Jan 15, 2004 06:53 PM
6846 Views
(Updated Jan 17, 2004 12:10 AM)
ANGELA”S ASHES: FRANK McCOURT
“The grass is always greener on the other side”-this age old dictum always holds true when it comes to human beings and their desire to do well in life. However, in spite of how well they fare in the other side they cannot but fondly remember their everyday struggles and it is how memoirs like ANGELA”S ASHES come into being.
That FRANK McCOURT had no ordinary childhood is evident in the very first page of the book. “when I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived 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”.Think about DARWIN”s theory about the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest and you will find the perfect setting in the McCOURT family.The large number of children that the McCOURTs have don”t survive till the end –even before FRANK McCOURT WAS FOUR years old ,he lost his sister MARGARET.He was later to lose his brothers –OLIVER & EUGENE ,leaving him with brothers Malachy jr ,Micheal and Alphie.
MALACH McCOURT , FRANKS”s father no doubt loves his children but that love is blemished for his love for the pint,his northern ancestry and the ex-I.R.A status.Even the dole money is used for the drink.Not that with war around there is shortage of jobs in ENGLAND but the love of a drink can outdo the love for your children.After sending a few pay checks suddenly he leaves his family in the lurch. Angela Sheeehan now MCcourt to look after the children .Not wanting to think that her husband can do such a thing , Angela religiously makes trips to the railway yard hoping to see her husband and along with him some signs of a healthy life which is scantly present in the city of LIMERICK and their home .The city is always drenched resulting in cacophony of hacking coughs, bronchial rattles, asthmatic wheezes which were tried to be cured in ways which suited the purse of the poor and consequently the people where never really healthy.Frank had his share of the diseases –first from typhoid and then nearly goes blind while delivering coal and catching the coal dust –in his attempts to substantiate the family earning.
Evicted from their home due to non payment of rent the McCOURTS with their niggardly possessions move into the home of their maternal relative Laman Griffin who promptly demands that the McCourts perform the manual jobs- Frank is asked to empty the chamber pot full with Laman”s excreta and Angela is forced to dish out sexual favours .Fed up with the job ,Frank revolts one day,boxes with Laman or rather is boxed at and leaves his home for good to end up in the house of aunt Aggie . After spending quite a few tormenting days when he used to steal milk and bread to stay alive Frank gets a job as a telegraph boy ,has a tryst with Theresa Carmody a t.b. sufferer who is avoided by other telegram boys lest they too catch t.b. Theresa goes to the grave soon after.during this job Frank comes into contact with the local money-lender Mrs.Finucane who uses Frank to write threatening letters to loan defaulters .One day she too follows others to the grave and Frank appropriates the money to provide for his passage way to AMERICA-the promised land of opportunity.The book ends with Frank making his way into AMERICA & getting his first taste of the pleasures awaiting there.
Most of the story is written in the first person. It’s like being inside Frank McCourt’s head, reliving his Irish Catholic life.The experiences,are vividly written, with respect to the particular age, which is a marvel in itself, because Frank McCourt wrote this book after 60 years.
The book looks at the frailties of the McCOURT family-the alcoholic father ,the aloof relatives and the mother trying to keep it altogether and her sanity.Through out the book one will come across the humanity and the charity of the poor and the downtrodden giving more than they should and the miserliness of the rich,people fighting it out in their harsh surroundings to live for another day.
The books reflects one of the most miserable childhood story ever told-one of extreme poverty, hardships, sickness, death, oppression but doesn’t bore the reader-there is moments of sorrow,sacrifice ,joy ,humor ,irony as we introduced to another hour in the McCOURT family saga. Frank McCourt’s retelling of his childhood in Ireland is poignant, honest, and unapologetic and it speaks about the triumph of human spirit above all odds .
