Frank McCourt Books

Thought it would have more written by Frank McCourt. Even though, I still appreciate great photographs, especially having to do with 9/11.

For New York City firefighters, "September 11, 2001" is a reminder of the dark, hollow place that their brothers once filled. 341 firefighters lost in a single day -- half the total number lost in all the years prior to that date. This volume of photographs eloquently memorializes the lost by recording the images of the firehouses from which they served their community. The images, taken not long after 9/11, show the firehouses bedecked by mounds of flowers, photos of the lost, images of the things they left behind and banners proclaiming to never forget.

Even without the sense of loss, the book would have been fascinating. The firehouses are in all shapes, sizes and ages, from tiny, one-engine 19th-century brick filigreed music boxes to post-modern buildings that could be anything -- college student center, post office or shopping center. But the reminders of that day of darkness are what give the images an emotional punch -- oversized American flags fluttering in afternoon breezes; the list of names snaking across the bottom of the pages; the empty boots and racks of empty coats that grimly recall our minds to those who will no longer return.

"Brothers" contains some text -- short and eloquent testimonials written by former Mayor Giuliani, novelist Frank McCourt, satirist Tony Hendra and others. But these are deliberately placed second to the images that remind us of the brave men who face fire every day, advancing into an elemental reality that our very nature prompts us to flee, men who on an obscenely-blue-skied day in 2001, courageously entered towers from which they would never return.

A beautiful, near-wordless and moving elegy to the human American spirit that no enemy can destroy.

Simple and to the point, yet poingint and touching, this book shows like no other how the world's greatest fire department dealt with the aftermath of tragedy.

Outstanding It shows the amazing grief and resolve of New York and its firefighters. It is is visual history of the Sept.11 attacks and their aftermath

As you are reading though the tribute to the fallen, you see thenamesof each of the lost Firefighters scrolled across the bottom of the pages. Each page left me more and more with a sense of loss. I did not lose anyone that fateful day, yet, we all lost. The words you read are quite moving, the pictures mean more than the words and poems. Yet i am most moved by the names of those precious and brave firefighters name across the pages from the front cover to the back cover.

I LOVE Frank McCourt's books. There is no story more emotionally riveting and profound than "Angela's Ashes". I just wish his newer books had better endings. This most recent book just dwindles away at the end. I was waiting for something more, and it merely dropped off. Frank is truly the best story teller of our lifetime. I hope he writes many more books about Ireland.

This book is short and very appealing to young readers. The message is universal. It's about love.

We loved this story for its message about the real reason for the Christmas season. In today's culture of "political correctness" and not wanting to offend anyone that often is missing. The artwork is soft and beautiful. It will be a book that is set out for Christmas reading for many years to come.

my entire family loved this book! My son's received it first & thought it would be a great gift for our uncle who is a priest! The only difference between the children's version & the adult is the art work. It's a lovely story!

Enjoyed reading it to the grandchildren but pictures were a little dark for the younger ones.

A true story of Frank McCourt and his family. Even though here is a good side to the alcoholic father, he has too much pride to do what it takes to provide for his family, the mother is in a continual state of depression, and the children are starved, abused and neglected, but the book held my interest. The ending of the story was disappointing! What happened after Frank went to America? Did he bring his family over? It appears like Frank McCourt got fed up with writing the book and left the ending for speculation. In my opinion didn't deserve Pulitzer Prize, however I would recommend the book.

angela's ashes was a depressing book which was well written and spellbinding- a true gem. You constantly are flipping back to the dedication page to see if the children survived. The movie doesn't do it justice. Tis was a disappointment to me because i couldn't get an emotional attachment to frank's story until the final chapter.

The moment I finished this book I felt a bit lost. I really didn't want it to end. Wonderful book. I got 'Tis right after. Now i'm reading it.. too fast, again. I would like to thank Frank McCourt for sharing his life and this wonderful work. And to ask him to please keep writting.

McCourt's 'Angela's Ashes' leads the reader through the author's impoverished childhood in Ireland. It introduces his parents, brothers and baby sister and the dire circumstances they managed to survive. The story captivated me with the first paragraph. ''Tis' continues McCourt's adventures as he arrives in the United States as a young man. His stint in the Army, his quest for an education and his long search for love are all braided into a moving and unforgetable story. I recommend that you experience both books via audio tape. The author's charming Irish brogue only adds richness to an already overwhelming story.

Purchased Angela's Ashes in the late spring after hearing so much about the book and movie in the past 2 years and was completely blown away with Frank McCourt's life/work. Left hanging by the lack of ending in Angela's Ashes, it was quickly on to 'Tis and immediately thereafter, A Monk Swimming by Frank's brother Malachy McCourt.

Angela's Ashes is riveting for the sheer horror of escalating human tragedy. Just rented the movie and listened to my 11-year-old son repeat over and over, "just when you think it can't get any worse...it does". The book is far more graphic and not at all for the faint of heart. Malachy Sr., who loves his children desperately, is incredible in his alcoholism but even more incredible in his confused indifference to the suffering of his family. Angela is simultaneously pathetic and heroic possessing all the destructive sarcasm of her pretentiously proud mother and sister with an ability to do what is necessary to ensure her survival, along with 4 of her 7 children. Denial kills 3 children and a marriage, while the want of the most basic human contact turns a mother to incest. Miraculously, Frank survives and even thrives, driven by the things that his father did not possess...common sense, the gratification of a hard days work, sobriety, and I would argue literary genius.

`Tis is the ending that Angela's Ashes required and the reader learns that some of Frank's parent's demons have come home to roost. Despite his ability to succeed in America, Frank finds himself trapped in dysfunctional relationships and making several alcohol-induced blunders. Frank's observations/experiences about America/Education in the 50's, 60's, and into the 70's seem very fresh through his Irish eyes (2 holes in the snow they may be). With this, `Tis takes on a more historical/documentary feel rather than a personal memoir. My wife felt that Frank whined a bit in `Tis and I'd agree that some of the later chapters about his teaching experiences contain some unnecessary tangents. You are left with Frank McCourt's bittersweet feelings on the death of Angela in New York and finally Malachy Sr. in Belfast.

Both works are absolute page-turners with the shame, and alcohol, and Irishness fanning the flames of your humanity with horror, sadness, and delight. Hoping for a third book to bring us through Frank's eventual divorce and life in the 90's.

Este es definitivamente uno de los mejores libros que he leido. Indiscutiblemente, te hace ver la vida de una manera distinta. La narrativa es simplemente unica. Te envuelve de una manera en la que no puedes dejar de leerlo y te hace sentir parte de la historia, parte de la vida de Frank McCourt

Este es uno de esos libros que te hacen cambiar las expreciones en tu rostro mientras los lees, pueder reir, llorar, mostrar asombro o asco mientras pasas un par de paginas. Exelente narrativa, impresionante la manera como el autor describe cada detalle de la de las situasiones que atraviesa y de sus pensamientos mientras estas situaciones ocurren.

Una vez que comienzas a leerlo ya no puedes parar y te quieres llevar el libro a todas partes, para saber que le depara a Franky en el proximo capitulo.

Soy aficionada a la lectura, y en especial las autobiografias y memorias me atraen, Frank McCourt definitivamente es el mejor, sus letras son reveladoras, dramaticamente expresadas, y un vocabulario sencillo y real del vivir cotidiano, su libro Cenizas de Angela es una historia que llega al corazon.

HABRIA MUCHAS FORMAS DE DESCRIBIR LA HISTORIA, MAS TAL VEZ SERIA SUFICIENTE DESCRIBIRLA COMO LA HISTORIA DEL SER HUMANO QUE POSEE CALIDAD Y BRILLANTEZ. VALORES QUE EN ESTE SIGLO SON OLVIDADOS POR LOS INSUFRIBLES VALORES MATERIALES.

DE LECTURA FLUIDA, SIN GRANDES PRETENSIONES ESTRUCTURALES MAS CON UNA SENSIBILIDAD DIGNA DE SER VIVIDA, ESTE ES UN LIBRO QUE NOS RECUERDA QUE EL SER HUMANO, ADEMAS Y ENTRE OTRAS COSAS NUNCA DEBERA OLVIDAR SU PROPIA CONDICION HUMANA. ES A FIN DE CUENTA LA LITERATURA QUE NOS NUTRE HORA TRAS HORA. Y ESTA ES A FIN DE CUENTAS LA CULTURA QUE NOS PERMITE CRECER.

LO RECOMIENDO SIN NINGUNA EXCEPCION.

Es una historia real. Es increible como su hijo mayor saco su familia adelante y como su padre no le importaba su familia dedicado al alcohol. Fue muy duro en que los ninos se acostaran sin comer cuando su padre se bebia el dinero, y como la gente era tan ignorante para todo. Aveces leia y me daba coraje. Queria meterme en ese libro y caerle a patadas al padre y toda esa gente ignorantes. Hoy termine de leer mi libro y quisiera leer la continuacion. Es un libro maravilloso y triste. Quisiera saber cuando van hacer el proximo libro en Espanol. Estoy impaciente por leerlo.

"Angela's Ashes"/"'Tis" by Frank McCourt

"Angela's Ashes"(*****)
You know how sometimes a book is just so good, when you see you are nearing the end, you want to slow down and savor those last few pages? Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt, was that for me. It is a wonderfully beautiful memoir and an engrossing story. McCourt tells the story of his life as a boy, growing up dirt poor in Ireland. And he tells it in a way that makes it impossible to stop reading. I always had a hard time finding a point to stop turning the pages, I had to know what would happen to Frankie McCourt.

The writing is incredibly honest. It flows from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph,page to page. McCourt puts himself right back into the mind of his younger self, and seems to be talking and thinking just as he would from ages 4 through a young man. He speaks of his family. His father that couldn't keep his wages in his pocket on pay day, and could not make it home without stopping for a pint(or two) along the way. Yet a man who seemed to understand his young sons, and always had what seemed sage advice and a great love for his children. His mother's(Angela herself) suffering, with the loss of children dyeing, trying to make do for her family by begging, and did whatever it took to keep her children warm and fed. He writes quite honestly, and uses his wonderful wit and sense of humor to talk about the harsh schooling, the relatives that he looked up to and those he didn't,the many illnesses he and the family went through, his taking to petty thefts to keep from starving, discovering his sexuality, the jobs he had to do, and his great desire to go back to America, where he was born.

The stories are sad,funny and poignant.They will tug at your heartstrings, but the humor he uses in describing the sometimes dehumanizing events(having to empty and clean disgusting chamber pots among them) make this a stand out read instead of a woe-is-me theme.The characters jump off the page, you can hear them speak with their thick Irish accents, or in some cases New York. He writes of all the doors that were closed in his face, when he needed help, but you can feel the tenacity with which he continued to move his life forward. There are many laugh out loud moments of little Frankie's adventures, and other times you may need to have the Kleenex handy.One thing for sure, you'll be thinking of Little Frankie McCourt for a long time after the read. Through thick and thin(mostly thin) this was a family rich with love. A love that is contagious.


"'Tis"(****) is a most enjoyable follow up to his childhood memoir "Angela's Ashes". Frank McCourt now lets us in on life as a poor young immigrant, trying to make his way in the jungle of NYC. Being told over and over, stick with your own kind(the Irish immigrants), Frank as is his nature, does things his own way, which don't always work out to well for him.

When we last left off in Angela's Ashes, Frank had just arrived, eager for a new life in America(the place of his birth). Nothing seems to be going right for him. He is naive in the ways of the world, and learning some hard lessons.Still plagued by bad eyes and teeth, he lands a job, cleaning up in a hotel.He sees the college students, with their movie star smiles and looks, and yearns to be among them. With the war in Korea going on, Frank gets drafted and right away gets himself into trouble by just holding to his beliefs. Stuck as a company clerk, he masters the skill of typing! Later he manages to get into college,even without a High School diploma, which really speaks to his tenacity, and after much hard work between school and jobs requiring much physical labor, he graduates and becomes a teacher.He treats us to some very human moments in and out of the classroom. He also somehow manages to marry the most beautiful girl, the envy of all in his college days.

We are introduced to some new characters that have affected his life in some way. He also goes back to Ireland to visit, and we are reintroduced to some of the people who shaped his early life. His mother is still very much a part of the story, and it is hard not to get emotionally involved with their relationship.

McCourt's refreshing style of writing, still shines through in 'Tis, as he subtly pokes fun at the ways of society and the system of life. It is the tone that is different. As well it should be. In "Angela's Ashes", we saw the hardships of life through the forgiving and eager eyes of a child. It made that book maybe just a little more special. Now the look is that of first a frustrated young man, and then a more experienced adult. There are times, you may not like what he does or says, but this is his life story, and it is honest and life affirming.

I'd been meaning to read Angela's Ashes for a long time. As it turned out, it was a good thing for me that I waited so long. By the time I got to it, 'Tis and even the third in the triology "Teacher Man" had already been published. And if you love Angela as much as I did, you will want to start Tis' right away. You have got to know what has happened to little Frankie McCourt.

So this 2-pack, purchasing them both at once is a really good idea. But it may not be the best deal. Amazon is out of stock of this 2-pack, so you would need to check the outside seller prices. There are several sites and editions to surf around. Keeping in mind that if You purchase these individually from Amazon, and have the required amount in your cart, you will not have to pay shipping charges, and that there is a shipping charge if bought from outside sellers, it still may be the better deal to go with one of the merchants. Even though the 2 pack here is available from a merchant at this time(and you will only be charged the shipping charge for one book, buying them together), check out the prices for buying each one separately. There are some pretty low prices, even with shipping charges applied, that comes out to be a good deal. Just enter "Angela's Ashes" in the book search and all the various editions should come up of both books(you may have to enter Tis' also.)I believe I even saw som audio editions as well.

Here is one example: Enter 0006551815 into the book search, this is a paperback edition of 'Tis that is a really good deal(at this time).

And don't forget "Teacher Man", the third in the memoir trilogy, for more of the wit and wisdom of Frank McCourt.(I'm about half-way through, and will bring you my thoughts on that one soon!)


I would highly recommend these books to everyone, but a must read for teachers or anyone planning to write their own memoirs....Enjoy the read...Laurie

I bought Angela's Ashes a few days before christmas as a joke present for my sister (Angela) when it hadn't even been translated into Spanish (I live in Barcelona). Out of curiosity, I read the first few pages and found myself unable to stop. Absolutely amazing.
I don't think many books can compare to this one. Humanity and sincerity in the first degree.
I not only bought it again for my sister, I think I've probably made about 15 other people read it. Not a single one wasn't as elated as I was.

I can easily tell you that Angela's Ashes is my favorite book. I read over parts sometimes, because Frank McCourt's style of writing and his story intrigue me. Frank deserves praise for his survival through little to no means and for of course and excellent book. FIVE STARS!

McCourt has done a great job, keeping my eyes awake for 6 hours reading his memoir. Time really flies when you are happy!! Veriety of emotions happened from page to page. When I was reading the beginning of the page,I wanna cry. When it came to the end of the page, I just wanted to burst out laughing.
Frank is just an ordinary Irish boy, who just has to struggle with alcoholic dad that used up every penny in the pubs, leaving his Angela and other siblings groaning with empty stomachs.
Frank has truly brought me inspiration!

One of my favourite books. Mr. McCourt brings tenderness and humor out of the dark and challenge of life. Tis' is essentially the story of an immigrant and his new life in New York City. Beginning with his voyage to America, the autobiographical story follows his struggle to make it in a country that isn't always accepting of strangers. Don't be mistaken to think of this as an extension of the dark tone of Angela's Ashes (which I also liked). I found this book much lighter in tone and more optimistic. McCourt finds his way to the promised land and has to deal with the realities of American society. It's full of the irony of everyday life and his struggles for education, happiness, love, and acceptance. Yes Mr. McCourt is an Irish immigrant, but it's not soley about his being Irish in America. If anything, it's about his struggle to be an American.

Handsomely produced, elegantly assembled, and consistently engrossing: these actors read the stories with appropriate sensitivity, wit, pathos, and distance. The detachment of Joyce in his "voice" on the page is re-created well. When I have taught students "Araby" or "The Boarding House," the chance to hear the language repeated as its author would have meant it to be rendered makes these stories come alive for a classroom six thousand miles and a century away from early 20c Dublin.

Although all of the stories succeed, those in the center of the book emerged when conveyed aloud most enlighteningly. Clay, A Mother, A Painful Case, and most of all Two Gallants, After the Race, and Counterparts all hit my ear with more force than they had when I had only read them. These stories are often overlooked compared to the others, but the skill that the actors brought to these more prosaic, less lively, and more nuanced examples of Joyce's careful craft deserve special acclaim. The packaging keeps the CDs securely in place, is itself compact and well-designed, fitting its outwardly austere & Edwardian yet subtly decorated and inviting contents.

Students, the curious newcomer, the experienced teacher, and those who read the book out of delight and not duty: all will benefit from the music on the page that by a technology Joyce himself spoke into at its early gramaphone stages is now digitally preserved so that those of us all over the world and a vastly changed world later can be entertained and instructed. I think JJ might have been pleased at this version of his pioneering, eloquent, yet accessible and moving, accounts of his imagined neighbors and municipal counterparts.

James Joyce was absorbed by music, people, languages, acting and actors, and though an exile from his native country and city, his literary consciousness was forever embedded in Dublin. He had an unerring ear for Dublin dialogue.
At night I turn out the lights and listen to these CD's, to the cadences of the people talking, and to me these Dubliners endlessly gossiping are in the room with me. Joyce's narrative adroitness, his choice of words, his lyrical descriptions, and above all, his sense of place are brilliant facets of a genius.
Stephen Rea's sensitive reading of "The Dead" is worth the price of this set of fifteen stories read by fifteen different mostly Irish personalities. The characters in the stories live and breathe, become real. Joyce was meant to be read aloud. It's good talk, conversations that you become a part of.
In these stories Joyce is very accessible. In Finnegan's Wake he became Jackson Pollock--obscure and difficult. In "The Dead" you can feel, touch, hear, and taste the snow that is falling outside the house while inside two old sisters are giving their annual bright and cheery party. It's a story of tenderness, love, regrets, and lost lovers, but it is mainly full of life, good times, fellowship, and above all humanity.

Nine Lives Too Many
The Daemon in Our Dreams
The Rice Queen Spy
Clawed Back from the Dead

Having taught 6th through 8th grade and followed some of my students through their high school years, I could relate to this book. I thought it was hilarious the way Mr. McCourt related his experiences. His sense of humor was very refreshing and his experiences were so true.Teacher Man

McCourties of the world rejoice! You have nothing to lose but your tears of woe anticipating when he'd return with his next book; the foremost memoirist of our time is back. Frank McCourt's "Teacher Man" is a spellbinding lyrical ode to the craft of teaching. It is a rollicking, delightful trek across nearly thirty years in New York City public school classrooms that will surely please his devout legion of fans, and perhaps win some new admirers too. Truly, without question, it is a splendid concluding volume in his trilogy of memoirs that began in spectacular fashion with "Angela's Ashes". Indeed, we find much of the same plain, yet rather poetic, prose and rich dark humor that defines his first book, along with his undiminished, seemingly timeless, skill as a mesmerizing raconteur. Is McCourt truly now one of the great writers of our time if he isn't already, with the publication of "Teacher Man"? I will say only that he was a marvellous teacher (I still feel lucky to have been a prize-winning student of his.), and that this new memoir truly captures the spirit of what it was like to be a student in his classroom.

"Teacher Man" opens with a hilarious Prologue that would seem quite self-serving if written by someone other than Frank McCourt, in which he reviews his star-struck existence in the nine years since the original publication of "Angela's Ashes". In Part I (It's a Long Road to Pedagogy) he dwells on the eight years he spent at McKee Vocational High School in Staten Island. It starts, promisingly enough, with him on the verge of ending his teaching career, just as it begins in the lawless Wild West frontier of a McKee classroom (I was nearly in stitches laughing out loud, after learning why he was nearly fired on two consecutive days, no less.). Frank manages to break every rule learned in his Education courses at New York University, but he succeeds in motivating his students, raising the craft of excuse note writing to a high literary art. He finds time too to fall in love with his first wife, Alberta Small, and then earn a M. A. degree in English from Brooklyn College.

Part II (Donkey on a Thistle) has the funniest tale; an unbelievable odyssey to a Times Square movie theater with Frank as chaperone to an unruly tribe of thirty Seward Park High School girls. But before we get there, we're treated to a spellbinding account of his all too brief time as an adjunct lecturer of English at Brooklyn's New York Community College, and of another short stint at Fashion Industries High School, where he receives a surprising, and poignant, reminder from his past. Soon Frank will forsake high school teaching, sail off to Dublin, and enroll in a doctoral program at Trinity College, in pursuit of a thesis on Irish-American literature. But, that too fails, and with Alberta pregnant, he accepts an offer to become a substitute teacher at prestigious Stuyvesant High School (The nation's oldest high school devoted to the sciences and mathematics; its alumni now include four Nobel Prize laureates in chemistry, medicine and economics; for more information please look at my ABOUT ME section, or at history at www.stuy.edu or famous alumni at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuyvesant_High_School or Notables at www.ourstrongband.org.).

Surprisingly, Part III (Coming Alive in Room 205) is the shortest section of "Teacher Man". After having spent fifteen years teaching at Stuyvesant High School, you'd think that this would be this memoir's longest section, replete with many tales rich in mirth (Room 205, located a few doors from the principal's office, was Frank's room throughout his years teaching full-time at Stuyvesant High School.). Indeed I'm surprised that it is so brief. Yet there is still ample fodder for Frank's lyrical prose to dwell on, most notably a hilarious episode on cookbooks and how he taught his creative writing class to write recipes for them. He describes with equal doses of hilarity and eloquence, his unique style of teaching at Stuyvesant, which he compares and contrasts with math teachers Philip Fisher and Edward Marcantonio - the dark and good sides of Stuyvesant mathematics education in the 1970s and 1980s (I was a student of both and will let the reader decide who was my teacher while I was a student in Frank's creative writing class.) - but he still implies that his students were having the most fun.

Will "Teacher Man" earn the same critical acclaim bestowed upon "Angela's Ashes"? Who knows? Is it deserving of it? I think the answer is a resounding yes. Regardless, Frank's many devout fans - his flock of McCourties - will cherish this book as yet another inspirational tale from the foremost memoirist of our time (EDITORIAL NOTE: Reposted from my review of the original hardcover edition.)

I love Frank McCourt and this story from his mother's childhood is a lovely story to read to little ones at Christmas time.

You know how sometimes a book is just so good, when you see you are nearing the end, you want to slow down and savor those last few pages?
Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt,was that for me.It is a wonderfully beautiful memoir and an engrossing story. McCourt tells the story of his life as a boy, growing up dirt poor in Ireland. And he tells it in a way that makes it impossible to stop reading. I always had a hard time finding a point to stop turning the pages, I had to know what would happen to Frankie McCourt.

The writing is incredibly honest. It flows from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph,page to page. McCourt puts himself right back into the mind of his younger self, and seems to be talking and thinking just as he would from ages 4 through a young man. He speaks of his family. His father that couldn't keep his wages in his pocket on pay day, and could not make it home without stopping for a pint(or two) along the way. Yet a man who seemed to understand his young sons, and always had what seemed sage advice and a great love for his children. His mother's suffering, with the loss of children dyeing, trying to make do for her family by begging, and did whatever it took to keep her children warm and fed. He writes quite honestly, about his schooling, his relatives,the many illnesses he and the family went through, his taking to petty thefts to keep from starving, discovering his sexuality, the jobs he had to do, and his great desire to go back to America, where he was born.

The stories are sad, and will tug at your heartstrings, but the humor he uses in describing the sometimes dehumanizing events(having to empty and clean disgusting chamber pots among them) make this a stand out read instead of a woe-is-me theme.The characters jump off the page, you can hear them speak with their thick Irish accents, or in some cases New York. He writes of all the doors that were closed in his face, when he needed help, but you can feel the tenacity with which he continued to move his life forward. There are many laugh out loud moments of little Frankie's adventures, and other times you may need to have the Kleenex handy.One thing for sure, you'll be thinking of Little Frankie McCourt for a long time after the read. Through thick and thin(mostly thin) this was a family rich with love. A love that is contagious.

If like me you didn't want it to end - it doesn't, there are 2 "sequels"-'Tis: A Memoirand Teacher Man: A MemoirKeeping in mind it is not easy to follow up on a pulitzer, you'll find these are good reads as well(see my reviews for details).Thanks Mr. McCourt, for a wonderful time, spent with you and your family in Ireland.

Enjoy the Read....Laurie

A perfect gift for the Teachers in your life. This book is HUGE, and has plenty of wits and quips from Woody Allen to Virginia Woolf. This is a fun collection of quotations that I highly recommend.