Details
Synopsis
Arriving in the United States as a poor, fairly uneducated young man, Frank McCourt became an accomplished English teacher and author. This is the story of his incredible transformation, a follow-up memoir to the Pulitzer Prize-winning ANGELA'S ASHES. A New York Times Notable Book in 1999., Frank McCourt continues the story of his impoverished life which he began in ANGELA'S ASHES, using his characteristic charm and self-deprecating humor to describe his military service in Europe and his return to New York, where he struggled to gain an education and eventually became a teacher. While most of the book sparkles with his Irish wit, the story darkens a bit when McCourt reveals that he eventually felt compelled to leave his wife and family, seemingly duplicating his own father's betrayal, which was the primary cause of the relentless poverty which haunts McCourt's memoirs. ‘TIS was named a New York Times Notable Book in 1999.
| Size | | Length: | 637 pages | | Height: | 9.5 in | | Width: | 6.3 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 25.9 oz |
Publisher's Notes
First Line: "When the MS Irish Oak sailed from Cork in October 1949, we expected to be in New York City in a week. Instead, after two days at sea, we were told we were going to Montreal in Canada. I told the first officer all I had was forty dollars and would Irish Shipping pay my train fare from Montreal to New York. He said, No, the company wasn't responsible. He said freighters are the whores of the high seas, they'll do anything for anyone. You could say a freighter is like Murphy's oul' dog, he'll go part of the road with any wanderer."
Industry Reviews
[T]his book has the same clairvoyant eye for quirks of class, character, and fate [as ANGELA'S ASHES], and also a distinct picaresque quality. It's a quest for an America of wholesome Hollywood happiness that doesn't exist, and it's about the real America--rendered with comic affection--that McCourt discovers along the way."
Klepp
"McCourt seems less in control in this book and at times is powerless to keep himself from becoming the stage Irishman, crying in his beer, milking sentiment until it becomes false, mistaking talk for thought....If 'TIS sometimes becomes tedious when telling how McCourt became a stranger in a strange land, it is profound when dealing with his unappeasable past....'TIS has all those elements that made ANGELA'S ASHES such a success--the narrative brio, the fierce sympathy for human tic and torment, the intuitive feel for character and above all the love of language and that very Irish understanding that words are our only weapon in our long quarrel with God."
Collier
"This is a refreshing Frank McCourt--learned, ever so thoughtful. He is almost given to 'emotion recollected in tranquillity.' In writing of the dissolution of his first marriage and the deaths of his parents, he does not strive for Dickensian poignancy. Here's the fellow who can prove himself in ink and need not romanticize the writer or presume there was no place of honor for the teacher. 'TIS a success story, after all."
Howard
"'TIS is a more ambitious book than ANGELA'S ASHES and a more complicated one....McCourt's prose is still distinguished by his perfect pitch. His dialogue is second to none, precise, evocative....Powerful and haunting, this second book will cement his reputation as an accomplished and important writer."
Flanagan
"'TIS is a considerably angrier book than ANGELA'S ASHES....largely animated by the feelings of resentment and envy that the young McCourt experienced in trying to overcome his family's legacy of poverty and deprivation....[The] descriptions are enlivened by McCourt's resilient sense of humor, they do not possess the lyricism or searing intimacy that fueled his childhood reminiscences in ANGELA'S ASHES."
Kakutani
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