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Frank McCourt
A serio-comic memoir of dire poverty in Brooklyn and in Limerick, Angela’s Ashes (1996), an award-winning title, rocked the publishing world with the reception it received. The story, combined with the writing, levelled by its humour, proved to be a winning combination, and the memoir genre has not been the same since. McCourt takes the reader from his birth in Brooklyn to emigration to Limerick, and finally to his return to New York City at the end of his adolescence.
More by Frank McCourt
Teacher Man. 2005
‘Tis. 1999
About Frank McCourt
Articles
“The Limerick of Angela’s Ashes,”
McCourt, Frank, “When Irish Tongues Are Talking. How I Told My Colleagues, Family, and Former Countrymen I Was Writing about Them.” Slate, March 27, 2007.
Ryan, Sean, “A Look at Why Frank McCourt’s Book, Angela’s Ashes, Touched Such a Sensitive Spot with Some Limerick People,” Limerick.com
Interviews
Academy of Achievement, June 19, 1999. [Inducted 1999]
“Author Profile [and] Interview,” BookReporter
Frank McCourt, An Online NewsHour Focus, 1999. [audio interviews]
Weich, Dave. “Staying after School with Frank McCourt,” powells.com, [2006]
Awards for Angela’s Ashes
American Booksellers Book of the Year (ABBY) Award (1997)
Boston Book Review Literary Award: The Rea Non-fiction Prize (1997)
Los Angeles Times Book Prize (1996)
National Book Critics Circle Award (1996)
Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography (1997)
Royal Society of Literature Heinemann Prize (Heinemann Prize no longer exists)
Reviews of Angela’s Ashes
Allison, C. “Powerful But Troubling – There Are No Excuses,” BookHelpWeb
BookBrowse
Brothersjudd.com, July 1, 2000. [Note the Webliography at the bottom of the review page.]
Brown, Mary Daniels, Notes in the Margin, February 12, 1998.
Donoghue, Denis, “’Some Day I’ll Be in out of the Rain,’” The New York Times on the Web, September 15, 1996.
Kakutani, Michiko, “For an Outsider, It’s Mostly Sour Grapes in the Land of Milk and Honey,” The New York Times on the Web, September 13, 1999.
Perring, Wyndham, Review of Angela’s Ashes, Metapsychology Online Reviews, Mar. 17, 2001. Vol. 5, No. 11.
SimonSays.com
Discussion Guide for Angela’s Ashes
Growing up Poor
Ireland does not have a monopoly on poverty, nor does the Depression-era, but the titles below, (except for the Web site), do focus on Ireland in the early part of the 20th century.
Brown, Christy. My Left Foot. 1954.
Campaign against Child Poverty
Doyle, Evelyn. Tea and Green Ribbons. 2002.
O’Carroll, Brendan. The Mammy. 1994. [Fiction]
Sheridan, Peter. 44: A Dublin Memoir. 1999.
Alcoholism in the Family
It’s difficult to know if the poverty engenders the alcoholism or vice versa, but it is unquestionable that alcoholism spreads its influence throughout a family for generations. Alcoholism knows no political, economic, or social borders.
Cheever, Susan. My Name is Bill: Bill Wilson – His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous. 2004.
David, Jay, ed. The Family Secret: An Anthology. 1994. [Personal essays.]
Keith, Michael C. The Next Better Place: A Father and Son on the Road. 2003.
O’Faolain, Nuala. Are You Somebody? 1997.
St. John, Linda. Even Dogs Go Home to Die. 2001.
Depression Era
The Great Depression was a large factor in the McCourts’ poverty, as jobs were scarce. The Depression had a permanent effect on not just the adults, but the children as well. It also signalled the real beginning of social assistance.
Broadfoot, Barry. Ten Lost Years: Memories of Canadians Who Survived the Depression. 1973.
Brokaw, Tom. An Album of Memories: Personal Histories from the Great Depression. 2001.
Explorations: Children & the Great Depression. Digital History
Lange, Dorothea. Photographs of a Lifetime. 1982. [Dorothea Lange was a renowned Depression-era photographer.]
Orwell, George. The Road to Wigan Pier. 1937.
Irish History in the 20th Century
In Angela’s Ashes, we are witness to more than crushing poverty: we see something of the social issues—the education, the health care, the influence of the Catholic Church, and the resulting emigration from Ireland.
Bielenberg, Andy, ed., The Irish Diaspora. 2001.
Brown, Terence. Ireland: A Social and Cultural History, 1922-2001. 2004.
Coogan, Tim Pat. Ireland in the 20th Century. 2004.
Garvin, Tom. Preventing the Future. 2005.
Rutherfurd, Edward. The Rebels of Ireland. 2006. [Fiction]
(Created with the help of the Arnprior Workshop participants. All Web sites accessed June, 2007.
Maureen O'Connor, WordsWorthy/Connecting Books and Readers/ maureen@wordsworthy.com )
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