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It took me 12 years before reading its 1999 sequel, 'Tis (short for "It is"). Reason: I wanted to let the cute and innocent boy Frank and his brothers Malachy, Michael and Alphie to stay as long as possible in my mind. I did not want them to grow up. I wanted to hold on to the image of those boys running and walking aroun
My brother was the one who told me to read Frank McCourt's 1996 Pulitzer-winning memoir Angela's Ashes. It was one of the books that made me who am I today: a voracious reader.It took me 12 years before reading its 1999 sequel, 'Tis (short for "It is"). Reason: I wanted to let the cute and innocent boy Frank and his brothers Malachy, Michael and Alphie to stay as long as possible in my mind. I did not want them to grow up. I wanted to hold on to the image of those boys running and walking around the impoverished and dirty street of Limerick searching for coal and food. Angela's Ashes struck me that much that I wanted the book's memories to stay so I don't want to imagine that those boys have grown up into men. In fact, when Frank McCourt (1930-2009) died two years ago (July 19, 2009), I did not want to hear about it. I neither read the article on the paper nor looked him up at the website.
So both succeeding memoirs, 'Tis and Teacher Man (2005) had to wait. When I joined Goodreads in 2009, I added these books. One of my first friends Charles was reading these and he liked 'Tis so much that he also (same as his rating for Angela's)gave it a 5-star rating. I promised him that I would read this too but I still could not let go of Angela's Ashes memories. My Peter Pan-like behavior still won over my promise. Then Charles had a hiatus in GR and I had another reason to bury these books at the bottom of my tbr heap of books.
Last month, Charles suddenly popped up in GR after two years of absence. Worse, he also said that he would attend our group's meet up so we will see each other face-to-face. How will I explain to him that I have not yet read 'Tis? So, I looked for this book. No need to romanticize the image of the McCourt boys. Wake up, K.D. and face the reality. People grow up, age and die. These are facts of life. Even if reading provides us the opportunity to create fictional worlds in our minds, facts are facts and Frank McCourt has long been dead.
So, I picked up 'Tis and started reading. Oh I hated the first part. What? The boy Frank is now a young man at 19 years old and left Ireland on MS Irish Oak going to New York? I struggled accepting the truth and could not relate to his grown up experiences: almost becoming a sexual prey by a Catholic priest in a hotel, US Army in Europe as a Corporal, his visit back to Ireland, graduating from NYU despite not finishing high school and his first years as a teacher at McKee Vocational and Technical High School and the prestigious Stuyvesant High School where his secret came out: He is the teacher who never finished high school. The story still retains that old playful and childlike tone that I felt in love with in Angela's Ashes. McCourt has this uncanny ability of making simple dialogues catchy and witty. His tongue-in-cheek comments about Catholic and sex are just outrageous and can put smile even during gloomy days at home. Gloomy because my daughter had an accident and she is now wearing a shoulder sling, my wife feeling so busy sending and fetching our injured daughter to and from her school, one of the maids is on vacation while the other one is 5-month pregnant with no husband.
However, the second part of the book is awesome. Angela McCourt, the mother pays a visit to her sons in the US: Frank, now a high school teacher, Malachy, a bar owner, Michael, an American soldier and Alphie, living in Manhattan. Then when Angela dies in the US, she is cremated and her ashes are bought back to Ireland and was scattered in some tombs of famous people there. It explains the title of the first book as it reminds me that I had that question before in my mind.
I am glad I finally read this book. Now, I can face Charles and say that I've read the book and we can talk about it. And during the discussion, I'll bear in mind that all these things – the meet ups, the friends we make along the way, my daughter's injury, my pregnant maid without a husband, etc – all these things will pass. What is important is how we live the present. And as they say, if you should do something, you might as well give it your best. 'Tis your best that you should give life.
'Tis.
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I love his way with language, how he can describe something that is both horrifying and humorou
I seem to be somewhat in the minority here, but I enjoyed 'Tis more than Angela's Ashes. Perhaps because I was already so invested in Frank's life, so intrigued to see where he went next. Or maybe because he had control over his life now he is an adult. While he is still deeply affected by his circumstances, he is now in a position to attempt to change them, so it was a little less depressing to read.I love his way with language, how he can describe something that is both horrifying and humorous. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say I loved finding out where he goes and how he got there.
Looking forward to reading the final volume soon!📖
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This is the continued story of Frank McCourt (see Angela's Ashes) and we pick up upon his arrival in America. His eyes are still troublesome, a testament to the poverty that has followed him across the ocean. The cold-water flat he rents is both freezing and tiny, he finds. He must stick close to other Catholics (initially), and the land of opportunity, it seems, offers little opportunity to the likes of him.
Where the first book seemed startling and heartbreaking in its sudden contrast to American life, this book invokes the same feelings but with an added twinge of guilt for the fact these were our ancestors mistreating and being mistreated. These lives were real--not a distant story, but a tangible one. McCourt's voice too is nothing short of poetry throughout:
"We said a Hail Mary and it wasn't enough. We had drifted from the church but we knew that for her and for us in that ancient abbey there would have been comfort in dignity in the prayers of a priest, proper requiem for a mother of seven.
'We had lunch at a pub along the road to Ballinacura and you'd never know from the way we ate and drank and laughed that we'd scattered our mother who was once a grand dancer at the Wembley Hall and known to one and all for the way she sang a good song, oh, if she could only catch her breath."
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When I read Frank McCourt's writings I observe so much tenderness and wisdom mixed in with his anger. Anger over his poverty, his squinty eyes, and his Irish brogue.
These themes in his writing may come from his age. He's unafraid of what people might think of his younger self and he has the perspective of the passage of time. He was six
This is Frank McCourt's second memoir and it covers McCourt's time in America from young adulthood to middle age. I felt it was nearly as good as Angela's Ashes.When I read Frank McCourt's writings I observe so much tenderness and wisdom mixed in with his anger. Anger over his poverty, his squinty eyes, and his Irish brogue.
These themes in his writing may come from his age. He's unafraid of what people might think of his younger self and he has the perspective of the passage of time. He was sixty four when he published Angela's Ashes and four years later 'Tis was published. That's a lifetime to ponder a memoir about your youth.
I can't help but thinking of another great writer named Norman Maclean who also published his first book well after 60. There is also tremendous wisdom and tenderness in Maclean's writing.
5 stars. While this memoir's setting isn't quite as exotic as his first book, his insights about adapting to a new country and NYC moved me greatly.
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I listened to this book as read by the Author. I recommend that, as I read Angela's Ashes and enjoyed it a lot as well, but there is something special about the reading by the author that adds a diminsion to the work that you can't quite catch reading it.
Up front, many are uncomfortable with this work and Angela's Ashes because of the language, which is quite blue in places. I don't find it the most endearing quality myself, but as a memoir it captures the language
Do I Detect an Irish Brogue? ;)I listened to this book as read by the Author. I recommend that, as I read Angela's Ashes and enjoyed it a lot as well, but there is something special about the reading by the author that adds a diminsion to the work that you can't quite catch reading it.
Up front, many are uncomfortable with this work and Angela's Ashes because of the language, which is quite blue in places. I don't find it the most endearing quality myself, but as a memoir it captures the language of the army, the loading dock, the teachers lounge and the bar. Be warned up front, if you are not comfortable hearing swearing, then this is NOT the book for you.
That having been said, listening to McCourt read, I caught the poetic, lyrical, stream of consciousness attributes that I knew were present in Angela's Ashes, but hearing the cadence, the lilting roll and flow of the language; there are parts of this book that come close to poetry. It is an amazing and endearing quality that is rarely achieved in most modern literature.
McCourt has a rare transparency with his insecurity, his dysfunctional relationships, his family dynamics, his romance with his first wife and his transition to teaching and moving toward writing is very revealing and almost has a therapeutic value as you listen and can recognize the human condition in general.
My one criticism, is that, perhaps, this book stretches a little long for the material he includes. The actual narrative events can be condensed to a very short story line. It is the embellishment, the thinking out loud and the dancing around in what becomes a farily discernible pattern by the end of the book to where, it "almost" becomes a little tedious, although this is faint criticism when weighed against the overall impact of the book.
A very entertaining listen and read! It is hard to follow-up on a Pulitzer Prize. The goal is lofty and the expectations overwhelming. My opinion is this book does not surpass its progenitor, but it certainly comes close and provides more of the same type of reading and entertainment.
I look forward to reading, and hopefully hearing the next installment.
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What happens when your dreams come true and you're still not happy?
After the shocking story of "Angelas's Ashes", any sequel was likely to suffer and unfortunately this one does too.
This is the often told tale of a young man arriving in the big city and the adventures that befall him.
Frank McCourt arrives in New York aged 19, joins the US army and eventually becomes a teacher. It's everything he wanted or dreamed about as a child in Limerick. But he's still not happy.
Like his fat
All a bit sad.What happens when your dreams come true and you're still not happy?
After the shocking story of "Angelas's Ashes", any sequel was likely to suffer and unfortunately this one does too.
This is the often told tale of a young man arriving in the big city and the adventures that befall him.
Frank McCourt arrives in New York aged 19, joins the US army and eventually becomes a teacher. It's everything he wanted or dreamed about as a child in Limerick. But he's still not happy.
Like his father, he has problems with alcohol, and it causes him problems with jobs and relationships.
There is a lot of grown up introspection from Frank, no longer the ignorant kid from the lanes. He sees a lot of racism in America, not just black and white, but anti-Irish, whites against Puerto Ricans, Italians looking down on everyone and so on.
Of course there are still lots of very funny lines and sequences as you'd expect from McCourt. Everyone of Irish descent that he meets, tells him where their mother and father came from in Ireland.
Frank tells stories about lots of amazing characters, and these are so many that he must have amalgamated his own and other stories. Frank is a master storyteller and I suspect teller of tall tales, but that doesn't make them any the less entertaining.
The sadness continues when his father who swears he has given up the drink arrives from Ireland, he is taken off the boat in restraints, blind drunk.
His mother, Angela, is lonely in America, and she irritates Frank, even though he knows how much he owes her.
His brothers are falling prey to drink, and the cycle of alcoholism continues.
I suppose it's the story all families go through: kids grow up, parents become a burden: kids have kids and it begins again.
At the end of Bob Geldof's autobiography, he is standing outside Wembley late at night after the Live Aid concert, when a man says to him "Is that it?"
And as Frank McCourt would say "'Tis."
I will read the final volume of memoirs "Teaching Man" but I expect it to be more of the same. Entertaining but nothing more than that.
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McCourt's story is mesmerizing. From what he came from to what he become is beyond inspiring and thought provoking; however, I have some qualms with McCourt.
Knowing what he knows about the dangers and pitfalls of alcohol, why the hell does he touch the stuff? It goes on to ruin several of his relationships and opportunities and yet he never comments on this. He never touches on the point of alcoholism in families and how his father's drinking did or did not directly affect
Couple of points here:McCourt's story is mesmerizing. From what he came from to what he become is beyond inspiring and thought provoking; however, I have some qualms with McCourt.
Knowing what he knows about the dangers and pitfalls of alcohol, why the hell does he touch the stuff? It goes on to ruin several of his relationships and opportunities and yet he never comments on this. He never touches on the point of alcoholism in families and how his father's drinking did or did not directly affect him. Furthermore, how the hell does his brothers open a bar once they both arrive in New York? What about the devastation of drinking did these guys not get?
I regret that his order is off kilter and much of the time the reader has no idea McCourt's age or at least the year. At one point he was 29 and graduating from college. The next, he's having a kid at 38.
McCourt constantly harps on random people in his life complaining about mundane things. Then, a girl breaks up with him and he's about to commit suicide. Or he complains about high school kids being obnoxious and unruly.
And who the hell has sex with a prostitute after entering the incinerator rooms of Dachau? McCourt's pretty screwed up, or so it shows in his memoirs.
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It is so amazing and inspiring to see where Frank comes from, the slums of Ireland, with his essentially single mother to college, eventually graduate school, & later a teacher in New York City. It's a long road out of the slums & out of his own head of fears, limitations, & low self esteem to the pla
I enjoyed this sequel to "Angela's Ashes", because of Frank McCourt's ability to recollect dialogue, and his way of writing the words so well that you can just HEAR the Irish accent while you read.It is so amazing and inspiring to see where Frank comes from, the slums of Ireland, with his essentially single mother to college, eventually graduate school, & later a teacher in New York City. It's a long road out of the slums & out of his own head of fears, limitations, & low self esteem to the place where he is able to make something of himself..
One thing about Frank as an author is that he tells the truth, even if it's ugly and shows his own flaws. I struggled with him drinking too much & repeatedly visiting the Irish pubs, especially after growing up WITHOUT his alcoholic father who couldn't prioritize his wife & children ahead of his addiction for drink & abandoned them all to poverty & a life of misery. It was hard to read about Frank stopping for a beer after school, & then one beer turns into a nine hour binge, and then oh well what's one more when the wife is already going to be pissed, so what's the use... I couldn't help but think Frank was possibly self sabotaging his life & relationships. While I appreciate honesty, I'll offer my own: I am disappointed with Frank for this drinking, & if it weren't for that, I would have easily given the book 4 stars.
What I love about Mr McCourt is that he never fails to make me laugh out loud, even in the midst of the grimmest material. He is funny! I laughed a lot.
I also have a great respect for the language, cultural, and financial struggles that immigrants have when they first come to this country.
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Mccourt was my English teacher for the 1986-87 school year in High school, which is why I still think of him as "Mr. McCourt," rather than "Frank," in spite of his informal writing style. He did not include me as a character in this book (although he mentioned some of my classmates), which disappointed me at the time, but actually may be a good thing in retrospect. Having one's awkward adolescence immortalized in such incisive prose might be a bit overwhelming. I'm just glad that Mr. McCourt did it for the rest of us.
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It is quite easy to understand till the beginning that this version of Frank McCourt is an older, more mature one, that, during the narration, becomes more and more aware of the hypocrisies and incoherences of the society, in a country where theoretically everyone should have the opportunity to make his own fortune but where practically it's harder than ever to make it happen.
Fran
The narration of Frank McCourt's life continues in this volume, in which he faces the adversities of life in America.It is quite easy to understand till the beginning that this version of Frank McCourt is an older, more mature one, that, during the narration, becomes more and more aware of the hypocrisies and incoherences of the society, in a country where theoretically everyone should have the opportunity to make his own fortune but where practically it's harder than ever to make it happen.
Frank is fully conscious of his "inferiority" and often rant about it and about his jealousy towards the university students. I really liked this part of the book, because I could totally feel what F. McCourt was saying: it was a mighty, spontaneous desire to gain all the possible knowledge. And I appreciated the importance he gave to teaching, too, however, in particular in the last part of the book, I started to disagree more and more with his tendency passivity, his inability to impose his opinions and himself over others, a behavior that made me remember of his father.
The last part of the book, then, was utterly sad. While in Angela's Ashes there was hope, in this one there was just sadness, that type that comes from disillusionment and old age, partially.
Anyhow, his writing style is still the same, even more acute I may say in stressing the inconsistencies of life.
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I listened to this on audiobook and having it told with the appropriate accent brings the stories to life.
It wasn't until the second half of the book that it really came to life for me. McCourt's descriptions of his teaching at the vocational college on Staten Island and later at community college and an upper-class high school in Brooklyn were fascinating, sometimes hilarious and probably ring true for all teachers of teenagers. The way Frank won students over to his side, or at least got them discussing books, even if they weren't the books on the syllabus, was wonderful. His reverse psychology which resulted in an entire class enthusiastically acting out five of Shakespeare's plays was amusing and inspiring. The fact that he could become a teacher at all, having never gone to high school in Ireland himself, is both proof of 'the American dream' and a sad indictment on the American education system of the time, especially considering McCourt's extreme poverty when starting out as a teacher, unable to pay his way in life and certainly unable to save.
On the whole, I enjoyed this book, although I never warmed to the author himself. Perhaps if I heard these stories told by the man himself as a self-deprecating comic over a pint of beer, I would appreciate it more. It was also a shame that he didn't paint longer portraits of some of his friends, many of whom seem to have been real characters, such as Horace at the docks and his neighbour Virgil Frank. In fact, the whole book seems to be rather self-centred, and this is what lowers my rating. Entertaining, but not memorable enough.
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Despite the obvious roadblocks in his path, Frank's ingrained desire to better himself is further inspired by watching the office workers on the bus, overhearing them talk about their children or grandchildren going to college. A stint in the Army makes him eligible for the GI bill, and he begins to take courses at NYU. And the love of a classic American blonde beauty makes his dream of a clean job, a clean wife, a clean house and clean children seem finally within his grasp.
McCourt has a way with language. His direct, present-tense style has immediacy to it that just keeps me reading. He doesn't shy away from that which is painful, embarrassing, or downright depressing. I was anxious to see him succeed, but I was frustrated with his apparent inability to get on with it. In relating the story of the young Frank McCourt he comes across as painfully lacking in self-esteem – a born "loser." His first book ended on such a high note of hope and opportunity; I was expecting more of the same, and this one didn't quite deliver.
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Above all, his message is that of an encouraging teacher. What a privilege it must have been to be in his class! Clearly, he lived and breathed literature, but he is saying more than that. Everyone has a story to tell. No matter who you are, no matter how humble your background, if go back to your personal roots, you'll find something valuable to say and possibly give solace to someone else.
If you loved Angela's Ashes, read the next two books. Frank McCourt is awesome no matter what he writes.
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In my opinion...
The constant theme: Individuals are always fluctuating between feeling "better than" and "not good enough". And, sometimes life is nothing but hard work.
The most endearing part of the book: Frank's vantage point of his adult students when he teaches community college, and those same students gratitude towards him
Would have gladly read more about: all the crazy "characters" he comes into contact with (i.e.-the elderly Italian with the loud tie collection and rare book who wills money to Frank & with which Frank buys his first house)
Overall: This book is more disjointed than Angela's Ashes & I was expecting to see Frank GROW, yet sadly did not...in some ways, he's repeating the life of his alcoholic, dead-beat dad in this sequel. Mistakes are a foundation for learning - Frank does plenty of "book learning" but little "real learning"...
He's still poor as a churchmouse of course but he finds a job sweeping the floor and emptying ashtrays in the lobby of the Biltmore, then moves on to a warehous
Quite some time ago I reviewed McCourt's first autobiography, Angela's Ashes. 'Tis is the second book which picks up as Frank is sailing from Ireland to America, where he expects to see everyone has a tan and beautiful white teeth, i.e. the Hollywood version. First lesson, New York City and its people don't much resemble his expectations.He's still poor as a churchmouse of course but he finds a job sweeping the floor and emptying ashtrays in the lobby of the Biltmore, then moves on to a warehouse job on the docks. He rents a place at a rooming house with a strange landlady and her handicapped son. Eventually he talks his way into NYU despite his lack of a high school diploma. Many of my friends will be happy to learn he got in because of his reading habit. He had read classic literature that most American youth would disdain. At length he becomes a teacher, a teacher with a girlfriend no less.
You may remember he had three surviving younger brothers; they all came to this country. His mother finally came here as well and made a career of carping about everything American. The book ends as the McCourt sons and their children take Angela's ashes back to Limerick.
I raved about the first book. I laughed my head off reading parts of it and other parts tore my heart out. Young Frankie's poverty-stricken childhood was terrible. However, I was disappointed in this book. It's written in the same stream-of-consciousness style and he has the same sense of humor, and parts of it made me laugh out loud. The adult Frank McCourt, though, isn't such a sympathetic character. There were times when I wanted to take him by the shoulders and shake some sense into him. I wanted to say, "Stop feeling sorry for yourself and for heaven's sake stay out of Irish bars!" But I must admit McCourt is a good man at heart and he's certainly a better writer than I'll ever be.
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As with most Irish story-tellers, McCourt's memories were probably embellished for effect as they were retold. I'll forgive him that, knowing that his overall
Many years ago, I was warned by our Irish parish priest not to bother reading Frank McCourt's books. He said they weren't true. So here I am, missing that brogue, as our friend has died. I dove into the audio versions. They did not disappoint. Frank McCourt's prose is true poetry. Whether or not he played with the facts is another matter.As with most Irish story-tellers, McCourt's memories were probably embellished for effect as they were retold. I'll forgive him that, knowing that his overall perception of his experience was accurate. One thing the McCourt brothers had going for them was charm. Frank also had a profound insatiable love of literature and a fascination for people, no matter their walks in life. How did he manage to escape the slums of Limerick to the slums of New York and then on to university without ever going to high school? the answer is charm and a passion.
So take the facts with a grain of salt. Choose the audio version and enjoy his voice.
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I adore "Angela's Ashes". So it would be not an exaggeration to say I was frightened of go on with trilogy - it seems unlikely that such powerful book as "Angela's Ashes" can be repeated. And yes, "'Tis" is a not bad book, in parts is brilliant even. But sweet irony, kindness and sharpness of the first book turn here into sad bitterness, anger and frustration. Young and then middle aged Frank became a person who not easy to love as Frank the kid. This bitterness is quite understandable 3,5 stars
I adore "Angela's Ashes". So it would be not an exaggeration to say I was frightened of go on with trilogy - it seems unlikely that such powerful book as "Angela's Ashes" can be repeated. And yes, "'Tis" is a not bad book, in parts is brilliant even. But sweet irony, kindness and sharpness of the first book turn here into sad bitterness, anger and frustration. Young and then middle aged Frank became a person who not easy to love as Frank the kid. This bitterness is quite understandable due all he had to struggle with in his childhood. Nevertheless a scrappy structure of the book, tediousness of the same writing techniques which were so good in "Angela's Ashes" but here simply don't work anymore, a lot of unimportant characters which take the time from the main ones, make a sequel just a shadow of its brilliant predecessor. ...more
He did become an English teacher. He was promoted to Stuyvesant HighSchool, the best in the city. Later he taught creative writing.
He received the Pulitzer Prize (1997) and National Book Critics Circle Award (1996) for his memoir Angela's Ashes (1996), which details his childhood as a poor Irish Catholic in Limerick. He is also the author of 'Tis (1999), which continues t
Francis "Frank" McCourt was an Irish-American teacher and author. McCourt was born in Brooklyn; however, his family returned to their native Ireland in 1934.He received the Pulitzer Prize (1997) and National Book Critics Circle Award (1996) for his memoir Angela's Ashes (1996), which details his childhood as a poor Irish Catholic in Limerick. He is also the author of 'Tis (1999), which continues the narrative of his life, picking up from the end of the previous book and focusing on life as a new immigrant in America. Teacher Man (2005), detailed the challenges of being a young, uncertain teacher who must impart knowledge to his students. His works are often part of the syllabus in high schools. In 2002 he was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Western Ontario.
He died Sunday, July 19, 2009 of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. He was 78.
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