù e miserie partoriti ad hoc per le pagine di un libro. L'autore è un creatore: con due miseri ingredienti, carta e penna, ha More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Sep 04, 2008

Julie H. rated it:

What a beautiful book. You will never look at your home's second story the same way again after reading of the flooding incident and how the family retreated to the upper story. I add this to the long line of reasons for wishing my Grandmother were still around so that I could ask about stories of our family's past in Cork. Read. This. Book.

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2010

Truly rated it:

Jika bisa memilih, setiap anak pasti ingin dilahirkan dengan memegang sendok emas! Dilahirkan oleh seorang ibu yang berada dalam kehidupan yang mapan. Tidak perlu memikirkan apakah nanti malam mereka masih bisa makan, dimana bisa mendapatkan uang.Tidak mengenal rasa lapar dan kedinginan, tidak perlu memakai potongan ban untuk sol sepatu. Semua serba tersedia.

Frank Mc Cournt harus menerima takdirnya, dilahirkan di Bulan Agustus, akibat Peristiwa Lutut Gemeretar yang terjadi antara ibu More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 06, 2009

Peter rated it:

This is the unfinished story of Angela, the mother of Francis McCourt (aka Frank McCourt, the author). Many readers may feel it is written in bitterness, but they must be wrong. The book bubbles with wit. Readers may feel it is a tale of despair, but it leads to a future not yet told. Some may feel it is shot-through with cruelty, gilding grime and polishing puke, praising primitiveness and lauding ill health and death.

McCourt certainly draws the reader into the hollowness of poverty More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2009

Patrick rated it:

Entertaining and amazing story. I'm a bit biased, perhaps, being part Irish. And having been to Ireland on vacation last year. I'm now dying to read 'Tis.

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2009

Rachel rated it:

This is not typically the type of book that I would read. Yet, I felt myself drawn into the story of this Irish family and their daily struggles. When you read stories about real life, there is the heartache- which always makes me hesitate. My own life and the lives of those around me contain enough heartache and struggle where I feel like I don't need to read further about it. However, this book also contains a profound story of hope that continues to persevere through desperate circumstan More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 30, 2011

Josh rated it:

A sad yet humorous memoir of Irish childhood... Frank McCourt gives a no-holds-barred account of growing up in a family riddled with domestic tragedy - dead siblings, poverty, drunkard good-for-nothing father who drinks his dole money while his children starve, desperate and helpless mother, less-than-sympathetic aunt and grandma - amid tyrannical schoolmasters and the ever-oppressive Catholic priests in the background.

But to pare the cast that informs McCourt's growing years down simplisticall More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 05, 2011

Spencer rated it:

<< Life-Through a New, Refreshing Lens (Review of Angela's Ashes)

A family, deeply weakened by death, alcohol, and poverty. If you feel like your life has gotten into an uncomfortable groove, you must read this, for this book will add some spice to your life for sure; “Angela’s Ashes”, a truly stunning and heart-wrenching memoir about the author, Frank McCourt’s childhood in the poverty-stricken city of Limerick in Ireland, will hit you like a tidal wave. Optimistic and hope More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 22, 2008

David rated it:

I read this Pulitzer Prize winner some years ago, and when I found the audiobook in the library read by the author, decided to listen again. The audiobook was superb. The author's Irish accent and his singing of the included songs really brings this book to life. The author grew up in the Catholic slums of Limerick, Ireland. He recounts his miserable childhood with openness and clarity, and an astonishing lack of resentment and bitterness. His father was an alcoholic who immediately drank away a More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 03, 2008

Susan rated it:

This is one of my favorite books. As a memoir, McCourt had a very interesting story to tell about his life. Having met McCourt, I know that he is very funny and can turn everything into a joke. Through his personality, I've really learned to respect McCourt. Having came from a poor family, a drunk father, and the struggle to make something out of life. To me, McCourt taught me that the most important thing is to always be optimistic. Everyone has to go through hardships, however learning how to More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 21, 2008

Tifnie rated it:

I have to admitt this book sat on my shelf for a while. I kept passing it over for another book. Grant it, I didn't see the movie, but people told me it's a sad story about a very poor family. I didn't think I would like the book and I wasn't quite sure why I even bought it.

Well, I didn't like the book. I LOVED the book. Frank McCourt, the author and main character engaged me by the first 2 sentences of the book. I enjoyed his style of writing and the way he displayed conversat More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 24, 2008

Abby rated it:

This book was soooo good. The movie they made based on the book was TERRIBLE. Here is why: in the book, horrible and terrible and awful tragic things are happening to the author in his youth. It's awful. However, you are inside of the boy's head and hear his thoughts. He is hilarious! He misinterprets things and has a totally child like way of seeing everything.

I remember when he takes his first communion, he gets sick and throws up afterwards. His Grandma freaks out and scoops up th More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

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