Angela's Ashes

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

In this memoir, the author tells the story of his childhood growing up in Limerick, Ireland. Though he was born in New York City, McCourt and his family immigrated back to Ireland, where his parents were from, during the height of the Great Depression -- though their troubles were more likely linked to Malachy McCourt's drinking and inability to keep a job than to the downturn in the global economy. Malachy doesn't change much upon their return to Ireland and, in fact, abandons the family altogether when he finds work in England during World War II.

The poverty McCourt writes about is hard to fathom. We think about Ireland as quaint above all else. But there is nothing quaint about hunger, about inadequate shelter, about a father who continually drinks away the family's meager allowance from the Irish state. Yet McCourt tells his story with a sense of humor that can only be made possible by a triumph, later in life, over these difficulties. And the story is so evocative of Ireland that it'll have you dreaming of a steaming cup of tea during a dreary rainy day.