Angela's Ashes

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This article is about the book. See Angela's Ashes (film) for the film.

Angela's Ashes is a memoir by American author Frank McCourt, and tells the story of his childhood. He was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1930, the eldest son of Malachy and Angela McCourt. He is joined by brother Malachy in 1931, twins Oliver and Eugene in 1933, and a sister, Margaret, in 1934. After the death of his sister Margaret when she was only a few weeks old, his parents moved back to their native Ireland, where his younger twin brothers both died within a year of the family's arrival and where Frank's youngest brothers, Michael (b. 1936) and Alphie (b. 1940) were born.

Life in Ireland, and specifically life in Limerick City, in the 1930s and 1940s, is described in all its grittiness. The family lived in a hovel on a dirt lane and shared one outdoor toilet with all their neighbors. Although his father taught the children Irish stories and songs, he was an alcoholic and seldom found work, and so they lived on unemployment("the dole") or charity--for years subsisting mostly on bread and tea.

Frank's father finally gained employment during World War II at a defense plant in Coventry, England. It was easy to drink away most of his wages, and only once did he send any money back to the struggling family in Ireland. Their mother was destitute, as there were almost no jobs for women at the time. Angela's sister and her widowed mother begrudged any help they had to give her, because they disapproved so strongly of her husband--not only was he a drunk, but also from Northern Ireland, with a strange accent and what Angela's family called "the odd manner".

In the damp, cold climate of Ireland, the children had only one set of ragged clothing, patched shoes and no coats. Frank developed typhoid and chronic conjunctivitis. Sometimes Frank and his brothers would have to scavenge for lumps of coal or peat turf for fuel, or steal bread to survive. The family were finally evicted after Frank yanked out wall beams to burn for winter heat, causing the roof to collapse. The family were forced to move in with a distant relative who treated them badly.

In the very Catholic Limerick of that time, everyone lived with hypersensitivity to sin and fear of damnation, and the Church offered little comfort to people of the slums. Adults, including school teachers, are portrayed as harsh and punitive toward children, and bigoted concerning anyone perceived as "different" in any way. However, many sympathetic characters are described, such as Uncle Pa, Mr. Timoney and a Franciscan priest.

Teenage Frank found various means to save money and was finally able to realize his dream of returning to America. The story ends as he sailed into Poughkeepsie, New York, to begin a new life at the age of 19. After U.S. Army service, Frank McCourt went to college and taught English in New York City public schools for nearly 30 years. This book can be read simply as a depressing account of life in a Limerick slum of the 1930's, but McCourt interweaves both lyrical and humorous prose about that life as seen through a child's eyes. McCourt followed Angela's Ashes with two more autobiographical works: 'Tis and Teacher Man.

Angela's Ashes won several awards, including the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award (Biography). The memoir was adapted to a feature film Angela's Ashes in 1999 starring Emily Watson and Robert Carlyle, and released by Paramount Pictures (in the US) and Universal Studios (outside the US through its joint venture with Paramount, United International Pictures).

Coincidently, the novel was part of the writing curriculum for students at Stuyvesant High School during the early 21st century, the same school where Frank McCourt had previously taught as an English teacher.