Reviews

• Genuine wealth

  Reading this book was an eye-opening experience for me. In this book is there no hypocrisy. Only are there pure sorrow, pure joy, pure pain blessed by God. How poor our modern life surrounded by gadgets compared with Frank Mccourt's experiences? I want many teens to read this book so that this book will guide their lives in right directions.

• 映画を観た後読みました。

  いったい何から書こうか？ まず、正直な話、英語で読むのに三ヶ月かかりました。 もともと私は読むのがおそいこともありますが、 英語は、あたかも、先生が生徒たちに自分のことを話して聞かせるように、 （多分、本当にそうだったんだろうと思う） 流れるように滔々としていて、居眠りしそうになる絶妙のタイミングで ユーモアにあふれた著者の独り言があって、読み飛ばしてしまえばそれまでなんですが、 アイルランド独特の表現やスラング、地名や実在の著名人や、 出てくる文学作品やら何やら、 カトリックの教義やら、 調べてもいっそのこと見つからないなら、こだわることもなかったのに、 ついつい、しらべれば見つかってしまうから、ついつい。。。という感じでした。（笑） 同名映画のエンディングで原作があることを知り本書を買い求めました。 一ページ目のすごくパンチのきいたふたつのパラグラフを読んで、 すごくひかれて最後まで読むことに決めました。 読んだ感想は星５つです。 また、いくら世界大恐慌のNYで食べられなくなったからといって、 あろうことか何故もっと貧しいアイルランドくんだりまでもどる道をえらんだか、 映画では分かりにくかった部分も腑に落ちました。 三ヶ月も同じ本を持ち歩いていると（もちろん三ヶ月の間に読んだ本はこれだけではないのだけど）、 いろんな人と話す機会があって、 日本人とイングランド人とアイリッシュ系アメリカ人とユダヤ系アメリカ人と北欧人が みんなして、とても良い本だよと、ぜひ早く読んでしまいなさいとはげましてくれました。 だから、きっと、アイルランドということがなくても、本書は読み応えのある本なんだと思いました。

• 素晴らしい朗読

  回想録自体は読んで面白い、いや、貧しさの悲惨さがユーモアによって和らげる効果があるように思えます。著者自身による朗読はやはり素晴らしいですが、もう少しアイルランド訛りが強い方が雰囲気が出てよかったのではないでしょうか。著者は長年ニューヨークに暮らしていて、アメリカ英語の発音に近い感じがします。

• Frankの子供時代、青年時代の思考がユーモアがあって面白い！

  アイルランドを舞台にしていること、1996年に出版された原作がピューリッツアー賞等を受賞していることから興味を持ち、10年以上前に映画（吹き替え版）を観ました。その時は、正直なところ、それほど面白いとは思いませんでした。 先日、原作を改めて読んでみました。単語も文体も私には難しく、最初の十数頁で挫折しそうになったのですが、なんとか頑張って読み進めていくと、文体にも慣れてきて、数十頁読んだくらいから、非常に面白くなってきました。 主に、第二次世界大戦頃のアイルランドのリムリックを舞台にした作品で、著者（Frank）が自分の子供時代から青年時代、アメリカへ旅立つまでを描いた回想録です。貧しさのせいで妹や弟二人を失い、アル中の父（Malachy）は僅かな賃金も失業手当もすべてギネスの飲み代に使い果たしてしまい、食べる物も殆どなく、靴も服もズボンもボロボロで、母（Angela）もすっかり疲れ果ててしまい、もう本当にどうしようもない極貧の（惨めな）状況なのですが、それでもFrankは、逞しく、したたかに、そして（ある意味）真面目に生きていきます。 そんな貧しいリムリックでの生活が、Frankの目を通して描かれます。Frankの子供時代、青年時代の思考がユーモアがあって面白く、とても笑ってはいられないようなひどい状況なのですが、読みながら思わず笑わずにはいられませんでした。また、当時はカトリック教会の影響力が大きく、Frankの思考にも大きな影響を与えているのですが、それも非常に興味深かった（面白かった）です。個人的には、アイルランドの伝統音楽をやっているので、アイルランドのダンスの話が出てきたのも興味深かったです。 映画を観ていたので、結末はなんとなく覚えていたのですが、それでも、最後まで面白く楽しく読むことができました。ペーパーバックで400頁以上ありましたが、（読み始め以外は）長いのも苦にならず、久しぶりに読み終えるのがもったいないと思えた作品でした。お勧めです！

• 貧しさと悲しみの中成長する少年の姿

  フランクと言うこの著者自身の、話だと思います。 アメリカで、飲んだくれの父親のもと産まれたフランク。 しかし、次男ののち初めての長女に恵まれ、その長女が 突然亡くなってしまったとき、母親のアンジェラは悲しみに暮れる。 彼らは、生まれ故郷であるアイルランドに帰るが、そこで待っていたのは アメリカ以上の、貧困との闘いだった。 さらに彼らは兄弟たちを失う。 父親は敬虔なカトリック教徒なのに、北アイルランド生まれということで 仕事に恵まれない。ストレスを飲むこと以外ではらせず、 大切な家族を犠牲にしてしまう。 すさまじい貧困との闘いの中、フランクは成長していく。 学校に行き、腸チフスで命を落としそうになりながらも復活。 教会と、学校と、不安定な家庭。それでも彼は、成長していきます。 アイルランドが、こんなにすさまじい貧困の中にあったなんて知りませんでした。 カソリックであることの誇り、イギリス人に対するすさまじい憎悪と憧れ、 アイルランドの中にもひそむ差別…などなど、この一家の体験を通して 色々なものが見えてきました。 フランクの語り口調で書かれているため、易しく読むことができ、 それでもなお胸に響く言葉が多い、そんな1冊でした。

• 退屈な小説でした

  1996年に書かれたピューリッツアー賞受賞作品です。社会派小説とでもいうのか、貧困の状態が詳細に描かれています。自分自身が貧しかったディケンズのデビッド・コパーフィールドは、大衆小説で面白く読めましたが、この小説は、自分が青年になってアメリカへ行くまでの間の苦労が、４２６ページにわたり非常に詳しく描かれています。 母アンジェラは、家族の期待を担ってアイルランドからアメリカへ移住したが、北アイルランド出身の飲んだくれと所帯を持ったために生活できなくなり、やむなく子供たちと夫とともに家族のいるアイルランドに戻るが、アメリカにいたときと同様に飲んだくれて、お金を持って帰らない夫のために極貧の中でのたうちまわる様が描かれています。 夫は、第二次大戦のブームに沸くイギリスへ出稼ぎに行きますが、家族への送金は１回だけで、夫がイギリスで働いていることから、福祉の支援さえ受けられなくなるという悲惨さです。 貧しさから抜け出すためにアメリカに渡ったにもかかわらず、家族のいるところへ戻らざるを得なくなった部分は、遠い昔を見ているような気分にさせられました。この小説がピューリッツアー賞を受賞した理由も、そんなところにあったような気がします。また、戦前戦後の日本でも見られた状態のように思いました。 私は、探偵小説が好きなので、こういった小説は苦手です。 レビューを書いた後、映画化されていると分ったので、借りて帰って映画を見ました。映画もDVDで売られていない理由が分かるような気がしました。小説同様好きではありません。

• ヤンキー万歳！

  私含めアイルランドと英国の関係を知らない読者には厳しい箇所が出てくる。 あまりの貧困に妹達全てを失うかわいそうなところは涙を誘います。 後はまじめに書かれているので逆に思わず噴出すところもありましたねえ。 What is this stink? と母親に怒られるところは爆笑でした。 最後の終わり方。 ヤンキー万歳！みたいなところが安易でいいです。

• 現在

  アイルランドに興味のある方は必読でしょう。なぜこの本に★★★★かと言いますと、会話にふきだしが無いからです。慣れれば全然平気ですけど。またアイルランド独特の表現も見逃せません。

• The best book I've read this year. If Neil Simon were to have written a novel it may have well looked like this book. A unique voice and style applying humor in all of the right ways for a reader to absorb the sad tragedy of growing up poor, Irish, and Catholic during the depression years, in America, and Ireland. Frank McCourt is able to overcome the pathos of his poignant, sad, and often disturbing memoir of growing up as the oldest son of a poor Irish Catholic family, through use of voice. In Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt presents his memoir though the limited first person view of a young boy. He creates comic relief in using the voice of a small child, as he grows up, first in New York, and then in Limerick, Ireland, during the time of the depression, and its aftermath. McCourt presents a tragic account of his family that would generally overwhelm any reader, unless presented through the eyes of a child, who often does not realize the hardship he has undergone, and whose innocent, limited view allows him (and the reader) to keep going. McCourt pushes the reader through the grief of near starvation, the upbringing by an alcoholic father, misguided mother, loss of younger siblings, and the stigma of growing up, poor, Irish, and Catholic, at a time when all three were considered an affliction, like some disease, rather than circumstance. He manages to hold the reader’s interest, without overwhelming her with pathos, by his character’s youthful voice, through artful dialogue, carefully crafted to allow the reader to see the lighter side of his tragic life. His choice of colloquial terms of endearment unique to the Irish of this era, calling his mother “Mam” instead of mom and using “Och” at the start of dialogue summary of the characters who likely had an Irish accent. In the very first paragraph, the author lets the voice of the narrator, pick up the easy ebb and flow of the Irish manner of speaking, and use of the vernacular of an American Irish immigrant, to recall his humble beginnings. “My father and mother should have stayed in New York where they met and married and where I was born. Instead, they returned to Ireland, when I was four, my brother, Malachy, three, the twins, Oliver and Eugene, barely one, and my sister, Margaret, dead and gone.” (McCourt, 11). The reader can almost picture an Irishman speaking as the story begins. McCort introduces comedy into his narrative voice, an older, more mature, man looking back on his life, when he recalls his father: Malachy McCourt, was born on a farm in Toome, County, Antrim. Like his father before, he grew up wild, in trouble with the English, or the Irish, or both. He fought with the Old IRA and for some desperate act he wound up a fugitive with a price on his head. [] When I was a child I would look at my father, the thinning hair, the collapsing teeth, and wonder why anyone would give money for a head like that. (McCourt, 12) This establishes the comic tone of the story through the voice of the character, recalling through his inner thoughts as a child, later through narrative summary, what he was told by his grandmother when he was thirteen; “as a wee lad, your poor father was dropped on his head. It was an accident, he was never the same after, and you must remember that people dropped on their heads can be a bit peculiar.” (McCourt, 12). This revelation becomes more humorous when the reader reconciles it with the story of how the grandmother’s brother, Patrick “Ab” Sheean, became retarded, after his alcoholic father dropped him on his head, when he was a baby. (McCourt, 13). Living with an alcoholic father, even one that is not necessarily abusive, can be a rather difficult subject matter for any reader to plow through, particularly where his alcoholism leave the family so impoverished that his family is near starvation, while he spends what little money on ale however, McCourt’s use of a limited first person view through a child’s eyes, the reader is given an account that is both tolerable, and sometimes funny. Here the voice of the child character portrays the tragic account of life in an impoverished alcoholic family with both catharsis, and humor. He uses word choices indicative of an Irish child, and through creative use of point of view, and method of speaking like a child, he says: When Dad gets a job Mam is cheerful and she sings, Anyone can see why I wanted your kiss, It had to be and the reason is this Could it be true, that someone like you Could love me, love me? When Dad brings home the first weeks wages, Mam is delighted, she can pay the lovely Italian man in the grocery shop and she can hold her head up again because there’s nothing worse in the world than to owe and be beholding to anyone. She cleans … she buys … and … on Friday night we know the weekend will be wonderful. … Mam will boil the water on the stove and wash us in the great tin tub and Dad will dry us. Malachy will turn around and show his behind. Dad will pretend to be shocked and we’ll all laugh …(but) when Dad’s job goes into the third week he does not bring home the wages… we know Mam won’t sing anymore one can see why I wanted your kiss. She sits at the kitchen table talking to herself… and Dad rolls up the stairs singing Roddy McCorley. [By the fourth week] Dad loses his job…(McCourt, 23-28). When his new baby sister, Margaret, dies, and his mother shuts down and stares at the wall, the use of a child’s voice enables the reader to somehow cope with the description of neglect of the other small children living in a roach infested apartment, with no food, and having to fend for themselves while their alcoholic father is still out at the pub. Later, when Oliver, one of the twins dies of pneumonia, followed by his brother, Eugene, McCourt’s use of his child’s voice, delivering death of his brothers, and baby sister Margaret into that child’s view that is both tolerable, and hopeful, despite the tears it brings to the reader’s eyes. Malachy and I are back in the bed where Eugene died. I hope he’s not cold in that white coffin in the graveyard though I know he’s not there anymore because angels come to the graveyard and open the coffin and he’s far from the Shannon (River) dampness that kills, up in the sky in heaven with Oliver and Margret where they have plenty of fish and chips and toffee and no aunts to bother you, where all the fathers bring home the money from the Labour Exchange and you don’t have to be running around to pubs to find them. (McCourt, 90). By using comic relief, McCourt is able to keep the reader from being too overwhelmed with pathos for the despair that so many tragic events, death, starvation, alcoholism, poverty and the disdain of insensitive people. He delivers the relief in the familiar family situations that bring smiles, along with the tears. Like when the mischievous brothers climb downstairs when their parents are sleeping and try on the false teeth that sit on the shelf by the sink, and Malachy is unable to remove his father’s big teeth from his mouth and has to go to the hospital. Although a near tragic event, McCourt is able to find the humor in the situation, and relay it to the reader in a believable child’s voice, telling the story. McCort’s portrayal of the family living upstairs in a house where they are unable to live downstairs because of the overwhelming odor from the sewage of many other families which is dumped near their front door, although not funny, is made humorous where the inspectors for the Saint Vincent De Paul Society are told by Malachy, still a child, that his family lives in “Italy” a term they have dubbed the upstairs part of the house where they live. (McCourt, 104). Additionally, when the grandmother stops talking to, and supporting the family, the tragic effect of this fact is reduced when the reason is provided in an anecdote where the main character reveals it was because he puked up God in her backyard after he came home from his first communion, (McCourt, 129), and where he had “God stuck to the roof of (his) mouth.” (McCourt, 128). The reader is compelled to laugh at the thoughts of a child, over a potentially touchy situation that interferes with the grandmother’s faith, and causes a serious rift in the family. Even when the main character’s mother lies dying, and he and his brothers are brought to their aunt’s house, McCourt creates a moment of levity to relive the reader of her heavy heart when he hears his fat aunt in the other room tinkling, and he is afraid to tell his brothers because he thinks they will all break out laughing: “at the picture in our heads of Aunt Aggie’s big white bum perched on a flowery little chamber pot.” (McCourt, 242). Later, when he delivers a message to an Englishman, is dragged into the house, forced to drink sherry and ends up puking on the rose bush belonging to the man’s wife, and is later dismissed from his job, where he is saving to go to America, the reader is spared the severe disappointment by the humor in the story, and a voice that keeps comic relief in everything it describes. (McCourt, 328-329). The book ends on a note of hilarity where the main character, on his way to America, is about to have sex, and a priest comes to his door. “The bad women bring out sandwiches and pour more beer and when we finish eating they put on Frank Sinatra records and ask if anyone would like to dance. No one says yes because you’d never get up and dance with bad women in the presence of a priest …” Despite all of his suffering, McCourt is as entertaining as his is hilarious. He has an enviable voice, Angela’s Ashes is a tribute to any mother’s memory. # __________________ McCourt, Frank. Angela’s Ashes. Scribner. New York. 1996.

• bellissimo, giusto, arrivato subito

• Es un libro maravilloso, y más aún en versión original. Te permite mejorar tu nivel de inglés mientras disfrutas de una memoria muy bien escrita, una historia dura pero que te abre la mente de una forma única! Muy muy recomendable!

• I first heard about “Angela’s Ashes” from The New York Times’ best 50 memoirs. Though there were 50, I narrowed it down to 6. Angela’s Ashes is one of them. I’m glad I picked it. Also, I didn’t know that it has won the Pulitzer Prize, so there was an extra layer of welcome to read the book. The book is kind of slow to start with even though the narrative is fast. It starts with a brief history of the family. After that it is poverty all the way through and how he and his family scrape through. Despite the never-ending poverty, what makes it readable in the richness in writing. The book is very engaging and only half way through the book, I decided that I need to read his sequel, “’Tis”. Also, the sequel’s sequel “The Teacher Man”. The only other time I ever wanted a sequel was to “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” movie. At a chapter, when he is 13 going on 14 and he and his family is living in another person’s house, there are some really humiliating and embarrassing scenes which I bet will leave you teary eyed. But also, the writer doesn’t write it seriously. It’s not used as a crescendo moment. It’s the first time where I really discovered the Tragicomic aspect in a book. Its magical to say the least. You feel sad but at the same time appreciate the writing, which kind of makes you even. I like the way the book ended. The chapters in the book simply start with Roman numerals and doesn’t contain any heading. The last chapter of the book is simply “’Tis” which is the sequel. It’s a nice bit of touch. The only other time I ever appreciated the naming of the chapters in a book is “Open”, the first chapter is “The End” and the last chapter is “The Beginning”. Strange, but you will understand when you read that book. The best thing about a memoir is that you become emotionally invested in the lead character. There is so much of emotions to relate and it can really be a trip down the memory lane, no matter how weak your memory is. Also, reading about the hard times, you will get to appreciate your life even more.

• McCourt, Frank. Angela’s Ashes In 2016 Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes will be 20 years old, but it is still as fresh as it was when first published. After retiring from teaching in America McCourt began sorting his memoirs of childhood poverty in Limerick in the early Twentieth Century. The book, which he never expected to sell more than a few hundred copies took him a little over a year to complete. It won the Pulitzer Prize and a cascade of other awards. It topped bestseller charts for more than two years. Only Charles Dickens has managed to capture the general reader’s imagination like McCourt. Told entirely from the child’s perspective, the narrative succeeds in drawing the reader into a charmed circle of listeners to a tale of poverty and survival against the odds. Frankie was given up for dead in the fever hospital, refused absolution by priests because he cannot abstain from masturbating and hence is not in a fit state to be absolved. He finds an ‘easy’ priest, but the minister falls asleep during his confession. Throughout the book, the Catholic religion controls the minds of rich amd poor alike, but the rich have other comforts; the poor simply beg and starve and mostly die young. Yet this memoir, which should have been an agonising read, remains buoyant to the end. Frankie’s father is a confirmed alcoholic and mostly absent, leaving his wife Angela to cope with an increasing number of starving infants. Frankie suffers the loss of his siblings but needs to work to keep alive the remnants of his family in a rat-infested, fleahouse that collapses in a flood. He helps unload the farmers’ carts on market days and ‘at the end of the day they’ll give me vegetables they can’t sell , anything crushed, bruised or rotten in parts.’ The boy manages to borrow books from the library, using Angela’s tickets to read about virgin martyrs ‘who always died singing hymns and giving praise not minding one bit if lions tore big chunks from their sides and gobbled them on the spot.’ But when the librarian finds him reading Lin Yütang she is horrified and dismisses him from the library for ever because of the use of one word - ‘turgid.’ ‘I know now what Mikey Molloy was talking about … that we’re no different from the dogs that get stuck into each other in the streets and it’s shocking to think of all the mothers and fathers doing the likes of this.’ Although now starved of books Frankie survives and graduates from being a telegram boy to a deliverer of newspapers and magazines and finally to writing threatening letters for Mrs Finucane, a rich old lady on her last legs who has him saying prayers for her soul. Then, Pennies from Heaven or in Frankie’s case pounds: ‘The Friday night before my nineteenth birthday Mrs Finucane sends me for the sherry. When I return she’s dead in the chair, her eyes wide open. I can’t look at her … but I take the key to the trunk upstairs. I take forty of the hundred pounds in the trunk … and I’ll add this to what I have in the post office and I have enough to go to America.’ He drinks the sherry and throws the ledger containing a record of debts owed by the poor of Limerick into the River Shannon.

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