Angela's Ashes

[liberty]

I finished listening to this one between service calls; it is an interesting yarn, but it does not paint a very attractive picture of Irish society of the 1930s:

Angela's Ashes is a 1996 memoir by the Irish-American author Frank McCourt. The memoir consists of various anecdotes and stories of Frank McCourt's impoverished childhood and early adulthood in Brooklyn, New York and in Limerick, Ireland. It also includes McCourt's struggles with poverty, his father's drinking issues, and his mother's attempts to keep the family alive. Angela's Ashes was published in 1996 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. A sequel to the book, 'Tis, was published in 1999, and was followed by Teacher Man in 2005.

[rubato]

"... it does not paint a very attractive picture of Irish society of the 1930s:

You don't say.

yrs,
rubato

[Sean]

It would be more interesting if the stories were true and accurate. Angela's Ashes is part fact, mostly embellishment and (in the words of Angela herself) "It didn't happen that way. It's all a pack of lies."

[MajGenl.Meade]

I'm waiting for the hot new review of 'The Count of Monte Cristo' to see whether it's worth borrowing from the library.

[liberty]

I'm waiting for the hot new review of 'The Count of Monte Cristo' to see whether it's worth borrowing from the library.

Ok general making fun of me are you now. Have you have read it and if you have, what do you think?

[MajGenl.Meade]

Yes I was just a little. Yes I have, twice. I found it less compelling than "The Queen's Necklace".

Regarding "Angela's Ashes" I thought it a tiresome recitation of the commonplace, although a comparison with the younger McCourt's "A Monk Swimming" covering similar material may be an interesting exercise. It does have a clever title. Since the first book is fresh in your mind, I would (seriously) appreciate your reading and commentary upon the second one.

Meade

[liberty]

Yes I was just a little. Yes I have, twice. I found it less compelling than "The Queen's Necklace".

Regarding "Angela's Ashes" I thought it a tiresome recitation of the commonplace, although a comparison with the younger McCourt's "A Monk Swimming" covering similar material may be an interesting exercise. It does have a clever title. Since the first book is fresh in your mind, I would (seriously) appreciate your reading and commentary upon the second one.

Meade

I would if I could General but the only free time I have I use to listen to audio books in the company car between service calls. I drive about four thousand miles a month and have a lot of windshield time. I have little time to read but a lot a time to listen. My reading is limited to articles and short stories. I will see if I can find it on disk in my library.

[rubato]

Yes I was just a little. Yes I have, twice. I found it less compelling than "The Queen's Necklace".

Regarding "Angela's Ashes" I thought it a tiresome recitation of the commonplace, although a comparison with the younger McCourt's "A Monk Swimming" covering similar material may be an interesting exercise. It does have a clever title. Since the first book is fresh in your mind, I would (seriously) appreciate your reading and commentary upon the second one.

Meade

I didn't bother to finish Angela's Ashes. It was too relentlessly awful a story. And it failed my SILs requirement that her book club not read books about "drunks or dead babies".

[MajGenl.Meade]

Not an Alice Cooper fan then?