Angela's Ashes: A Memoir

"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."

So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank's mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank's father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy -- exasperating, irresponsible and beguiling -- does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father's tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.

Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank's survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig's head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors -- yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness.

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. more

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Smarter Choice Paperback, Angela's Ashes: A Memoir Frank McCourt returned to America when he was nineteen. For many years, he was an English teacher at Stuyvesant High...	23,982 reviews *smarter certified	$9.10	See it
Angela's Ashes Like New	BookCloseouts 19 reviews	$5.99 Coupon 1 coupon available Code:freeshipping Detail: Free Shipping with $35 at BookCloseouts Expires:Dec-31-2009 Restriction:pass: bookcloseouts.com	See it
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir (Books) General Biography & Autobiography - Sometimes it's worth the wait. Having waited 40 years to tell his story, Frank...	Barnes & Noble	$16 $11.52 Coupon 2 coupons available Code:J7M3C9V Detail: 20% off single item when you use Master card at Barnes & Noble Expires:Dec-31-2009 Restriction:Unknow Code:No Code Required Detail: Free Shipping on orders of $25 at Barnes & Noble Expires:Jun-30-2010 Restriction:see site for more details	See it
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir Pages: 368, Edition: 13th Printing, Paperback, Scribner	Amazon 11,406 reviews	$10.88 Coupon 1 coupon available Code:No Code Required Detail: FREE Shipping on orders over $25 at Amazon. Expires:Dec-31-2010 Restriction:Some restrictions apply. See site for details.	See it
Paperback, Angela's Ashes: A Memoir	Daedalus Books 2 reviews	$9.95	See it
Paperback, Angela's Ashes: A Memoir General Biography & Autobiography - Sometimes it's worth the wait. Having waited 40 years to tell his story, Frank...	Barnes and Noble 20 reviews	$11.52	See it

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Recent Reviews

3/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Sep-18-2009; Angela's Ashes; Angela's Ashes gave great insight into the circumstances of the unfortunate poor class in Ireland. A realization of what our parents and grandparents went thru before imigrating to a place that held hope and promise for the future. A...; read full review | report as inappropriate

4/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Sep-14-2009; VERY GOOD BOOK....VERY MOVING.; This audio book was very good....especially entertaining with the author, Frank McCourt, reading it with his Irish accent. Really got you feeling that you were actually in Ireland. I recommend that you watch the movie after reading the...; read full review | report as inappropriate

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Sep-11-2009; Great Read; I knew nothing about Frank McCourt until I heard that he died. His death was reported on NBC Nightly News, and something about him intrigued me. I picked up the book from Amazon and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of Mr. McCourt's memoir...; read full review | report as inappropriate

2/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jul-27-2009; Angela's Ashes; I read the book. It is moving and sad, but I don't understand how the author won a Pulitzer Prize for it. It was difficult to wade through the first four chapters. It got easier, but only because I made up what I thought the dialog...; read full review | report as inappropriate

Selected Reviews

4/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Sep-14-2009; VERY GOOD BOOK....VERY MOVING.; This audio book was very good....especially entertaining with the author, Frank McCourt, reading it with his Irish accent. Really got you feeling that you were actually in Ireland. I recommend that you watch the movie after reading the...; read full review | report as inappropriate

3/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Sep-18-2009; Angela's Ashes; Angela's Ashes gave great insight into the circumstances of the unfortunate poor class in Ireland. A realization of what our parents and grandparents went thru before imigrating to a place that held hope and promise for the future. A...; read full review | report as inappropriate

2/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jul-27-2009; Angela's Ashes; I read the book. It is moving and sad, but I don't understand how the author won a Pulitzer Prize for it. It was difficult to wade through the first four chapters. It got easier, but only because I made up what I thought the dialog...; read full review | report as inappropriate