Synopsis
After years of teaching creative writing, Frank McCourt published his first book, thus obliging his many friends who had been urging him to write about his childhood--a subject they knew from the many uproarious and affecting stories he told about it. ANGELA'S ASHES traces the tortuous path of his life from his days in abysmal poverty in Limerick, Ireland, to his arrival in New York as a teenager, eager to start a new life.

Details
Publication Date:	1996-09-01
Edition Description:	Illustrated

Size
Length:	364 pages
Height:	10.0 in
Width:	6.5 in
Thickness:	1.2 in
Weight:	19.2 oz

Publisher's Note
The author recounts his childhood in Depression-era Brooklyn as the child of Irish immigrants who decide to return to worse poverty in Ireland when his infant sister dies.

Industry Reviews
"For the most part, his style is that of an Irish-American raconteur, honorably voluble and engaging. He is aware of his charm but doesn't disgracefully linger upon it. Induced by potent circumstances, he has told his story, and memorable it is."
New York Times Book Review - Denis Donoghue (09/15/1996)

"Frank McCourt...waited more than four decades to tell the story of his childhood, and it's been well worth the wait. With 'Angela's Ashes' he has used the storytelling gifts he inherited from his father to write a book that redeems the pain of his early years with wit and compassion and grace. He has written a book that stands...as a classic modern memoir."
New York Times - Michiko Kakutani (09/17/1996)

"...[W]hat is most remarkable is that he has managed to reenter his boyhood self so completely, while maintaining a quiet, sardonic, authorial distance from his early life, which gives 'Angela's Ashes' its rigor and power. Whatever scars McCourt bears from his childhood, they are not exorcised here. Only someone who has successfully battled with his demons could have crafted such a compelling work of art out of his own pain."
Los Angeles Times Book Review - Mary M. Morrissey (09/29/1996)

"An extraordinary work in every way. McCourt magically retrieves love, dignity, and humor from a childhood of hunger, loss, and pain."
Kirkus Reviews (07/01/1996)

"Unguarded and stunningly unpretentious, ANGELA'S ASHES creeps up on you with all the ghostlike force of a winter afternoon in Ireland....A story so immediate--so gripping in its daily despairs, stolen smokes, and blessed humor--that you want to thank God young Frankie McCourt survived it in part so he could write the book."
Boston Globe - Gail Caldwell

"The most gloriously unwholesome memoir of the year has to be ANGELA'S ASHES. The tale of an Irish childhood blighted by poverty, drink, violence, panic and despair and blessed by an author with a huge sense of the ridiculous plus the ability to forgive everyone, even himself. Give 'Angela' to anyone who loves a roaring story in language so fresh it sometimes comes as a shock to the system."
Washington Post Book World - Rebecca Pepper Sinkler (11/24/1996)

"ANGELA'S ASHES is not and will never be...'a classic memoir,' because its author lacks an internal editor, a sense of developing structure. The language is monotonous and the incidents are repetitive. The characterizations are perfunctory.... ANGELA'S ASHES goes on at relentless length, and is actually quite a job to finish. Laboring through it, the reader also begins to feel certain nagging irritations and doubts. One concerns the relation of text to fact."
New Republic - R. F. Foster (11/01/1999)