Audiobook15 hours
Angela's Ashes
Written by Frank McCourt
Narrated by Frank McCourt
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
A Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, Angela’s Ashes is Frank McCourt’s masterful memoir of his childhood in Ireland.
“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”
So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank’s mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank’s father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy—exasperating, irresponsible, and beguiling—does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father’s tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.
Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank’s survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig’s head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors—yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance, and remarkable forgiveness.
Angela’s Ashes, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt’s astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.
“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.”
So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank’s mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank’s father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy—exasperating, irresponsible, and beguiling—does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father’s tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.
Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank’s survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig’s head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors—yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance, and remarkable forgiveness.
Angela’s Ashes, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt’s astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.
Author
Frank McCourt
Frank McCourt’s first book, ‘Angela’s Ashes’ won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; it has sold 1.3 million copies in its Flamingo editions alone and tens of millions world-wide. For many years a writing teacher at Stuyvesant High School, McCourt performed with his brother Malachy in a musical review about their Irish youth. He lives in New York.
More audiobooks from Frank Mc Court
Teacher Man: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angela and the Baby Jesus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brothers: 26 Stories of Love and Rivalry Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to Angela's Ashes
Related audiobooks
The Inferno of Dante Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Divine Comedy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Red Tent - 20th Anniversary Edition: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Breaking Free: How I Escaped Polygamy, the FLDS Cult, and my Father, Warren Jeffs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Satanic Verses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lamb Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kite Runner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Atonement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Million Little Pieces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bel Canto Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story of My Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shutter Island Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hours: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nineteen Minutes: A novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mystic River Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Country for Old Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Gatsby Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Personal Memoirs For You
I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night: New translation by Marion Wiesel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Enough Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Making It So: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pageboy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Summer of Fall: Gravity is a bitch, but I'm still standing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quitting: Why I Left My Job to Live a Life of Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dad at Peace Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Lucy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5See You on the Way Down: Catch You on the Way Back Up! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Angela's Ashes
Rating: 4.05371563812601 out of 5 stars
4/5
6,190 ratings229 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pulitzer prize winner. My heart breaks for what these children went through. Written through the eyes of a child, McCourt shows us a world of abject poverty, of near hopelessness, constant hunger, cold, damp, of living daily with death, depression and despair. And yet ... there are moments of humor and delight. The reader knows, of course, that Frankie will survive; but one finds oneself hoping desperately that he'll escape, that he'll grow and flourish, love and be loved. An extraordinary book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing story. Well written and well read. You can tell he is a natural story teller
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved it ! Can’t wait to read more of his books.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Interesting and heartbreaking story about Frank's hard and poverty stricken life growing up in Ireland. Frank overcame a lot in his life and his story gave me even more disgust, if that's even possible, for the Catholic church. I know it was a different time then, but goodness gracious.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What an incredible story to listen to. Full of emotion and grabs your attention.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sad story, but very engaging drawing the reader in one page at a time deeper and deeper into the story. 10% in = meh, 25% in = seems ok, 50% in = hooked in and ready for each page
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I will start by stating that, I am not a big reader of non-fiction. I saw the cover and wondered why the boy looked so sad and lonely. This is one of the most depressing books I have ever read. Frank McCourt tells the story of his family with such heartbreaking reality but with a humorous side as well. It made me hug my children and be thankful for all we have. I couldn't put the book down until I found out what happened to the little boy on the cover. And bought the sequel, Tis before I even finished Angela's Ashes.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An interesting view into the lives of the Irish, bravo.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great story and the reader has a very nice brough .
I am a Irish American whose family came over during the famine and the stories I grew up listening to make me think of Angela‘s ashes. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This was a good book, nothing amazing but I would recommend it. I didn't feel it was time wasted when I'd finished.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book has really put into perspective how things were not even 100 years ago. Sometimes, I feel like I’m not where I want to be in life and that I should work towards my goals as hard as Frankie did. I know as a progressive society, we are working towards a more comfortable life. It is something I work hard for, but having a reminder that it’s okay to work hard sometimes for what you want. Thank you for sharing your life Frank McCourt.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was a great book,made me think of my father growing up during the depression. Yet this book had the Irish perspective.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of the best books I have ever read. S
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beautiful and sad all rolled into one. I can’t wait to read ‘Tis
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Irish child grows up in poverty and becomes a man
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frank McCourt lived a remarkable life, overcoming incredible poverty to become the man he now is. I think this is a great book to teach a reader compassion and understanding for those brought up in lesser cicrumstances.
I was shocked at the circumstances in which he lived as a boy. It is so foreign it is unimaginable.
Well worth the read. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I do believe I'm the last person on earth to have ever read this book and everyone but I got the memo that it's brilliant and awe-inspiring and I wish I could write trains of thought without punctuation so majestically as Mr. McCourt.It's not going to blow anybody's mind to say that I loved this book. It rips your heart out, it really does. When Frank had to lick leftover newspaper from his uncle's fish and chips wrapper, that's how desperately hungry and at the bottom of the barrel he was, my gut wrenched. His poor mother, losing three babies and married to man addicted to the drink and so far gone into the addiction that he can't see (or refuses to see) that his family needs the money for literal survival. Poor Frankie and his brothers, all of them sweet and good and somehow able to be positive in the most desperate of situations, the way only children can. How terrible that his own aunts and uncles and grandmothers treated him with disdain for the sole reason that his mother married a man from the North.What a tragic childhood.Yet at the same time, I wonder if Mr. McCourt found his childhood to be tragic. As a child, did he think he had it terribly? He knew his family were dirt poor (literally), he watched as his mother lost three children, he stood by his mother as she weeped over her husband who continued to let his family down, but Frank and his brothers were able to find happiness and light in the darkest of places and times, such is the resilience and power of a child's mind.If ever there were a book that forced you to be grateful for everything you have, grateful that you have a bed, your own toilet, shoes, food and that you don't have to lick the grease off a newspaper to stave away the hunger, this book is it.Bring on 'Tis and Teacher Man.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Eccellent read!! Why did I wait so long to read it?
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The writing is excellent. The author put me there. The story is rough and sad which is why I didn't like it so much. The social evils of poverty, alcoholism, and religious attitudes toward sex have huge impacts on a boy growing up. He does run into kindness, but it is a rough road.
There were several places where I was disgusted. McCourt uses words powerfully. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5very good book, although a little mature. sad...but tis good
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is an absolute classic. I am amazed that McCourt did not kill his father. McCourt came out of this terrible experience a positive and thoughtful man. I love him.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Are you kidding me!! I got every detail of Frankie’s life for 19 years just to be dropped off like this.... No ending. Ey
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The fact that the story was told from a child’s point of view made it fascinating! Simply because of the honesty! The dead grandma’s dress worn by FRANKIE was funny! I’m still laughing! Sad story tat people endured the hardships and people can be cold! Hurt people hurt people, His daddy needed help! I learned something catchy phrases and never thought of. Phrases! Frankie is a little hero! EXCITEMENT — lol
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5McCourt begins his popular memoir, Angela's Ashes, stating - "When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." and thus begins the journey of Frank McCourt's life as a child in Ireland. And while The Great Famine may have been a thing of the past for most in Ireland, you would never know it from the McCourt household.
An enduring story. It took me a bit to get used to the voice and the grammar used in the book but enjoyed it quite a bit. Some parts were extremely sad, leaving me near tears while others had me laughing (his first Communion and his Grandmother's dress were a riot) but at all times it gripped my heart. I just kept wanting something good to happen to this family. A great story on the struggle of life and overcoming that struggle against all odds. I look forward to the continuation, 'Tis, to see what becomes of the young man named Frank McCourt. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wonderful story! I love this writing style. Worth to read!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Read this book years ago when I was in college and have since re-read it over the years. One of the best books in any genre in my opinion.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5It won a Pulitzer so why didn’t I like it? Too much pain! Surely there was some joy in his life!! Can’t recommend this book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It was very relatable to growing up in the church. The church rules everything and everything is fine with the church in mind. The narration was wonderful. Eve tho parts were sad there were also parts that made me roar with laughter.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Delightful and poignant story about Frank McCourt’s first 19 years of dirt-poor existence. Brought me countless tears and smiles. And McCourt’s narration is pure music.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a story!!! I read this book long long time ago as a little girl still in school. My cousin gave it to me and it was the first book i ever read. I call this book starting point of my reading addiction. After all these years i still wondered about this book and never really understood the great reviews i occasionally read in different forums which off course meant i had to read it again some day! And so it happens that i stumble upon this epic.
Finished this book in 3 sittings spread over 2 days and o boy what a story. Having grown up in India, i always imagined that all European countries are rich ones. This book is a glimpse into the irish history & poverty and what its like growing up in utter desperation. Heart touching and definitely a book that will keep me thinking about Frankie and his growing up years, Angela and her utter frustration of raising a family with husband who cares all about his pint and all other characters
Now i know and understand this book so much better after having read it as a grown up