Kelly

===Angela's Ashes        Summary     === Frank McCourt is living in the depression era in New York though he moved to Limerick, Ireland when he was four where his childhood took place. His father, Malachy, is a drunk that always drinks away his wages, that is whenever he managed to hold down a job, his mother, Angela, is defeated when it comes to doing anything about her husband’s problem. Frank had a sister, Margaret, who died as a baby, twin brothers, Oliver and Eugene, that died as toddlers. The all died of sickness due to the lack of money for medicine. His surviving siblings where: Malachy, Michael and Alphonsus a.k.a. Alphie. His daily life consisted of one thing and that was survival. That meant that they had to beg, he and his brothers would have to pick up pieces of turf off the roads for use as coal for fires. Once school started it didn’t get much better since school masters back then would hit and smack you all over the place for ridiculous things such as not knowing an answer to a question! As Frank got to be about 11, his father went off to England to fight in wars and since they would never receive money from him, Frank would have to start finding jobs. But he is soon diagnosed with typhoid disease and is in the hospital for months. It passes but a short while later his mother is terribly ill and has to go to the hospital too. Eventually she is better and it is surprising that any of them are still alive. When Frank is 14 he has a steady job working at the post office delivering telegrams. While delivering a  telegram one day he lost his virginity to Theresa Carmody, his first love,  but she soon died of the consumption. By now he had a fair amount in his  bank account in which he was saving to go to New York, and he finally gets his wish when he is 19. He currently lives in New York. **Theme** The theme in my book //Angela’s Ashes// is about the author, Frank McCourt, and his extremely rough childhood growing up in the poverty stricken streets of Limerick, Ireland. His childhood might not hit home with people unless they grew up in poverty too so I think he was just trying to tell his story for the sole purpose of just telling his story. <span style="color: #2c2af4; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;">**Opinion** First off, I hated the ending. I hated the ending because it stopped right when he landed in America, and I want to know what happened. Did his family ever get to join him in America like he wanted? What happened to his father, did they ever see each other again? I did however like how honest and vivid he was. There was a part when he was explaining how he would write letters for this woman to people that owed her money, and he walked into her home to start his writing and she was dead. He then explained how he stole all her money for his fare to go to America and drank the sherry he bought for Mrs. Finucane down by the River Shannon. It’s sad that it had to be that way, but whenever he would bring home money for food he made it sound like a feast and everyone was in a good mood and you could picture him sitting there and feel the pride he felt in being the man of the house. Overall I thought it was a sad childhood/young adulthood but a well written memoir. <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> [|Frank McCourt Biography] [|Limerick, Ireland History]

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