Review Of The Book 'Angela's Ashes'

Poverty, Perseverance, and Humor, oh my! Pulitzer Prize winning memoir “Angela’s Ashes” written by Frank McCourt is a phenomenal tear jerking memoir written about Frank’s childhood growing up in extreme poverty. What were most memorable about this book were Frank’s poverty, perseverance, and humor. You’ve never seen real poverty until you’ve read this book. His father, Malachy McCourt, is an alcoholic who uses all of the dole money (welfare) to get drunk, leaving his family with no money for a whole month which unfortunately happens quite frequently. However, no matter what type of situation his poverty put him in; Frank McCourt never gave up or lost his optimistic spirit that so greatly warms the hearts of everyone who reads this book.
His perseverance through the struggles of his childhood is something monumental. I think it’s really important to look at how strong of a person he is for such an early age. It really is remarkable the way we have the audacity to complain about something like not having the brand new iPhone or some other complaint that is entirely too materialistic for anyone’s own good. When the McCourt’s move houses, their house becomes the bathroom for the whole neighborhood, the neighbors bring buckets of “waste” (you know what I’m talking about) and dumps it into their outhouse in the backyard. During a rainy season the “waste” over flows and seeps into their house under door cracks. They then move upstairs with a peculiar way of making things more uplifting, they call the upstairs “Italy”. “She thinks we should stay upstairs as long as there is rain. We’ll be warm through the winter months and then we can go downstairs in the springtime if there’s a sign of dryness in the walls or the floor. Dad says it’s like going away on our holidays to a warm foreign place like Italy. That’s what we’ll call the upstairs from now on, Italy” (96). I think this is the best example of his perseverance in the book, he finds some way to uplift this terribly disgusting and saddening event. I think we all need to take a lesson from McCourt in his
Whether it be more impressionable events like when Frank and Paddy Chlossey go “on the mooch”, or Frank, Quasimodo, and Mikey go “up the spout” to peak at Quasimodo’s sister. Even the more subtle and less memorable moments such as “Mam calls from the bottom of the stairs, Frank, come down and have lemonade and a bun. I don’t want it. You can keep it. I said come down this minute for if I have to climb these stairs I’ll warm your behind and you’ll rue the day. Rue? What’s true? Never mind what’s rue. Come down here at once. Her voice is sharp and rue sounds dangerous. I’ll go down” (183). There was always an implication of humor, which is important to have so that English teachers can ask “What do you think weighs more in this book? The humorous events or the sad events?” And it’ll take everyone in the class a couple of minutes to think of an answer. Without the humor in this book, it would just be a really sad and heart breaking book. You might as well watch that commercial with the orphan puppies on repeat for several hours, you’d get the same feeling. I personally don’t think that this book would have won a Pulitzer Prize if it wasn’t for the humor, it really is that important of a theme in this