Genealogy Books - Angela's Ashes

Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: Incredibly written, amazing story
Comment: As horrible as much of the circumstances in McCourt's novel are, this book was incredible. This was
one book that when I sat down to read it, I didn't do anything else until I had finished it. />
The words and descriptions within this novel are so amazing that you can see, hear, smell,
and taste the situations that McCourt and his family were enduring.

To go through the
life that they had, and for Frank McCourt to make so much of himself, should be a lesson to everyone
that feels as if life is unfair or treated them unkindly. Just because you come from poverty and
unimaginable agonies, does not mean that you cannot proper and achieve your goals.

Customer Rating:

Summary: angela's ashes
Comment: Frank McCourt's memoir, Angela's Ashes, tells the heartbreaking tale of a young boy who lived an
impoverished life in Limerick. Growing up he hoped to go to America, where he would lead a good
life, with a steady job, and money to give to his family. Throughout his story, which is told in a
first person play-by-play fashion, McCourt gains the reader's trust by describing the bad things he
did, such as "grabbing a bunch of bananas outside the Italian grocery shop and running down Myrtle
Avenue" (32), along with the good. While it is hard for me to relate to his story, since I have
never had to deal with the death of a sibling, or a father who drinks away all of his paycheck, the
way he describes his emotions makes it possible for anyone to connect. Everything about his story is
real: from the questions he has about life, to the amazement he expresses when he first reads
Shakespeare, which to him is like "having jewels in [his] mouth" (196), to the concerns he has about
his sins. He has to deal with the internal conflict about his father's behaviors; he loves his
father when they drink tea together in the morning, but when he has to fetch his drunken father from
the bars, he cannot deal with emotional pain it causes him and his mother.
The story's
chronological order gives the book a sense of organization, which makes some of the chaotic scenes
easier to understand. Only 364 pages long, McCourt's memoir covers about nineteen years of his life.
The scenes he chose seem to be about the most influential experiences or people in his life, and how
they changed who he was as a person. Every character he describes is brought to life by an
interesting detail that helps us understand what they meant to McCourt. Mikey Molloy, though McCourt
often mocks him, is a sort of role model because of his knowledge of girls and his ability to do
"anything his bloody well likes", such as eating "so many sweets and buns he threw up" (117).
McCourt never has the ability to do this because of his lack of money, but looks up to Molloy and
enjoys his company. The detailed description in this book made me feel as if I'd been to Ireland and
back, as well as greatly inspiring me to never stop trying to achieve my goals.

Customer Rating:

Summary: A Classic Tale of 20th Century Limerick...
Comment: This is a truly remarkable book. Using an energetic style which conveys the intense tumult of his
youth in Limerick, Ireland, McCourt packs into whole paragraphs, sometimes huge unpunctuated run-on
sentences, the horrors and wonders of his childhood. I can't contend with any of the thousands of
reviews here, and probably echo what each says: This is a modern classic. McCourt gives away the
struggles he and his family went through for decades, but through it all the book remains full of
love, wonder, trimuph of spirit and will, exuberance and hope.
A five star book, sometimes
too painful to get through, but written with a spirit like no other I have ever read.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Good Humour, Fun Read
Comment: I enjoyed reading this book; the innocent humor of a child brings the whole book to life, not to
mention the vivid potrayal of the lives of the poor. I'd recommend this book to everyone.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Simply amazing
Comment: This is one of my all-time favorite novels. I had my English Honors class read it for their summer
reading assignment and they absolutely LOVED it. Usually the kids don't do their summer reading,
but they devoured this book. The story is such a gutwrenching sad one, but it was Frank's reality
growing up. The conditions in which he lived were unthinkable, and he does such a wonderful job of
detailing them for the reader. You feel so attached to Frankie and his siblings, and you really
develop emotions for his mother and his drunk of a father. It really makes you just want to take
this family in and care for them. I recommend this book to anyone...it is truly a magnificent piece
of literature.

Back to Angela's Ashes

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