Review and Discussion: Angela’s Ashes
May 30th, 2010 § 15 Comments
welcome to the first readalong selection, the Pulitzer Prize winning book, Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt!
if you haven’t read this book, please keep in mind that this is a discussion, so there may be spoilers. the review below will be spoiler free, but the discussion questions might be spoiler-ish.
Published by Simon & Schuster
December 1996
362 pages
my rating: 8/10
My Review
i have had Angela’s Ashes on my bookshelf for years and managed to not read it. it took a random twitter conversation with @SuziQOregon over at Whimpulsive to spawn the readalong and here we are!
i had a serious love/hate relationship with Angela’s Ashes. i loved Frank’s voice and the sweet, childish honesty with which he wrote. i also loved the family, all of them, in their imperfect glory. and yet, the misery and suffering that were portrayed was often overwhelming. i was frustrated and wanted to shake some sense into the drunken Malachy, and then cry when Angela was out begging. to some degree, i was also angry with the failings of the Church, the government, and Ireland in general. and somehow, McCourt managed to write about everything with such impassivity that i couldn’t decide if i should be mad at him for not being angry or just rejoice in his youth with him. he was very passionate, but not the way i would have expected, and it just threw me for a bit of a headspin. altogether, it was a lovely book and i’m glad to have read it, but even after having finished the book and settled into my thoughts, i can’t seem to put a label on my emotional response. much like the following line, which is one of my personal favorites, the book and the characters pulled in every emotional direction possible.
I think my father is like the Holy Trinity with three people in him, the one in the morning with the paper, the one at night with the stories and the prayers, and then the one who does the bad thing and comes home with the smell of whiskey and wants us to die for Ireland.
though this is written and published as a memoir, it is true as a biography (it won the Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography, not Fiction). the book follows Frank from his birth in Brooklyn, New York back to Limerick, Ireland where he and his family spent the remainder of his youth. he was the oldest of seven children (one of my favorite scenes was in regards to the censorship of birth control advertisements) and they lived mostly in extreme poverty. written in the stark honesty of a boy, Frank describes the nearly unsurvivable conditions of their apartment, with its single community outhouse right outside their door that would fester in the summer and the downstairs that would flood when it rained. his father, Malachy, was unable to maintain employment for more than a few weeks at a time and would spend his last penny on alcohol, inciting their mother Angela and forcing her to rely on welfare and begging to survive.
I said where is your father? Drinking. That’s where he is. There isn’t a penny in the house. He can’t get a job but he finds money for the drink, money for the drink, money for the drink, money for the drink.
when things got particularly bad, the boys would steal bread or rummage for scraps of coal to make a fire. and it was absolutely heartbreaking to read. but, throughout his childhood, Frank managed to maintain his health (barely) and his sanity. he turned to the Church and to his education as a means of mental survival and it clearly shaped the future of the boy who came to write this book. several people along the way encouraged him to continue his education, think for himself and not settle for less. we can only silently thank them for doing so, because the story might have ended very differently otherwise (with no written record of it to boot).
It’s lovely to know the world can’t interfere with the inside of your head.
the writing style is probably a big reason for the success of this book. though Frank McCourt waited over 60 years to write and publish Angela’s Ashes, it is clearly written in the voice of the boy Frank. his innocence and simplicity is absolutely charming and you can’t help but love him for it. i found that the first 30-40 pages were a little slow and the voice took some time to get situated, but it quickly became appropriate and almost necessary as the story continued, particularly in Frank’s fixation on his own sins. his voice carried through and above the underlying suffering of his childhood and made this a surprisingly uplifting book about hope and happiness, despite it all. somehow, a very sad story that is full of ache became funny and hopeful, defying the odds.
The master says it’s a glorious thing to die for the Faith and Dad says it’s a glorious thing to die for Ireland and I wonder if there’s anyone in the world who would like us to live.
in the end, it’s difficult to say what the book is about – religion and family loyalty and drunkenness and the youthful innocence that allows a boy to see things with such honesty and passion, maybe. and, it’s also difficult to say how i felt about it – sad, touched, amused, frustrated. mostly, i’d say that the book was profound in a way that many books aren’t, full of meaning and intention, without being overly pushy about it. though it wasn’t perfect, neither is life. and i think that’s the point.
Other Reviews
if you read this and wrote a review (either for the readalong or otherwise), provide the link below and i will add it to the list!
Discussion Questions
**** SPOILER ALERT ****
here are some questions to get the discussion started, but feel free to offer up your own. and as always, please be respectful of others opinions and have fun!
- what was your favorite (or least favorite) scene?
- based on your reading, what is your impression of Ireland? and do you think it is accurate?
- in the McCourt family’s situation, did you place fault for their suffering? was Malachy worse for having the drinking problem and for abandoning his family? or was Angela just as guilty for tolerating it and not working herself? what about the distant family?
- which cover art do you think best captures the essence of Angela’s Ashes?
- do you intend to read the sequel ‘Tis? and what do you expect from the second installment in McCourt’s life story?
thanks for stopping by, and if you have a chance, come join in the upcoming readalong selections! next month we will be reading Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie.
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This was a memorable book, even if it did start off a bit slow. I really liked McCourt’s descriptions and use of repetition in the memoir. Although much of the McCourts’ life was full of hardship (I fully blame Malachy–the father–for his selfishness, and I wanted to knock him around, too), I thought the creation of Italy was an inspiration.
Here is a question I wonder about — would the McCourts have been better off if they had stayed in the United States instead of emigrating back to Ireland, or would they have suffered much the same problems?
Overall, I thought this was a fantastic, engaging book, with compelling story-telling. And as for being Pulitzer-worthy?
‘Twas.
i often wondered how things would have been different had they stayed in New York. i think they would have continued to struggle regardless and i don’t know what welfare in the U.S. was like at the time, but they probably would have been forced to rely on something of that sort. Malachy being unable to hold a job (and Angela being rather fertile!) really put them in the worst of situations along the way.
i was really surprised, though, that they went back to Ireland for the support they would receive from their families and that was nearly nonexistent. shouldn’t there have been more support there? or is that a cultural thing that i’m just not understanding?
I would have thought they’d have more support in Ireland, too. I suppose when everyone is having tough times financially, it can be tough to support others, even if family. And there was that element of judgment the family had: if only Angela hadn’t married that northerner with the Presbyterian look about him…
I heard about the movie based on the book, but I’m not sure if I could watch it; when the kids were young it seemed like an awful lot of misery.
Yay for you for following through with this. I, on the other hand, am lame and still haven’t finished the book. Life and time got away from me this month and I’m only up to about page 60.
I’ll be back later this week to weigh in on the discussion questions.
no worries. life tends to do that.
i knew that the end of the month would be crazy so i actually read the book early in the month to make sure i’d get through it. we’ll be here whenever you finish!
I enjoyed reading this book, and frankly I didn’t think I would.
I think that the family thought they would receive more support back in Ireland than they actually did, but if nothing else it seems like “Uncle Pa” was the closest thing young Frank had to a father figure. Malachy Sr. was completely useless and I can’t imagine how he was able to face other men knowing that he was taking food away from his family by drinking his wages away (would the three children have lived?)
I was surprised at the class system that appeared to exist in Ireland, which prevented Frank from becoming an altar boy and furthering his education.
Not really related to much of the story, but my favorite line of the book: “Shakespeare is like mashed potatoes, you can never get enough of him.”
Has anyone seen the movie version?
i was also surprised that Malachy was able to face his family and others after his behavior, with apparently little remorse for his actions. i think there is a good chance that the other children would have lived if they had food and money to see a doctor when they needed. it really was heartbreaking to think about the possibilities…
lol, it’s lines like those that made the book so palpable, i think. if Frank hadn’t been so optimistic and charming throughout it all, i don’t think i would have enjoyed the book.
i didn’t even realize there was a movie until just recently, but i will definitely be checking it out when i get a chance. have you seen it?
I haven’t seen the movie, but I just put it on my Netflix queue.
[...] little slower, it was still an eventful month here. we had our first ever Readalong selection with Angela’s Ashes and if you haven’t had a chance to hope over and discuss, you definitely [...]
I love love love this book. I have listened to all his books on audio, narrated by Frank himself, and it adds so much to the story to hear it that way.
The last quotation you posted is hilarious and is exactly why I love his writing style.
And I agree that the beginning was the hardest, when all the babies died. :/
ooh, that’s good to know that all of his audiobooks are narrated by him. i’d definitely be interested in picking up another of his books in audio if that’s the case.
and yes, the last quote is one of my favorites from the book. when i read things like that, i want to meet the boy Frank and just give him a hug.
He sings all the songs, too! It’s awesome.
haha, now that i need to hear! i’m going to see if my library has Angela’s Ashes on audio just so i can listen to that.
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