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Angela’s Ashes
The human spirit overcomes the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Angela’s Ashes is an autobiography of author Frank McCourt’s life growing up in America and Ireland in the 1930’s and 1940’s, but as a reader that’s a fact I had to continually remind myself of as I laughed, cried, cursed and cheered its characters from beginning to end. McCourt employs his natural "gift of the gab" to recreate the story of his impoverished youth.
The son of Angela and Frank Sr., Frank McCourt, was born in New York City. His was the reason for his parents rather ill-fated life together as his mother became pregnant shortly after they two met. The family, later joined by four other siblings, lives a brief time in America until the unexpected death of the McCourt’s youngest child shortly after her birth. The family then returns to Angela McCourt’s hometown of Limerick, Ireland.
McCourt paints a brutal yet heartfelt picture of his early childhood. As he depicts the hardships of hunger and facing cold winter days when necessities like boots and coats and coal for the fireplace where luxuries, I found myself saddened wishing I could reach inside and lend a helping hand.
But most of the book, I found myself strangely between laughing and cursing his parents. His father, who was often drunk and unable to keep down a job, made me fume with anger for the innocent family he left behind, hungry and cold at home. Other times, I laughed out loud as young Frank recalled memories of his father’s drunken stupors and songs of Irish pride. As for his mother, I felt her anxious despair in knowing her husband’s whereabouts and whether the family welfare check once again disappeared in a boozy haze. Her inability to see that her husband was devoid of change and her persistence to stay with him was another exercise in frustration.
While much of his life is filled with hardship and pain, I found myself, like young Frank, looking for the positive in every little ray of light that touched the family’s life. For example, the few nights Frank Sr. did come home with money or the small acts of generosity by neighbors and friends, who are also poor themselves. Then as McCourt grows into a teenager, his discovery of the beauty of literature like Shakespeare and his own talents as a writer. Or earning his first job in his early teens and the pride he takes in bringing home money to support the family, as well as to save for his own planned voyage back to America.
Despite much of the despair, McCourt’s tale is told with a touch of humor and tenderness, which keeps you turning each page. More importantly, the tale offers a poignant testament to the resiliency and determination of the human spirit.
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