But as a blessing to readers worldwide he survived all of this and more, and had the talent to write the Pulitzer Prize winning Angela´s Ashes (Simon & Schuster, 363 pages, 1999, ISBN: 0-684-84267-X).
The memoir goes back before his time, and explains a bit of his parent´s backgrounds.
His father, Malachy, was a man from Northern Ireland, who was dropped on his head as a child and as the book says, was a bit peculiar. He fought for the Old IRA, and for reasons not specified became a fugitive with a price on his head. In order to scape, he fled to New York.
McCourt´s mother, Angela, was from an Irish town called Limerick. She didn´t have luck with any job she tried, and her mother, saying she was useless, gave her the fare to go to America, since she said there was plenty of room for uselessness there.
His parent´s met, and married soon after.
Big Family
But sadly for Frank, Angela, and for the big family that was to come, Malachy wasn´t interested on making money unless that money was directed towards alcohol. After Frank, Malachy was born, named after his father. Then came the twins, Oliver and Eugene, and lastly Margaret.
When Margaret was born, Malachy the father seemed to come to his senses; he settled down a bit and things began to look up.
Death in the Family
But Margaret dies, and Malachy spends even more time drinking. Because of all of this Angela falls into a depression, and things continue to deteriorate.
Since they don´t have a support system in New York, they return to Ireland with hopes of change, but the change isn´t a good one.
They end up living in the slums, malnourished, and basicaly begging for necessities such as food.
More babies come and more of them die, and Angela herself almost died of pneumonia.
McCourt grew up among all of this, almost died himself, and almost loses his sight, but he never gave up his dream of returning to America. He does this at the age of 19.
Happy and Honest Story
But regardless of all of this the story is a happy one, mostly because McCourt has an uncanny humor that shines through in every page.
More importantly, the book is honest. McCourt doesn´t sacrifice truth for humor, nor does he sugarcoat the utter poverty and hopelessness that were part of his childhood.
He also doesn´t hide his family member´s, nor his own, flaws. Reading the book it´s obvious that although his father was loving, he preferred alcohol to the well-being of his family. McCourt also speaks of his failings, and he admits that he lied, cheated and stole his money for the ticket to America.
Sequel
The book, which was a New York Times bestseller, and was also made into a movie, is definitely worth the time. It ends when McCourt arrives in America, and the book is followed by the sequel ´Tis.
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