Angela’s Ashes
Frank McCourt
The story is written from a boy’s point of view, and is about his growing up in Tipperary and move to the United States. He writes about his childhood, with a horrendous drunken father, poverty and illness, completely unsentimentally. The social commentary is very funny, terse and to the point.
Gavin felt the book only faltered when the arrival in the United States is portrayed from th child’s point of view – which, as the author was then 18, feels artificial.
McCourt is an excellent writer, and this is a very good book, highly recommended.
Gavin 7/11/99
Doreen found this book deeply affecting, as it dealt with the horrors of McCourt's childhood while still being funny. She noted that she had, however,
been a bit worried by McCourt's comments about the truthfulness of the
book. In interview he has described it as "a memoir not an autobiography." For Doreen this raised the unwelcome question of having to think that some of the story was not true.
Doreen 16/01/00
The frames have gone all funny - click to make it good.