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Biography & Autobiography.
Nonfiction.
HTML:A #1 New York Times bestseller and the eagerly anticipated sequel to the Pulitzer Prizeâ??winning Angela's Ashes, this masterpiece from Frank McCourt tells of his American journey from impoverished immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur. Frank McCourt's glorious childhood memoir, Angela's Ashes, has been loved and celebrated by readers everywhere for its spirit, its wit and its profound humanity. A tale of redemption, in which storytelling itself is the source of salvation, it won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Rarely has a book so swiftly found its place on the literary landscape. And now we have 'Tis, the story of Frank's American journey from impoverished immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur. Frank lands in New York at age nineteen, in the company of a priest he meets on the boat. He gets a job at the Biltmore Hotel, where he immediately encounters the vivid hierarchies of this "classless country," and then is drafted into the army and is sent to Germany to train dogs and type reports. It is Frank's incomparable voiceâ??his uncanny humor and his astonishing ear for dialogueâ??that renders these experiences spellbinding. When Frank returns to America in 1953, he works on the docks, always resisting what everyone tells him, that men and women who have dreamed and toiled for years to get to America should "stick to their own kind" once they arrive. Somehow, Frank knows that he should be getting an education, and though he left school at fourteen, he talks his way into New York University. There, he falls in love with the quintessential Yankee, long-legged and blonde, and tries to live his dream. But it is not until he starts to teachâ??and to writeâ??that Frank finds his place in the world. The same vulnerable but invincible spirit that captured the hearts of readers in Angela's Ashes comes of age. As Malcolm Jones said in his Newsweek review of Angela's Ashes, "It is only the best storyteller who can so beguile his readers that he leaves them wanting more when he is done...and McCourt proves himself one of the very best." Frank McCourt's 'Tis is one of the most eagerly awaited books of our time, and it is… (more)
Excellent. I don't often enjoy reading a second book by the same author, let alone a second memoir, but this is just as good as Angela's Ashes, in my opinion. Highly recommended but read Angela's Ashes first so you can understand his style, and pick up the story fairly quickly. ( )
Frank McCourt's "Tis" is not a happy book. It starts with his re-entry into America and ends with his return to Ireland to place his mother's ashes--Angela's ashes.
The book travels through his difficulties with jobs, getting an education, and marriage.
It's a book about life when you are come from poverty and are trying to rise out of it. There is a lot of baggage that makes the playing field uneven.
He is a greater man to rise above it. Of course, you don't know that because you didn't read "Teacher Man." I highly recommend that book as well. ( )
As Tis opens, Frank is on his way to AMERICA! At last! But he has 'a pimply face, sore eyes and bad teeth' so not much has changed there since Angela's Ashes. Which is to say 'Tis is as compelling and bitter-sweet as the first memoir. Is that a brogue I hear?
Auch der zweite Teil von McCourts Autobiographie bewegt durch die Einfachheit der Darstellung. Ein Bild der amerikanischen Klassengesellschaft aus der Perspektive von unten wird entwickelt, wie es lebendiger nicht sein könnte. Das Buch lebt vom Einblick in die Gefühlswelt der "kleinen Leute" und ihre Strategien im Überlebenskampf. Es berührt durch die Erkenntnis, wie schwer es ist, Kindheit und Jugend abzuschütteln und neu zu beginnen.
This book is dedicated to My daughter, Maggie, for her warm, searching heart and to My wife Ellen, for joining her side to mine
First words
When the MS Irish Oak sailed from Cork in October, 1949, we expected to be in New York City in a week.
Quotations
Last words
We had lunch at a pub along the road to Ballinacurra and you'd never know from the way we ate and drank and laughed that we'd scattered our mother who was once a grand dancer at the Wembley Hall and known to one and all for the way she sang a good song, oh, if she could only catch her breath.
Biography & Autobiography.
Nonfiction.
HTML:A #1 New York Times bestseller and the eagerly anticipated sequel to the Pulitzer Prizeâ??winning Angela's Ashes, this masterpiece from Frank McCourt tells of his American journey from impoverished immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur. Frank McCourt's glorious childhood memoir, Angela's Ashes, has been loved and celebrated by readers everywhere for its spirit, its wit and its profound humanity. A tale of redemption, in which storytelling itself is the source of salvation, it won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Rarely has a book so swiftly found its place on the literary landscape. And now we have 'Tis, the story of Frank's American journey from impoverished immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur. Frank lands in New York at age nineteen, in the company of a priest he meets on the boat. He gets a job at the Biltmore Hotel, where he immediately encounters the vivid hierarchies of this "classless country," and then is drafted into the army and is sent to Germany to train dogs and type reports. It is Frank's incomparable voiceâ??his uncanny humor and his astonishing ear for dialogueâ??that renders these experiences spellbinding. When Frank returns to America in 1953, he works on the docks, always resisting what everyone tells him, that men and women who have dreamed and toiled for years to get to America should "stick to their own kind" once they arrive. Somehow, Frank knows that he should be getting an education, and though he left school at fourteen, he talks his way into New York University. There, he falls in love with the quintessential Yankee, long-legged and blonde, and tries to live his dream. But it is not until he starts to teachâ??and to writeâ??that Frank finds his place in the world. The same vulnerable but invincible spirit that captured the hearts of readers in Angela's Ashes comes of age. As Malcolm Jones said in his Newsweek review of Angela's Ashes, "It is only the best storyteller who can so beguile his readers that he leaves them wanting more when he is done...and McCourt proves himself one of the very best." Frank McCourt's 'Tis is one of the most eagerly awaited books of our time, and it is
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Book description
Der Nachfolgeroman zu den Erinnerungen Frank McCourts an seine irisch-katholische Kindheit, Die Asche meiner Mutter, nimmt den Faden der Geschichte im Oktober 1949, bei seiner Ankunft in Amerika, wieder auf. Obwohl er in New York geboren wurde, war die Familie wegen schlechter Perspektiven in Amerika nach Irland zurückgekehrt. Wieder auf amerikanischem Boden, hat dieser 19-jährige mit seinem pickeligem Gesicht, entzündeten Augen und schlechten Zähnen wenig mit den kerngesunden, selbstbewußten College-Studenten gemeinsam, die er täglich in der U-Bahn sieht. Er träumt davon, es ihnen gleichzutun und zu studieren.
Seine anfänglichen Erfahrungen in Amerika sind genauso grauenhaft wie seine Jugend in völlig verarmten Verhältnissen in Irland; sie schließen zwei der trostlosesten Weihnachten mit ein, die je in der Literatur beschrieben worden sind. Charakteristisch schon für den vorhergehenden Roman, schaut McCourt mit scharfen Augen und schwarzem Humor auf die Vereinigten Staaten; Rassenvorurteile, alltägliche Grausamkeit und aussichtslose Jobs liegen schwer auf seinem Gemüt, während er nach einen Ausweg sucht. Ein Hoffnungsschimmer kommt von der Armee, wo er einige Fähigkeiten als Büroangestellter sammeln kann sowie von der New York University, die ihn trotz fehlendem Schulabschluß aufnimmt. Aber der Weg bis zu seiner Position als Lehrbeauftragter für Kreatives Schreiben an der Stuyvesant High School ist weder kurz noch einfach. Glücklicherweise ist McCourts Offenheit zur Bandbreite menschlicher Emotionen und Sehnsüchte außergewöhnlich; sogar die am meisten zerstörten, schwierigsten Menschen, die er trifft, sind Individuen mit innerer Größe, und der Leser kann sich nicht entziehen, mit ihnen eine beklemmende Seelen-Verwandtschaft zu empfinden. Die magische Prosa mit ihrer singenden irischen Sprachmelodie bringt selbst in die traurigsten Ereignisse Erhabenheit und Schönheit, einschließlich der letzten Szene, in der Angelas Asche auf einem Friedhof in Limerick verstreut wird.