Angela's Ashes review

Title of the Book: Angela's Ashes
Author: Frank McCourt 
Number of Pages: 363
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Review:

Imagine owning one set of clothes, having to beg for coal for a fire as well as food to eat.  For Frank McCourt, this was reality.  His entire childhood he had to struggle to provide for his family since his father wouldn’t.  He lived in extreme poverty in both America and Ireland and had to work to pull himself out of poverty.  Three of his siblings died while he was growing up and Frank was lucky to have made it through his childhood alive. 

                One of the few good things to come from this rough childhood was McCourt’s unique writing style.  In his memoir, Frank combines the American and Irish ways of speaking as well as his childhood experiences to make a memorable story.  Frank’s unique experiences as a child is what made the memoir so special.  Also, he wrote his story without restraint.  Embarrassing or not politically correct memories were all included in the story.  This lack of restraint allows the reader to connect with the characters in the story making it special.  One instance where this happens is when Frank describes how the other children at school make fun of him.  He says, “On our way to school Leamy’s boys laugh at us because the tire pieces are so thick they add a few inches to our height and the boys say, How’s the air up there?”(Pg. 105).  Few people have had to deal with having to wear cut up tires for shoes, but everyone has been made fun of at some point or another and that is what make the memoir so relatable.  

                I would recommend this book to anyone that asks.  It is an extremely well written story and it is written in a way that allows the reader to feel like they are experiencing the events.  It is a story that makes the reader feel anger, happiness, sadness, greed jealousy and every other emotion.   The language is easily understood, but it keeps the story interesting because of its inclusion of Irish jargon. Overall, it is a great read that never gets old.

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 10, 2018 at 6:44 PM

    From what you just described I would like to read Angela's Ashes in the future. I would like to read this because I really like when the author writes it in a way that you feel like you are experiencing everything the characters are within the story. Some point in time I need to give this book a read because I also want to know what happens to the character that you described.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 15, 2018 at 11:33 AM

    This book sounds interesting. I'm half Irish and my great grandparents immigrated from Ireland to Canada. I think I would enjoy reading this book because I have family from Ireland.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Perfect Storm - A True Story of Men Against the Sea

Image
  Title of the Book: The Perfect Storm Author: Sebastian Junger Number of Pages: 236 Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Review: A “nor’easter” propelled by hurricane-force winds was not what the sword fishing crew of the Andrea Gail had planned to confront. The events they encounter, and their conflict with nature provide detailed accounts of a storm that takes place and puts the lives of the entire   crew and their families waiting on shore for them against a the sea. Descriptions of sword fishing procedures and equipment used, maritime jargon, and meteorological phenomena all come together in this narrative to describe a historical event that was a rare circumstance. These details are an important part of the plot, and without these maritime terms, we wouldn’t be able to visualize the whole picture of the dangers within the storm in the way the actual characters experienced it. The drama and events that unfold from this catastrophic mix of weather conditions out at sea in the No...
Read more

Into the Wild Review

Image
Title of the Book: Into the Wild Author: Jon Krakauer Number of Pages: 203 Rating: ☆☆☆☆ Review: Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer will either leave you eager to run away into the wild to try something spontaneous, or dead set on simply staying inside with a good book to spark your imagination. The story opens up with a man named Jim Gallien picking up hitchhiker Alex (later revealed as Christopher McCandless) on his journey to Anchorage, Alaska. After leaving his family and friends behind without any notice at all, Christopher McCandless starts out on an expedition into the wilderness to live an adventurous life of exploration and solitude, but only survives four months in the wild before his body was discovered. Krakauer reaches out to several individuals who encountered McCandless on his journey, and follows the events that led up to his sudden death that left the people who knew him shocked. While the story of Christopher McCandless is quite intriguing itself, Krakauer’s pe...
Read more
Image
Title of the Book: The Glass Castle Author: Jeannette Walls  Number of Pages: 289  Rating: ☆☆☆☆  Review: Try to imagine yourself in a different life. A life where your family doesn't stay put in one area or even a house, in a family that doesn’t conform to society's standards, a family that lives in the middle of the desert. Would you want to live like that? This is how Jeannette Walls lived her childhood life. Walls writes her memoir based on the type of childhood she grew up in. Starting her story off with a memory she had when she was a three-year-old cooking herself hot dogs on the stove. She had got her dress under the pot and her dress went up in flames, her skin burned brutally. That is one of many crazy events that happened in Jeannette’s life as a child with irresponsible parents. Jeannette Walls one of four Walls children, describes her dysfunctional family and how they lived through day to day life with an imaginative alcoholic father with empty prom...
Read more