You couldn't fail to read this
true story without admiring the spirit of the boy who crawled his way out of the gutter to a better
life. His typically Irish sense of humor (and of the absurd) shines through the squalid settings and
the dismal truth of the story. You will be touched by his acceptance of burdens that most of us
could never even imagine... living in absolute poverty... relying on charity for a pair of boots
three sizes too big... collecting scaps of coal that have been ignored by others... always in
debt... always cold... always in bad health.

We have a lot to be grateful for.

Unable to make a go of things in America the family return to
Ireland. His mother is downtrodden, proud but often desperate, his father a drunkard, not so much
violent as absent, and just as likely to spend the weeks wages on Guinness as
food.

Autobiographical but written almost in story form, the book is breathtaking. McCourt has
the knack of bringing bad news at such alarming regularity, that you accept it. You can almost feel
the cold, and share the hunger with them. Considering the subject matter and some of the events it
is not a sad book, just a great one.

Frank
McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" is a wonderful literary accomplishment. I was deeply touched by the
story (as I have an alcoholic family-abandoning father, too).

The prose is rythmic and soothing,
and the stories are a wonderful tapestry of life. There are moments when the failings of the people
around Frank make you wish you could reach back in time and slap them. There are moments of
laughter and tears, and throughout the book you cannot help but root for Frank as he struggles to
keep his family and himself sane during the hardscrabble life they lead.

I reccommend this to
all, however, if you have trouble with rambling sentences or dialogue with phonetic colloquialisms,
you may be better off seeing the movie - which is a perfect compliment to the book.

The ending
leaves you dying for more, however, I found "'Tis" to lack the heart and the hope of "Angela's
Ashes" Also of interest, Malachy McCourt has also written two books on his related life.

I
delayed reading this because I dislike sad stories, but this one is really a story of how a family's
love can light up the darkest corner of the world, and how that love never leaves you, no matter how
imperfect it may be.

Enjoy.