Genealogy Books - Angela's Ashes

Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: Angel"s Ashes
Comment: An in-life look into the harsh years for a child growing up Irland. A wonderful read! I havn't
enjoyed a book like this in years.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Try James Joyce Instead
Comment: I realize I'm in the minority here by not breathlessly extolling the virtues of this book, and I'm
quite aware it has been both critically and popularly acclaimed. In fact, that is the only reason I
read this book: I wanted to see for myself what all the fuss was about.

In my opinion?
Nothing.

It brings to mind that wheatgrass juice they sold in the organic section of
my grocery store. People raved about it, but when I drank it, my senses were filled with nothing
more than the green liquid that emerges when I rinse the underside of my lawnmower. In the same
way, I can't help but think that people like this book because they are "supposed" to like it, not
because it was in any way enjoyable or stimulating to read. So, I'll have to go on record as being
a literary Philistine when it comes to praise for McCourt's style and Pulitzer Prize-winning story:
Didn't like it. Didn't get it.

In "Angela's Ashes," Frank McCourt gives us his
memoirs, from toddler to young man, providing a gritty look at what it was to be a child of the
Depression. McCourt paints a picture not of America as a land of dreams, but as a land of broken
dreams, where his immigrant parents eventually give up and return from New York to their native
Ireland when McCourt is just a small boy. McCourt then proceeds to give us a recounting of a place
even more depressing than the slums of New York: Limerick, Ireland in the 1930s. Poor, Irish,
Catholic, and with completely disfunctional parents, McCourt feels compelled to pour forth every
bitterness of his soul from a seemingly bottomless well. The story closes with McCourt returning to
America as a young man, not as an attempt to find the American dream that had eluded his parents,
but simply to escape.

The more astute among us will ask some very reasonable
questions while reading this book: How exactly can the author recall with such vivid clarity the
events of his life as a 2- and 3-year-old? Shouldn't one's memoirs have some purpose...some
destination they wish to take the reader rather than just aimless meanderings? Why are none of the
individuals who seemingly played such a huge role in McCourt's life developed more fully and instead
portrayed as 1-dimensional Irish stereotypes? Could it be that in McCourt's universe, nobody else
was as interesting or deep as himself? And, why do so many Irish people despise this book rather
than regard McCourt as a local Limerick boy who made good?

What I emerged with is the
story of an individual who lived an admittedly difficult childhood, but then again so did millions
of others from the Depression. One does not get the sense he is speaking for all of them; with
McCourt, we get the very distinct impression that he is speaking only for himself, and that we had
better well feel sorry for him.

If you don't require any purpose or well-developed
characters in your reading, then perhaps this is the book for you. If you find it redeeming to read
about a childhood that was not only bitter, but as told by someone who is bitter about it, then
perhaps this is the book for you. I can simply say that it wasn't the book for me.

I
have some rather simple criteria for judging a book: Did I enjoy it? Was I a better person for
having read it? To which I must answer quite honestly: No. In fact, I found this one to be pure
drudgery with nothing to offer in the way of education or redeeming content. McCourt simply plods
from heartbreak to heartbreak with mediocre writing and a story that appears to have no real
purpose. Just a sort of "life's hard and then you die." And it is my understanding that although
he purports to give us "true" memoirs, at least some of what he presents here is embellished, if not
outright fiction. There was a whiny, "poor me" timbre to this book that I found particularly
distasteful.

Sure, it had a few upbeat moments, but all in all I felt like I'd been
given a mouthful of ashes. I refuse to succumb to the "madness of crowds" and award this book 5
stars. I didn't like it, I didn't think it was well written, and what could have come across as a
gritty but redeeming ride on what it was to be a child of the Depression came across as simply a
collection of mostly bitter recollections.

Finally, the book doesn't finish, it just
ends. It was as though McCourt had finally reached the end of his endless repository of depressing
memories...or his pen simply ran out of ink. I realize he published two sequels that perhaps
provide more closure to his own life and those of the people who influenced him. But those books
will have to be read by those who actually liked this one.

And that would not be
me.

Footnote: If you'd like to read about an Irish childhood by a truly fine writer, I
suggest "Portrait of the Author as a Young Man" by James Joyce.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Cheers!
Comment: This CD was a gift; the recipients listened to it on a 18 hour trip, delighted in McCourt's reading
as it made the miles fly and stopped for a pint of Ireland's finest at a local pub when they arrived
home! Nothing compares to this unabridged reading by the author.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Letty Gates
Comment: I finished this book in less than 3 days. I enjoyed reading it, kept me coming for more. I gave it
a 4 instead of a 5 because it left a lot of loose ends, I was left with quite a few, "but what
happened to.....". Felt like a movie that has a part 2.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Angela's Ashes
Comment: An outstanding memoir about the hardships of a young Irish boy and his impoverished family. McCourt
relives his life in Ireland in an honest, many times humorous and shameless way. His pace throughout
is impeccable.

Back to Angela's Ashes

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