Angela's Ashes.

[mrbitterness]

by Frank McCourt.

Anyone read it yet?

 

[winston churchi]

No.

But friends who grew up, and are still living in Ireland have informed me :

'it is a load of rubbish.'

Americans seemed to be the ones fasinated with it.

 

[Palestinian Jew]

I thought it was good, but I have heard a lot of people say that the housing wasn't that bad as he describes it.

 

[winston churchi]

I never read it.

A woman I know who grew up in Limerick which is supposedly where the story takes place, told me it was a pack of lies. It was exaggerated for the fantasy I gather.
This woman is probibly about eighty more or less so I am sure she knows the truth there.

 

[etoile]

I read it! I read it in English class last term. Frank McCourt used to teach in my school. Maybe that's why the English department likes it so much.

As for my own opinions, I think it's written well, and there's a hopeful note in it. They say there's a sequel, 'T is, but I don't want to read a sequel; the first is always better.

Among the many things I liked about the book, one is worth mentioning. It conveys the message that it's good to have a better-quality life. When we were reading, a girl in my class told us about how, in the Soviet Union, people wanted to go to America because "even the poverty-stricken had running water." Well, here is the same attitude: if one compares the McCourt's poverty level in America and in Ireland, it's evident where it is better to live in poverty.

It has a positive outlook in general. Some memoirs I read are all complaint. This one is narrative.

Suggested reading: All Over But the Shoutin', by Rick Bragg.