McCourt does an excellent job of characterizing
his parents, especially his father who liked to come home from a night of drinking and make the boys
line up and promise to die for Ireland, who was at war with England at the time. He also does a
great job of capturing the methods of the priests and nuns in their attempts to make their
congregation more devout Catholics. Many of McCourt's confrontations with priests are somewhat
comical, especially when he tries to explain to one priest during confession why he was doomed for
"going at himself." The priests used the threats of Hell and Eternal Damnation to ensure the proper
behavior of their congregation, the children especially. It is with great perspective that McCourt
represents how his views on life were influenced by the Catholic Church. Lastly, he paints a very
realistic picture of what it must have been like to live in the abject poverty of Limerick, Ireland.
From his descriptions of "going on the mooch" in farmer's fields to scrounging for scraps of fish
and chips outside pubs at night, McCourt is able to capture the methods by which the impoverished
people of Limerick made ends meet.

There are, however, a few areas in which I felt that McCourt
came up a little bit short. For instance, I think the book gets a little bit repetitive at times.
Almost every story was some variation of another in which McCourt was worried about his father's
drinking, his mother's health, his eternal damnation for "going at himself," where his next meal was
going to come from, or earning his fare to back to America. I was also opposed to McCourt's
justification for stealing from one of his employers. He stole just a few pence at first, but
eventually 50 pounds from his deceased employer. He fancied himself a Robinhood of sorts, but to me
he came off as just another petty thief.

All in all, McCourt did a great job with this book. I
did not give it the full 5 stars because of some monotonous and boring portions and the persistent
rumors that this was only loosely based on his childhood and is in fact a work of Fiction. If this
is true, it would be a great testament to McCourt's writing ability, but I would feel betrayed.

Born in Brooklyn in the 1930s, Frank McCourt takes the reader
through his early years in New York, the McCourt family's return to Ireland and the daily struggles
of his life (including some humorous scenes with his headmasters in school). "Angela's Ashes" is one
of the few books that I have read in the past year that keep my interest, caused me to laugh out
loud and feel extreme sorrow, anger (at Malachy, the father) and pity for the McCourt family.

The
movie version was excellent, but I recommend reading the book before viewing the movie because it is
the only way to fully appreicate McCourt's prose, humor and optimism. I'm looking forward to reading
"Tis," the sequel to "Angela's Ashes."