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Title: Tis: A Memoir by Frank McCourt ISBN: 0684865742 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 29 August, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.74
Rating: 4
Summary: Isn't this memoir altogether a wonderful book? - 'Tis
Comment: Once again, Frank McCourt has captured the trials of his life using his very special narrative voice to make us chuckle while we despair right along with him, sometimes all in the same sentence! Humor starts in the very beginning with a very funny tale of having to share a bed with a naked, snoring priest. Perhaps in parts he is a little self-pitying, but a very emotional highlight is when his short story "The Bed" is read aloud by his college professor at NYU. The reflections on his relationships with his parents are remarkably honest, especially his trying to remember the good times with his Dad even though his memories are clouded with the "darkness" of his father's drinking and abandonment.
Although this book is not as good as "Angela's Ashes", I felt the same way as I neared the end: I was disappointed that it was ending. It's not so much that I really care so much about what happens to him going forward, it is the lyrical prose of his memory that is so captivating.
The ending is quite different from Angela's Ashes, and having gone through that particular episode very recently in my own life, I found some solace in knowing someone else's reflections on the topic. Besides, how can you top the ending to "Angela's Ashes"? Young McCourt realizes his childhood dream of getting back to the US (after poor and miserable childhood conditions in Limerick), gets off the boat and gets laid! Bottom line: If you loved "Angela's Ashes" you will like "'Tis" a lot.
Rating: 3
Summary: Too many missing pieces.
Comment: Having grown up in an Irish family in NY I loved reading Angela's Ashes. Although my father did not suffer through the poverty, his mother was a widow so he was raised by his Grandmother in Kilrush, he had many friends who did. What I found most disapointing about Tis were the gaps. Frank's picture on the cover does not show red eyes or terrible teeth,it shows a good looking man. Yet when he entered the army that was their first priority. There is nothing about a cure or a dentist. Also, he skips from teaching in Staten Island to Malachy and Michael having a bar and a great time in NY. How did that happen? Tis was a difficult read. It was not a book that I looked forward to coming home to. I had to force myself to continue. Frank McCourt has a wonderful gift but he fell short on Tis.
Rating: 2
Summary: 'Tis Boring
Comment: Angela's Ashes almost defied you to invent superlatives to describe its compelling richness and directness. 'Tis almost defies you to invent excuses to abandon it and read something else.
The ways of Frank McCourt's parents, and his family's survival in spite of them, gave Angela's Ashes its appeal. 'Tis is McCourt's tale of his arrival in America and his growth from teenager to middle age. His father was a drunk who abandoned his family. His mother was noble, but stubborn and self-pitying. McCourt seems to be all of these, by his endless tales of drunken pub visits, his sore eyes, his awkwardness, his poor wages, his daily little misfortunes. It seems every self-pitying moment is chronicled in endless detail. Then every time an interesting character comes along, they never last more than a few paragraphs.
As McCourt's father abandoned his family, so does Frank here--references to his wife and child amount to next to nothing. The same goes for the teenagers McCourt encounters in his teaching jobs. He dislikes and resents them.
Reading this, one asks, "Why write this?" Teenager comes to America. He's lonely. He's poor. He has pimples. He's drafted. The army is no fun. They yell at him. They teach him to type. He gets out of the army and works at boring jobs for lousy pay. Still awkward with women. Goes to university. Graduates. Teaches. Meets girl. Marries. Has child. Wait a minute--aren't there millions with the same story? Okay, there must be something special to merit a book. Oh yes. He has sore, red, oozing eyes. They never seem to clear up, as we are reminded, it seems, on very third page.
McCourt is a superb storyteller. This book has its moments of humour and storytelling excellence. They don't sustain the potential McCourt showed in Angela's Ashes, and there's nothing else to compensate for that. If you loved Angela's Ashes, don't read this book. You will be disappointed.
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Title: Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt ISBN: 068484267X Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 25 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: A Monk Swimming: A Memoir by Malachy McCourt ISBN: 0786884142 Publisher: Hyperion (Adult Trd Pap) Pub. Date: 02 June, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Singing My Him Song by Malachy McCourt ISBN: 0060955481 Publisher: Harper Perennial Pub. Date: 16 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Angela's Ashes ISBN: B0000507P6 Publisher: Paramount Studio Pub. Date: 05 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The McCourts of Limerick ISBN: 0767012577 Publisher: New Video Group Pub. Date: 26 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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