Angela's Ashes: A Memoir (Paperback)

by Frank McCourt (Author), Brooke Zimmer (Designer), John Fontana (Designer) "My father and mother should have stayed in New York where they met and married and where I was born..." (more)
Key Phrases: sanctifying grace, floury white potatoes, telegram money order, Aunt Aggie, The Abbot, First Communion (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Frank McCourt's haunting memoir takes on new life when the author reads from his Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Recounting scenes from his childhood in New York City and Limerick, Ireland, McCourt paints a brutal yet poignant picture of his early days when there was rarely enough food on the table, and boots and coats were a luxury. In a melodic Irish voice that often lends a gentle humor to the unimaginable, the author remembers his wayward yet adoring father who was forever drinking what little money the family had. He recounts the painful loss of his siblings to avoidable sickness and hunger, a proud mother reduced to begging for charity, and the stench of the sewage-strewn streets that ran outside the front door. As McCourt approaches adolescence, he discovers the shame of poverty and the beauty of Shakespeare, the mystery of sex and the unforgiving power of the Irish Catholic Church. This powerful and heart-rending testament to the resiliency and determination of youth is populated with memorable characters and moments, and McCourt's interpretation of the narrative and the voices it contains will leave listeners laughing through their tears. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Review
Peter Finn The Philadelphia Inquirer A spellbinding memoir of childhood that swerves flawlessly between aching sadness and desperate humor...a work of lasting beauty. -- Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 13th Printing edition (May 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068484267X
• ISBN-13: 978-0684842677
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1,126 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #684 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #2 in	Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Irish
  #2 in	Books > History > Europe > Ireland
  #10 in	Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hope Inspiring, September 20, 2000

By A Customer

Angela's Ashes is a book so filled with remorse and sadness, it's amazing that the reader somehow finds themself completely and joyfully satisfied. The novel revolves around the penniless childhood of Frank McCourt and begins in America with four-year-old Frank and his three year-old brother Malachy, who bears the same name as his father, and the infant twins, Eugene and Oliver, and the memories of the baby Margaret, "already dead and gone." Your heart goes out to the poor family, blessed with a loving mother, Angela, and yet cursed with a father who means well, but is constantly drunk or yearning for the "pint," as they call it. Early in his life, McCourt's family moves to Ireland, with help from his aunts and grandmother. Unfortunately, money is not easily found in Ireland either, and the McCourt family migrates from home to home, barely surviving on the few shillings Malachy McCourt doesn't spend at the local pub. The McCourts experience tragedy upon tragedy. His physical romance with a young lady named Theresa Carmody sick with consumption, his unfortunate habit to "interfere with himself," and the sad moment when in a drunken stupor on his first pint he strikes his own mother causes Frank to fear he is doomed to an eternity in hell. Unbelievably, despite all of the terrible things that happen in Frank's childhood, there are moments described in the book that give the reader a complete sense of joy and hope. I immensely enjoyed this memoir and would recommend it to any reader. I was especially enamored of the style of writing in which Frank McCourt chose to write. The words seemed as if they gently tumbled directly out of the mouth of the seven-year-old Frankie, or mischievously flew from Frank as an thirteen-year-old "working man." This novel was exquisitely written and is a jewel to read, as well as a treasure to remember.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Transcendent Writing, April 16, 2007

By	riverlady (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Angela's Ashes (Paperback)

I have recently re-read Angela's Ashes for a class assignment in which I had to compare a book with the film version of the same story, and I was again blown away by the beauty of this book. It is a testament to Frank McCourt's enormous talent that he is able to blend such sad situations with such delightful humor. He is masterful in the way he narrates the story from the point-of-view of a child, with his outlook and insights growing as the character (Frank himself) matures, similar to the approach that Dickens used in "David Copperfield."

"Angela's Ashes" is a modern-day classic - one that I'm sure I will re-read every few years, just to hear the magical and shimmering prose in my ears again and again.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down, May 27, 2007

By	BookWorm - See all my reviews

This review is from: Angela's Ashes (Paperback)

I avoided this book for two reasons. The hype. More often than not I am disappointed by highly-hyped books and movies. And, I thought it would depress and exhaust me. But as with Betty Smith's A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, you become so engrossed with the characters that you aren't weighed down by the crushing poverty. It almost seems an afterthought, a tiny detail, yet it is what forms the characters. Both of these books, while written 60 years apart, are written beautifully and skillfully.