Book #2

If you ever wanted to know about a culture other than your own, specifically the Irish Catholic culture, this is the book you should read. It is creatively written as if the author Frank McCourt had been writing his story since the age of four. By him writing it like that, I felt as if he was personally telling me his story. The memoir chronicles his life from his early years in America, his time after his family moved back to Ireland, to when he finally returned to America.

I must warn that this is not a book that disclaims any stereotypes. McCourt's own life is a perfect example of any stereotype there is about Irish Catholics. His father is a drunk who was forced to marry his mother after he got her pregnant, and his mother cannot stop having children although her husband can't obviously stay sober longer enough to support his family.

Angela's Ashes is a sad and tragic memoir that will make you want to do everything from adopting a Irish child to advocating that all pubs be abolished in Ireland.