This Book Changed My Life. Review on Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt

As much as I try to avoid using cliques, I decided to use that title anyway since this book really did change my life. I was given Angela's Ashes as a Christmas present about 5 years ago, and then put it away and forgot about it for the following 2 years. Then one day I pulled it down off the shelf and decided to give it a go. Since then, I have re-read it every few months, and it remains the very best book I have ever read.

Frank McCourt's writing style is nothing short of brilliant. He managed to capture his own thoughts and feelings at various ages through his life. When he quotes someone, who writes it the way it is heard, so the reader has no choice but to read the book in an Irish accent, which add greatly to the atmosphere of the book.

The thing I liked most about Mr MrCourt's style is that he leaves nothing out. The things that he most regrets about his life, the most embarrasing and painful elements of his childhood and youth have been described in as much detail as his triumphs.

You might be wondering how it is that this book changed my life. What Angela's Ashes did for me was to put a human face to poverty. I am a child sponsor with World Vision, and have been for the past 4 years, but I admit that before reading Angela's Ashes I still thought of poverty as a problem of countries, not of individual humans.

I thought that the solution to poverty was to 'feed and water the poor'. But after reading this book it was brought home to me that a person living in poverty is no different to any other person anywhere else in the world. This boy at 16, 17, 18 years is no different to myself at that age, which was indeed the age that I began to read this book. He thinks of fun, friends, nice things to eat, he plays with his brothers and fights with his brothers, he has ambition for the future.

The only differences are that I have a safe house to live in and food on the table, and a much higher chance of achieving my dreams. Yet there are people with all the opportunities in the world, living in fortunate countries, who do not take advantage of the opportunities afforded to them. And there are people like Frank McCourt, living in the harshest of poverty, that strive and struggle and will achieve their goals.

I highly receommend this book to anyone who would like to see poverty in a different light.