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Angela's Ashes: A Memoir (Paperback) (平装)
by Frank McCourt
| Category:
Memoir, Fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
MSL price:
¥ 158.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
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MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
MSL Pointer Review:
Angela's Ashes, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.
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AllReviews |
  1 2 Total 2 pages 15 items |
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A College student (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-24 00:00>
The book Angela's Ashes was a self account written by Frank McCourt. The book goes back in time and through Frank's childhood and talks about all the troubles he had to experience while growing up in a poor catholic Irish family. The book starts out by Frank remembering as much as he could from his childhood as young as he could remember it (although he does include how his parents met, I'm sure this is from what stories he has been told by relatives). He goes onto tell about the hardships his family went through and how hard they had to work to overcome these obstacles. Frankie grew up changing housing quite often because his father couldn't hold a steady job and back in poor Ireland, landlords wanted their money just like everyone else. The hardest part about Frank's family trying to keep a home was that any money his father would earn he would go and spend at the pub and then he would show up to the job drunk and therefore get fired instantly for being late or drunk to work. Frankie's mother had to stay at home and raise their rapidly growing and rapidly diminishing family. He accounts to the several deaths of people quite close to him that he witnessed at a young age and the hard times he himself had to endure as he was sent to work to help support his family and himself at a young age. There are many things Frankie himself had to do which caused him to mature and become the status of an adult long before his time. While other boys and girls were out playing in the streets kicking rocks to pass the free time, Frankie and his brothers were walking around by the coal docks picking up the coal chunks that were left on the streets. From steeling food to try to keep his family living to going and living with relatives to get a higher and better job, Frankie didn't have much time for himself to grow and realize who he really was. This book was touching to the spirit and adjusting to the eyes.
As a young middle classed person, it showed me how it really was to live in times such as these for a poor family trying to make things work. It shows the relationship between mother and father and children and how they wanted the best for their kids. I couldn't put this book down and many nights sat with a box of Kleenex next to the bed as I sat and read. I would recommend this book to anyone who I thought would take it for what it's worth and understand just exactly what Frankie and his family had to go through to get to where he was in his life at the stories end.
While I was reading this book, I thought a lot about my friends and family. Living in a totally different time period made a difference but there where things that could apply to times of today. I would often read something that Frankie had to go through such as a death of someone, and I would think how would I be able to handle that at his age? Or the fact that Frankie started working when he was a young boy, I don't know how I would have been able to give up my childhood as easily as he did. Reading this book really made me think about how far would I really go to help my family survive. Frankie put not only himself on the line but all of his family members and even through the hardships loved them all unconditionally.
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B. Trainor (MSL quote), Summerville, sc United States
<2007-01-24 00:00>
Frank McCourt narrates his own autobiography for the audio edition. Rarely ever do I find this preferable to reading the book yourself...but listening to him recount the trials and inequities of life in Limerick, Ireland adds a dimension not found in the text. Having grown up aware of the social and economic disparity in the world and in life, McCourt has developed a cynical, yet optimistic tone and it resonates in his voice. Rather than pity himself, follow the footsteps of his father and many like him and chase his sorrows away with the pint, he has turned troubles into an entertaining memoir. With his voice you are convinced that he only wants to amuse you, rather than seek your sympathy (the only sympathy he seems to desire is for unsung heroes, such as his mother). You can't help but picture him slightly grinning throughout the performance. Even if you read the book, I recommend finding the Audio Cassette or CDs...he truly brings his work to life.
A sidenote: it also may be easier, since in the book he does not use quotation marks. You will spend some time differentiating between dialogue and narration.
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Peggy Vincent (MSL quote), Oakland, CA
<2007-01-24 00:00>
I have friends who found it impossible to finish Angela's Ashes because they found it relentlessly depressing with its heavy themes of aching poverty, absent drunken loving father and long-suffering mother - classic themes, it seems, in Irish literature.
But in spite of the truth of those parts of the story, it's impossible to finish this book without feeling a sense of triumph for the human spirit, even when surrounded by the realities of McCourt's Irish childhood and young adolescence.
It works, I think, because he writes the entire book in the child's voice - not an easy task to pull off, but he succeeded. And a child, of course, doesn't have much against which to hold up his own life; it's all he knows. So McCourt never comes across as sounding whiney, bitter, jealous, or put-upon.
Scene after hilarious scene is interspersed with real heartbreaking and harrowing and demeaning eqisodes, but the overall feeling I was left with was joy.
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Boris Zubry (MSL quote), Princeton, NJ United States
<2007-01-24 00:00>
Right from the begining, from the first word I felt the power of the story. It is captivating and shocking at the same time. Did I know all that before? I guess I did. Did I care? I guess I did not. And now I feel as I was shaken by a very powerful hand and my eyes have opened. Ireland and the Irish blaim the British for all their troubles but they should blaim religion for that first. Poverty, ignorance, alcoholism and the general misery should be all attributed to religion.
This book is quite well composed and it transferres you to the real depth of the human tragedy. Hunger, death, the numness... Men say a lot of promising words but they cannot keep the jobs even if they have one. Catholics, Protestants... What the difference? One drinks his wages away and another one take care of the family... Is that the difference? This book raised so many questions in my head.
Yes, I think we all should read it. This is an important book.
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Allyn (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-24 00:00>
If you haven't read "Angela's Ashes" and simply read a plot summary of it, you'll probably groan. In this book, Frank McCourt tells of his terrible Irish childhood in the 1930s and 40s, his alcoholic father, depressed mother, and the poverty he lived in. Before I read this book, I heard it described and privately thought, "That's really sad, but do I really want to read another one of 'these' memoirs?"
But "Angela's Ashes" is not remarkable for the story it tells, but for the way it is told. So many people have stories like McCourt's, only a few can tell them so well. As I read this book, I realized that while the events in it were usually horrible, McCourt didn't attempt to overdramatize them. He simply described them. And described them, I will say, with beauty. His words are filled intelligence, keen observation, and some incredible kind of humor that manages to unforgettably color the experiences and show the fighting spirit that lead McCourt out of his miserable existence. On the other hand, this understated and almost poetic writing style lends itself so well to describing the horrors of the author's life. Because of his wit, determination, and charm, displayed through his writing, we come to care deeply for the author's character, and his misfortunes impact us all the more deeply.
Many "prize-winning" books are too strange and artsy to really be appreciated; "Angela's Ashes" is just the opposite. A Pulitizer Prize winner, it will capture you with its rare beauty and astonishing power.
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1 2 Total 2 pages 15 items |
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