The account of the incredibly difficult but congenial life of an Irish family tells not only about the twists and turns of life and stereotypes, but also about the atmosphere of the 1930s and 1940s.
This autobiographical confession is an impressive testament to the pure Irish character, written with deep feeling and great stylistic skill. "Looking back on my childhood, I can't understand how I could have survived at all. It was a miserable childhood, all right: a happy childhood is not worth writing about. Worse than a common miserable childhood is a miserable Irish childhood, and worse still is a miserable Irish Catholic childhood." So begins the memoir of Frank McCourt, who was born in Brooklyn during the Depression to recent Irish immigrants and later grew up in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Without bitterness, but on the contrary, with a distinctive humour, he describes starvation, disease, filth and hardship that even Charles Dickens would have shuddered at. Frank's father, Malachy, an incompetent, talkative alcoholic, rarely worked, and when he did, he usually laundered the wages, leaving his pious, broken wife, Angela, to beg in local churches and charities. But villainous as he was, he could also be gentle, and he could tell wondrous tales of great Irish heroes. When he eventually disappears in England, he leaves his son with the impression that he is supposed to be trying to make a better life. The stunning power of the novel lies in the perspective of the young protagonist, who depicts unimaginable poverty, the failure of his father, family tragedies and the cruelty of his surroundings with purity of soul, empathy and forbearance. The now-classic novel Angela's Ashes won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997, has been published in more than 25 languages and sold millions of copies. The film version starring Emily Watson, Robert Carlyle and Michael Legge (1999) was also a success. The film was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Audience Award at the Karlovy Vary IFF (2000).
