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I would want to warn you ut had funny parts and very depressing parts =D I would recommend this to anyone. Recently I did a book report on this book and loved every part of it.
Frank McCourt's Memoir is a treasure to read and one which left me laughing, cheering and crying all at the same time. With Frankie's tribulations of an alcoholic father spending all his wages at the pub, too little or nothing to eat, loss of family and enduring Catholic School he seemed to remain unaffected by it all. An innocence of sorts. This is a must read. I highly recommend it. It is such a wonderful, however tragic story. I just reread this book all in one sitting. Despite the hardships throughout the book with alcoholism, poverty and premature death there were clever and hopefully moments as well leaving me with a "Hurrah" for Frankie.
It plumbs the depths of our dysfunctional society, and resonates there in our psychic malaise. The world does nothing except interfere with the inside of your head. No other response is possible when a reader is presented with such anguish, and repressed anguish, emotionless anguish.I am uncertain why readers are interested in a story of such unredeeming misery. The book is not a triumph of the human spirit.
(TRC 03-05-01) (TRC Final Revision 08-17-09) (A corollary of this perception is that white folk like to hear about other white folk in extremity, as it relieves them about the misery they may be inflicting on those who are not white). It is thus evil, and profoundly depressing. There is no other way to describe it. The book is a symbol of the catastrophe of our civilization, or even of our species.
It is the everlasting struggle for your mind, a battle you must fight tenaciously and without rest forever. And in America (on page 363) there is the statement, ".a great country altogether." Hummmmm. It is made of the Damp, the Drink and the Dump, otherwise known as the Church. Rather, it is the ravings of a simple ego seeking to survive as does any dog, though a literate one in this case. Even though the author may not have intended such an effect, once the book was published it became part of it. Or, there must remain in our society many persons of repressive Catholic background who remember their miserable Catholicism while coming of age.But then I do know the interest the story elicits. ASHES ONLY ASHESREVIEW: McCourt, Frank. The author goes on to claim (on page 202): "It's lovely to know that the world can't interfere with the inside of your head." Oh, no, this is disingenuous.
I will demonstrate how the author accomplished it, whether by craft or chance and in his understated manner. The author furthers this point (on page 247) by having the young boy think: "It's a mystery. The book is part of that milieu, culturally perverted, the "dumbed-down" of every value and decency. Angela's Ashes. That's what the Damp, the Drink and the Dump do. Sliney (on page 353) imparts to the young Frank: "What I want to tell you is, Never smoke another man's pipe." That's what the entire miserable life of the boy is: smoking another man's pipe.So there you have it: miserable hopelessness, hell, messy inside of your head, life as mystery, and smoking someone else's pipe. There is such guilt in our society because of our materialism and hedonism that the book performs a catharsis in its readers. The popularity of the book is the indicator of our malaise.The book made me feel unclean and violated in mind and in emotion.
It casts us immediately into a hopeless existence. New York: Scribner, 1996.Angela's Ashes is the recitation of a life of poverty suffered by an Irish boy in the middle decades of the 20th century.The book is repellant. It is an ugly book despite the superficial charm of its language. Oh, Angela, you could go to hell for that, and Mam says, aren't I there already, Bridey." It is hell, a special hell created just for the Irish because they believe in it so fervently. Nothing could be more dysfunctional, and thus a reflection (writ small) of our times. That's what the priests and the masters tell you, everything is a mystery and you have to believe what you're told." Thus life is stupidity compounded with the refusal to use the rationality that the universe endowed you with.
The grossness of the father sucking the snot out of his infant son's nostrils unfortunately will stay with me forever. The ashes are those of Angela's poor, hopeless fire, and those dead, sour, caked and soggy ashes encrusted on another man's pipe.I am happy the author survived his childhood, if indeed he has, and made as an artist a minor masterpiece of a major misery.
It is a memoir of identity with a vengeance. The bad childhood is thus the standard for life and art.
The relentlessness of that language deceives its readers about its repellant nature. There must be a masochistic element in the readership of the book.
The novel culminates with the wisdom distilled from his life that Mr. Then (on page 145), the author's mother tells us that she is in hell (as are all of us who read the book): "Bridey laughs.
The members of this society seek to punish themselves, as evidenced elsewhere by the horrible, frightful and vulgar behavior in our entertainment media and our personal relations. Immediately at the beginning (page 11), the author writes: "It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while." Do you understand how perverted is this statement.
Very pleased. The book arrived on time and I was very pleased. It was in good condition and the purchase was problem-free.
I know it won a Pulitizer Prize but I was expecting much more. Book was interesting.
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