| Angela's Ashes | |
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First edition cover |
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| Author(s) | Frank McCourt (1930-2009) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Scribner |
| Publication date | 5 September 1996 |
| Pages | 368 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-684-87435-0 |
| OCLC Number | 34284265 |
| Dewey Decimal | 929/.2/0899162073 20 |
| LC Classification | E184.I6 M117 1996 |
| Followed by | 'Tis |
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 Limerick, Ireland, as well as 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. The book is written in the present tense and usually confines the narrator to the role of an un-bias reporter. Despite the hardship and poor working conditions that the book deals with, it is written with some amount of humor and light-heartedness.
Contents |
Born in Brooklyn, New York, on 19 August 1930, Frank (Francis) McCourt was the eldest son of Malachy and Angela McCourt. Frank McCourt lived in New York with his parents and four younger siblings: Malachy, born in 1931; twins Oliver and Eugene, born in 1932; and a younger sister, Margaret, who died eight weeks after birth, in 1935. Following this first tragedy, his family moved back to Ireland where the twin brothers, Oliver and Eugene, died within a year of the family's arrival and where Frank's youngest brothers, Michael (b. 1936) and Alphie (b. 1940), were born.
Malachy and Angela met and were married in New York. Before they get married, Angela emigrates to America and meets Malachy after he is done serving his 3 month sentence for stealing buttons. Angela become pregnant with Malachy's child, and with the help of Angela's cousins the McNamara sisters; Malachy marries Angela. Malachy does not like or does not think this marriage will last, so he attempts to run away to California, but he is unable to do so because he spends all of his money for the ride there at the pub. Angela gives birth to Francis (Frank), Malachy, the twins Oliver and Eugene and Margaret, who dies in childbed. Her death is what eventually prompts the McCourt family to move back to Ireland, to start life anew.
Life in Ireland, specifically in Limerick City, during the 1930s and 1940s is described in all its grittiness. The family lived in a dilapidated, unpaved lane of houses that regularly flooded. The McCourt's house was in the farthest part of the lane. Unfortunately, that was also where the only toilet for the entire lane was located. Frank McCourt's father taught the children Irish stories and songs, but he was an alcoholic and seldom found work. When he did, he spent his pay in the pubs. His family was forced to live on the dole since he could not hold down a paying job for very long due to his alcoholism. The father would often pick up and spend the welfare payment before Angela could get her hands on it to feed the starving children. For years the family subsisted on little more than bread and tea. They were always wondering when their next real meal would be and whether the kids would be able to have shoes for school. Despite all the hardships, many passages of the story are told with wry humor and charm.
Frank's father eventually found a job at a defense plant in Coventry, England, yet he sent money back to his struggling family in Ireland only once. As there were few jobs for women, their mother was forced to ask for help from the Church and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. Sometimes, Frank and his brothers scavenged for lumps of coal or peat turf for fuel or stole bread to survive; they also occasionally stole leftover food from restaurants at the end of the day. Angela's mother (a widow) and sister refused to help her because they disapproved of her husband, as he was not from Limerick, and felt he had the "funny" way upon him. Frank's father's issues led to Frank having to support his family as the "man of the house". Therefore, Frank started working when he was 14 years old. He would give some of his earnings to his mother feed the rest of the children. Frank spent most of his life without a father to teach him about the world and the things a boy needs to know to succeed in life. As a child, Frank went to elementary school along with the other boys his age; however, most schooling for the boys who lived in the lanes of Limerick ended there, at age thirteen. Though both his teacher, Mr. O’Halloran, and a librarian tell Frank to continue his schooling, it is not possible for him. The Catholic Church, though supposedly compassionate, will not give him any opportunity to continue.
In the damp, cold climate of Ireland, each child had only one set of ragged clothes, patched shoes, and lacked a coat. Frank developed typhoid and was hospitalized. Later, he got a job helping a neighbor who had leg problems; he delivered coal for the neighbor and, as a result, developed chronic conjunctivitis. The family was finally evicted after they took a hatchet to the walls of their rented home to burn them for heat. They were forced to move in with a distant relative who treated them very badly and eventually forced a sexual relationship on Frank's mother, Angela. When he and his mother go to the Christian Brothers to inquire as to any opportunity for a bright boy in Frank’s situation, they simply slam the door in his face. After his failure to be able to pursue any intellectual pathway, Frank starts his first job as a telegram boy at a post office. He may have had the capacity to rise above this job, but his circumstances refused him the chance. Though Frank did eventually manage to get enough money to travel to America, because of his poverty he had to scrimp and save and even steal to do so. As a teenager, Frank worked at the post office as a telegram delivery boy and later delivered newspapers and magazines for Eason's. He also worked for the local moneylender, writing threatening demand letters as a means of earning enough to finally realize his dream of returning to the United States. The moneylender died, after he returned to get sherry for her. He took money from her purse and threw her ledger of debtors into the river. The story ends with Frank arriving in Poughkeepsie, New York, ready to begin a new life at the age of nineteen.
McCourt Family
Others
One of the primary conflicts in the book is based around class differences. Throughout his life Frank is repeatedly put down due to his social stature, for example he is denied the position of altar boy despite his obvious intellectual superiority. As the plot progresses, however, Frank begins to realize that he can over come this disadvantage with hard work. An early example of this can be seen when Frank's soccer team achieves victory over the Ballincurra boys. Frank eventually realizes that in order to move up in social stature, he must look towards the United States as a land of opportunity. Another major conflict point is centered around guilt. Being a member of the Catholic Church, Frank is repeatedly reminded by his preachers of the consequences of committing any of the deadly sins. As Frank gets older, he finds it increasingly more difficult to deal with his own sexual desires. Eventually Frank acknowledges that even his firm faith in the Church cannot prevent his natural desires and learns to avoid guilt by confession.
After traveling to America [Where the book ends] Frank ends up working at the Bitlmore Hotel in New York City, where he remained until 1951. Frank was drafted during the Korean war to be stationed in Bavaria, Germany. After being discharged, Frank returned to New York and dabbled with several different jobs until he was accepted into NYU. After graduating in 1957 with a bachelor's degree in English, McCourt turned to teaching in New York schools. He then obtained his master's degree and traveled to Dublin in pursuit of his PhD, which he failed to accomplish.
Angela's Ashes won several awards, including the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography, the 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award (Biography), and the 1997 Boeke Prize. He was elected Irish American of the Year in 1998.
Many in Limerick agreed with McCourt about the city at that time.