- Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; Film tie-in edition edition (15 Nov 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006510345
- ISBN-13: 978-0006510345
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 10.9 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (193 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 231,617 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
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.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
‘An astonishing book… completely mesmerising – you can open it almost at random and find writing to make you gasp.’
Sue Gaisford, Independent
‘The most remarkable thing about Frank McCourt, apart from his survival, is his lack of sorrowfulness. Angela’s Ashes sings with irreverent Limerick wit. It makes you smile at the triumph of the storyteller, a tougher specimen who escaped Limerick’s teeming alleys through intelligence and cunning and lived to tell the tale.’
Penny Perrick, The Times
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Childhood ashes,
By Bogdana Voicu (Dubai, United Arab Emirates) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Angela's Ashes (Paperback)
It was amazing to fin a book in a brand new book shop in a brand new shopping mall in the Middle East... to find a book with nice covers, sad covers, brown covers, with a small boy leaning against a wall... somehow, I felt the need to grab it and read it, it looked so European that I could not refuse this pleasure to myself. But AFTER readng it, I was simply amazed... it is so sad that you just hope it was just a story... except that you read on the front page that the book is dedicated to Frank McCourt's brothers, who carry the names from the book, and THEN you get the whole poit... it is completely and emptying true. It is all about a child's view on his own childhood... pertinent and intellingent and full of refined humour... you really do not know whether the garndmother is heartless or just the funniest character ever... you could not say whether the father is to be hated or accepted and even liked (he is a drunk, inded, but he is a nice one, somehow)... and who could tell if Angela herself is a good mother (she cries in despair for her children) or she just neglects them and lets them be dirty and smelly... the characters are strongly individualised, you just love each and every one of them. In a nhutshell... i offered this book as a Crhristmas present to one of my best friends... she loves it and now it is her favourite... I still have a few more pages to read, and I have a feeling that I will always, but always remember details of this book. Recommendation? Read this book alone, isolated by the world... you will get into it like never before with a book.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The warmth and bitter cold of growing up in poverty,
By duncan.williamson@tesco.net (A Brit in Tbilisi, Georgia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Angela's Ashes: A Memoir of a Childhood (Paperback)
When the film of this book came out there was a lot of hype about it and I am afraid I tend to react against hype rather than for it. Nevertheless, I am a big fan of Irish stories and I am happy that I swallowed my prejudice and bought and read this book.I am afraid there is no point becoming bleary eyed about this story: it is a raw story of some very poor people living what can only be described as a wretched existence. Life is raw, the language is raw and the overall situation is raw. We are taken from the USA to Ireland on the back of the Great Depression to what can only be described as an Even Greater Depression. Frank is the narrator and therefore the main character; and he tells us all about his family and his circumstances all the way through to his manhood. We learn about his father: an Ulsterman who regularly drinks away the tiny amount of money the family has; and who wants his boys to fight for Ireland's cause. We learn about Frank's mother, Angela, who floats from being absolutely desperate to being a tower of strength. There are also the siblings: the ones who survived and the ones who didn't. We are told about housing conditions that must be impossible for us to imagine let alone survive living in. There is a daily diet that consisted of bread and tea and precious little else. There are also relatives who are presented as hard, uncaring and lacking sympathy: we have to bear in mind that these people were suffering too; and appreciating that should help us to tolerate them more. I was a bit surprised that although there is a lot of humour in the book, there wasn't much childish glee and happiness coming through. Despite the wretched existence that the family went through, children do tend to remember sunshine and laughter from their childhoods and this element is missing. If it genuinely was missing, then I think that Frank has done very well to get to the stage where he has been able to go to University, graduate, work as a high school teacher and write this book. As I was around two thirds of the way through this book I started to think that there shouldn't be any sequels to it: this is a stand alone story. However, there is a sequel whose title is the final word of this book "'Tis", reflecting Frank's very interesting reintroduction to the land of the free. Despite the epithets on the book's cover, this is not a romantic story, this is not a story that we should pretend to empathise with; and it is not a story that we should ignore. Frank McCourt has written a book that should awaken a reality in us that poverty, misery and depression don't only belong to distant history and in the slums of Calcutta and Rio de Janeiro and Harlem: they can be a lot nearer than we think.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
told how it was................,
By magic "magic" (england) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Angelas Ashes (Paperback)
a marvelous book, well worth reading....the true story of a poor irish family, a work shy drunken father, a struggling mother, not forgeting mean aunt aggie, or daft uncle pat, the author brought them all to life on every page, so clear was his discription that you almost knew them personaly....
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