Modern Fiction – The Novel

Angela's Ashes is a charming, moving, funny, and heartbreaking memoir that is full of equal parts joy and pain. Frank McCourt recounts his early life as a child of impoverished parents. His father is an alcoholic who rarely fails to disappoint the family. His mother is a woman who seems to accept the hand that fate has dealt her. Both parents shape Frank in ways that seem to have no promise at all. Despite this, or maybe because of it, Frank manages to overcome all odds. His gift for storytelling and character development pulls the reader into the memoir from the first pages. Told from the perspective of Frank at the age of each experience, the reader sees harsh reality from the eyes of a small child who knows no better. Innocence and experience clash as Frank ages, and his tales get more and more engrossing. As his life grows more complex, his desire to succeed becomes stronger and stronger.