 |
ANGELA'S
ASHES (1996) |
It's just after WWII and everyone if fleeing Ireland for
America, and Frank McCourt's parents make the decision to
return back to the poverty of Ireland. At this stage, his
mother has already had 5 children, one dead. When the arrive
back in Ireland, they settle down in Limerick, but their
father has the terrible Irish 'affliction' - he drinks.
McCourt's father loves the bottle so much that his family
take second place whenever he earns any money, leaving his
mother to try and scrape together anything to feed her children.
This is McCourt's story of how he grew up in poverty to
eventually achieve his dream of returning to America.
This book has received countless awards including the Pulitzer
Prize, the National Book Critics' Circle Award and the Los
Angeles Times Award as well as a bestseller that sat at
the top of the charts for 2 years and been made into film.
And yet, with all these accolades, I still can't say I really
enjoyed the book. Despite that, if nothing else, you are
compelled to keep turning pages, wondering when will the
situation begin to improve - because you have to assume
for him to have written the book, it has to improve at some
point!
However, McCourt narrates from a dispassionate and distant
point of view, which doesn't necessarily allow you to bond
with the author, no matter . The subject matter is tragic
and depressing and will fill anyone with horror at the way
he was raised. Yet McCourt tries to maintain some semblance
of 'my life was terrible, but there is always someone else
who is worse off.' Mind you, he can say this now looking
back down the passage of time... And I will give Mr McCourt
full credit for knowing how to end a book! It's abrupt and
even if you didn't like the book, it does rather leave you
wishing there was more to go.
Anyhoo, if you are ready to read a well-written if depressing
book about being raised Catholic in a poverty-stricken environment,
then grab this and read it. Otherwise, become like the many
others who confess to having 'scanned it, but I couldn't
read it...' It is an eye-opening book and worth at least
a look.
Return to top
|
'Tis
(1999) |
Having finally achieved his childhood dream of returning
to Ameirca, Frank McCourt now has to rise up and move from
poverty to a place of comfort in society. Initially, McCourt
is given a foot in the door by a Priest who befriended him
on the ship across the Atlantic, but McCourt isn't really
given a chance until the Korean War breaks out and he is
drafted into the army. After the war, he still flounders
a bit, making mistakes anyone could make, before finally
taking advantage of a bill which allows him to go to university
despite having never graduated from high school. From there,
he goes onto teach high school students.
I enjoyed this book a bit more than the first one, even
though again, McCourt failed to make me like him. Maybe
it was the fact now his life progressed in stages and it
wasn't one long dark and depressing haul to get from A to
B as it was in Angela's Ashes. He continues narrating from
a distant point of view, as if he was but an observer, unemotionally
translating what someone elses life looks like to him. With
this, he plays the role of naiviety probably until well
after it is unnecesary. He also seems to play down the good
times, for example - a fleeting sentence describing getting
a Master's degree, as if to admit that he was finally getting
somewhere would be to detract from the hardship he has constantly
endured and is sharing with us.
Like the first book, he manages to finish rather abruptly,
leaving you wondering what happened in the 10 years between
its conclusion and his success with Angela's Ashes. One
wonders if he will write a book describing his success in
writing a Pulitzer Prize winning, and still manage to make
himself out to be hard done by. I apologise, McCourt's story
didn't raise much sympathy in me - it is has been a long,
hard and tragic road for him to finally achieve his dreams,
and I am glad he did, but he just didn't endear himself
to me in the way he narrates that climb...
