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July 13, 2006
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir
This book is a memoir, a journal, of the author, Frank McCourt’s life - his life growing up in complete poverty. His family lived their lives eating bread and drinking tea. The babies were lucky to have sugar water in their bottles. Special occasions were celebrated, to his mother’s dismay, with a pig’s head instead of turkey.
The power of a single egg was huge for me throughout the book. I told you the McCourt family lived on bread and tea, so when there was an egg, it was a big deal. At one point in the story, the family had a single egg. The mother told her three children she was boiling the egg for their father because he would be needing the nourishment. After handing him the boiled egg, the father takes it and slices into five pieces – one slice for each of them. The mom scolds him but he says, “What would a man be doing with a whole egg to himself?”
I will remember that quote for a while.
Anytime Frank asks someone for bread, they tell him, “Next thing you’ll be wantin’ an egg.”
That’s another great quote.
The power of a single egg is appalling and startling in this context.
The things I read in this book are foreign to my life and the way that I grew up, so naturally I was entranced. The family is Irish Catholic. I loved the way they talked and I loved hearing about the Saints, the Seven Sacraments, the Act of Contrition, First Communion, the Sacred Heart, Confession, and so on.
If you’ve wondered why I haven’t posted in the past two days, it’s because I’ve been reading this book. My hope now is that there is a part two, a continuing account to this saga because Frank McCourt can write!
** UPDATE**
I am thrilled beyond belief! There is a sequel: Tis: A Memoir.
He has also written: Teacher Man : A Memoir.
I can’t wait to get my hands on these :)
Posted by tami at July 13, 2006 8:07 PM
Comments
There's a movie made from this book:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145653/
I've not seen it or read the book. Now I want to do both. I just love your blog, Tami. Do you realize we've been chums since November 2003? I have one trackback in my listings and it's yours. :)
Posted by: GW at July 15, 2006 7:37 PM
Thank you for the compliments. I needed that! I love your blog too, you know. I had no idea it had been so long. Now that I’m in my 30’s, it seems time flies!
As far as this movie goes, I will now have to rent it!! Thanks for the info!
Posted by: Tami at July 17, 2006 3:04 PM