“Angela’s Ashes: A Memoir”  

     By Frank McCourt

2011 Book Review #63

Booklist Review

It is a wonder that McCourt survived his childhood in the slums of Depression-era Limerick, Ireland: three of his siblings did not, dying of minor illnesses complicated by near starvation.

Even more astonishing is how generous of spirit he became and remains. His family lived…barely…in a flat so miserable that every year they had to cram themselves into an upstairs room when winter floods made the place only half-habitable. That upstairs room was "Italy"…warm and dry.  Downstairs was Ireland…wet and cold.

Father sat up there drinking tea, while mother Angela often could not rise from bed, so depressed was she. Or mother sat by the fire, waiting for father to return; when he did, frequently drunk on their little money, he would line up the boys and extract promises that they would die for Ireland. Dying was what everyone seemed to do best: the little sister, the twins, the girl with whom Frank first had sex, the old man Frank read to, too many boys from school, too many neighbors, too many relatives.

McCourt spares us no details: the stench of the one toilet shared by an entire street, the insults of the charity officers, the marauding rats, the street fights, the infected eyes, the fleas in the mattress . . . Yet he found a way to love in that miserable Limerick, and it is love one remembers as the dominant flavor in this Irish stew. 

My Thoughts:  I loved this book!  It is a beautifully written life story of a very sensitive nature.  Please don’t miss it!  Actually, I read this book last year and just discovered I hadn’t reviewed it.