Review: Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
I just read Angela’s Ashes, and I had very hig expectations going in, because as far as I understand this book is considered a “new” classic. It won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize and a few other awards, and has a ton of blurbs praising it to the skies. It is about a young Irish boy and his upbringing, first in New York and then in Limerick, Ireland, in the first half of the 20th century. And that is pretty much it as far as a synopsis goes. I had trouble understanding the time line of the story. For some reason I thought Frankie was born much earlier, so I couldn’t understand how they had suddenly reached the 1940s, and he was still just a kid. But I guess I just got mixed up, because the book starts with an account of his father and mother and their families. Once I wrapped my head around that it was fine. Or as fine as a boring story can be. I think I have this issue with a lot of memoirs in general. Often they just become a parade of events; then the baby was born, then ...