Angela’s Ashes
I have read a few memoirs now and believe me when I say this is fantastic; possibly the best I have read to date. When I got to the middle of Angela’s Ashes, I thought, “this is Pulitzer worthy” only to find the book was (is) a Pulitzer winner after all! How did I not see that right at the start? I mean, the gold sticker is on the cover. [FacePalm]
Frank McCourt’s story starts in the USA, where he and some of his siblings were born, and where one of the siblings died. While still young, his family moved back to Ireland with the hope for a better life. But, as life would have it, this did not turn out to be the case. In the book, his father is alcoholic and struggles with disillusionment and sadness. His mother, is a resilient pillar, finding ways to keep the family alive while battling her own nightmarish losses. The children are children, and resilient, their eyes seeing, their ears listening, their feet running, their little bodies forming against all odds. The life that Frank describes in this memoir is hard, very hard – and would be difficult to read were it not for the ingenious child narrator approach.
When we see the world through the eyes of a child, and grow with the same child, we have the opportunity to hold difficult stories with lightness. I laughed at various points because children make us laugh with their perspective. We think it is cute, sweet…or it shows us how ridiculous something seems [though they do not intend to show how ridiculous a thing may look or seem]. When you pull away, step away for a moment and return to your adult self, you realise what a gift we have in the child narrator otherwise, an adult telling of this story would leave the heart in tatters.
This memoir will hold you captive from the very first sentence to the last. You will not skip a single detail because you won’t want to miss anything. It is that good. Your heart will break, terribly…but not completely…because children – their very existence seems to spell hope. And so, you will read on and on, and you will be glad you did.
Sometimes I will read a book and write about it. Sometimes I will read a book and it is not good enough for me, and I do not even finish it or write about it even if I finish it. Some books I enjoy and forget immediately. When I enjoy a book, I tell people about it. But some books you do not only tell people about. You buy them, and you keep them. You want to read them again and again. And you want to be sure, that if ever you have children, that they too can immerse themselves in their beauty [the good and difficult]. Angela’s Ashes is one of those books for me.
