Only slightly less depressing than his first memoir of his early life ‘Angela’s ashes’. Frank grew up to have a really hard time in his early adulthood trying to make it in America but he finally got educated and had a daughter which seems to be his only reprieve. His poor mother continues to have a miserable life and at the end they spread “Angela’s ashes” back in Ireland as her dying wish. Idk if I’d read the third book

I seem to be somewhat in the minority here, but I enjoyed 'Tis more than Angela's Ashes. Perhaps because I was already so invested in Frank's life, so intrigued to see where he went next. Or maybe because he had control over his life now he is an adult. While he is still deeply affected by his circumstances, he is now in a position to attempt to change them, so it was a little less depressing to read.

I love his way with language, how he can describe something that is both horrifying and humorous. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say I loved finding out where he goes and how he got there.

Looking forward to reading the final volume soon!

Frank İrlanda'dan Amerika'ya gemi ile göç etmiştir. Gemide tanıştığı rahip New York'a indiğinde ona yardım etmek ister, ona kalacak yer ayarlar, çalışması için bir iş ayarlar. Ancak rahip çok içtiği bir günün sonunda kendisinden beklenmedik bir biçime Frank'a cinsel tacizde bulunacaktır. Frank derhal kaldığı yerden kaçacaktır. Amerika'da ilk günleri böyle tatsız bir olayla başlar.

Rahibin vesilesi ile bulduğu işte hotel lobisinde temizlikçilik yaparak çalışma hayatına başlayacaktır. Kazanacağı paranın bir kısmını İrlanda'ya annesine gönderecektir. Sonrasında bir arkadaşı ile ortak ev tutar ve ani bir kararla oteldeki işinden ayrılır ve orduya yazılır.
Orduda sırasıyla köpek eğitmenliği, yazıcılık ve çamaşır taşımacılığı görevlerinde çalışır. Ordudan ayrıldıktan sonra 2 haftalığına İrlanda'ya ailesini ziyarete gider. İrlanda'yı hem çok özlemiştir, hemde yaşadığı yeni hayattan dolayı İrlanda'da artık kalmak istemez. Ordudan ayrılınca kız arkadaşı Emer'in yanına gider ama bir süre sonra Emer, Frank''ın düzenli bir hayat kuramayacağını düşündüğünden onu terk eder. Frank sürekli babasının içkiye düşkünlüğünden ailesini ihmal etmesine sürekli kızgın olsa da zaman geçtikçe kendiside babası gibi, içkiye belli zamanlarda zaaf duyacaktır.

Emer'den ayrıldıktan sonra, Frank değişmek isteyecektir, limandaki işini değiştirmek daha saygın bir işe başlamak istemektedir. Bir süre sigortacılık yapar.
Ama asıl arzusu ne olursa olsun eğitimli olmak ve üniversiteye gitmektir. Ama daha lise diploması bile yoktur. Kitaplara düşkündür ve sürekli okur.
Bu duygularla şansını denemek için bir üniversiteye gider ve kayıt olmak istediğini açık açık söyler, hazırlık derslerine girmek kaydı ile ona bir şans verirler.

Üniversiteyi bitirecek ve istediği gibi öğretmen olarak çalışmaya başlayacaktır. Üniversite yıllarında aşık olduğu Alberta ile çıkacak, daha sonrada evlenecektir.

Bu arada kardeşlerinden Malachy, Michael de New york"a gelmişlerdir, durumları da iyidir, daha sonraki dönemde annesi Angela ile küçük kardeşi Alphie de onları ziyarete gelir ve onlarda New York'ta kalırlar. Frank'ın Maggie isimli bir kız çocuğu olur.
Annesi Angela hastalanmıştır ve fazla yaşamayacaktır, aynı şekilde babasının cenazesi içinde Kuzey İrlanda Belfast'a gidecektir.

"Tam ağzımı açıp birine bir laf edecek oluyorum, hemen herkes İrlandalı oluyor."
"Trajik bir yatak öyküsü"

Shite, what a dire book, I considered giving up multiple times, What a pain in the ass it must have been to know this guy.

بعید می دونم بشه کتاب اجاق سرد آنجلا رو خوند و فرانک بیچاره رو که بعد از تحمل اون همه فلاکت بالاخره به رویای دور و درازش - زندگی در امریکا - رسیده تو دهه ی دوم زندگیش رها کرد. اینجاست که با اشتیاق برای فرونشوندن حس کنجکاویتون دنبال جلد دوم می گردین

به نظر من ادامه ی ماجرا تو جلد دوم نسبت به جلد اول ضعف های بیشتری داره . لحن ساده و یکنواخت نویسنده تو جلد اول به واسطه ی سن پایین راوی آزاردهنده نیست ولی با بزرگ شدن راوی تو جلد دوم ، لحن روایت نویسنده همون طور ساده باقی می مونه که باور بزرگ شدن فرانک ، ورود به دانشگاه ، معلم شدن ، ازدواج و بچه دار شدن و حتی پیر شدنش رو مشکل می کنه. علاوه بر این جاهایی هم به خاطر این نوشتار یکنواخت و ساده ، روند ماجرا خسته کننده میشه

یکی دیگه از ضعف های کتاب به نظرم ناتوانی نویسنده در برجسته کردن اتفاقات مهم و جداکردن جزئیات از اونهاست. نویسنده با لحن یکنواختش با همون میزان توجهی که مثلا نسبت به ورود به دانشگاهش یا ازدواجش حرف می زنه از دوستی های گذرا یا یه گذران وقت ساده تو یه بار حرف می زنه . به نظرم بهتر بود خیلی از مکالمات و اتفاقات جزیی از روایت نویسنده حذف میشد تا هم توجه و تمرکز خواننده بیشتر جذب بشه و هم از خسته کنندگی بعضی قسمت ها کم بشه

حجم بالایی از جلد دوم به ماجراهای نویسنده از زمان رسیدنش به امریکا تا معلم شدن و سپس ازدواجش اختصاص داره . بعد از اون نویسنده خیلی جزیی و پراکنده حوادثی رو ذکر می کنه که با مرگ مادر و بعد پدرش به پایان می رسه .

به جرات می تونم بگم مک کورتی آدم خوشحال ( یا شاکری!) نبوده . تواناییش در ناله کردن برای بدبختی و فقر و فلاکت زندگی بسیار بالا ولی برای شکرگزاری تغییرات عظیم زندگیش بسیار پایینه . بدون مدرک دبیرستان وارد دانشگاه میشه ، با خوشگل ترین دختر دانشگاه دوست میشه ، از نظافت و باربری به معلمی می رسه ولی همچنان دست از ناله بر نمی داره

ختم کلام این که هر چند دنبال کردن سرنوشت نویسنده تو سرزمین رویایی امریکا و دیدن رشد و پیشرفتش و رسیدن به جایگاه بالا از هیچ بسیار جالبه ، می تونه اثر گذار و امید بخش باشه و یه جورایی قدرت خواستن رو به اثبات برسونه ولی می تونست با قلمی متفاوت از این هم جذاب تر بشه .

Frank McCourt burst on the literary scene with his memoir n  Angela’s Ashesn, which outlined his childhood lived in abject poverty in Limerick Ireland. This book picks up where that one left off. He begins by recounting some of the overseas voyage, befriended by a priest who encourages him to talk to the “wealthy Protestants from Kentucky,” and who is dismayed when McCourt’s embarrassment over his teeth, his eyes, his clothing, keeps him from asserting himself. But although nothing is as he expected and he feels more ignorant each day, the 19-year-old Frank pursues his dreams of the American life. It’s slow going and the reader begins to wonder if he’ll ever get out of the slums and get his eyes and teeth fixed (though we obviously know he will, because he wrote these books, after all).

Despite the obvious roadblocks in his path, Frank’s ingrained desire to better himself is further inspired by watching the office workers on the bus, overhearing them talk about their children or grandchildren going to college. A stint in the Army makes him eligible for the GI bill, and he begins to take courses at NYU. And the love of a classic American blonde beauty makes his dream of a clean job, a clean wife, a clean house and clean children seem finally within his grasp.

McCourt has a way with language. His direct, present-tense style has immediacy to it that just keeps me reading. He doesn’t shy away from that which is painful, embarrassing, or downright depressing. I was anxious to see him succeed, but I was frustrated with his apparent inability to get on with it. In relating the story of the young Frank McCourt he comes across as painfully lacking in self-esteem – a born “loser.” His first book ended on such a high note of hope and opportunity; I was expecting more of the same, and this one didn’t quite deliver.

This book is so good. I love Frank McCourt and how he infuses humor into even the most depressing scenes from his life. I got this book not knowing it is a follow up to Angela's Ashes, so I'm glad I got it before Teacher Man. Anyway, it starts where Angela's Ashes leaves off, with his arrival in New York and covers about 25-30 years from there. I really liked reading not only about his journey and many misfortunes in the city, but also the 1950s-60s city itself. And as an educator, I was interested to see the parallels between his experiences teaching high school and college back then and mine teaching college today. Honestly, students haven't changed much at all. I thoroughly enjoyed this book start to finish.

https://booknation.ro/recenzie-o-tara...

Frank McCourt's first book, Angela's Ashes, was incredible in its descriptions of an unbelievable poverty experienced within living memory in a Western European country. The impact of the continuation of McCourt's life story could hardly fail to pale in comparison. I felt that his descriptions of his miserable life at a succession of pitiful jobs and in the army dragged on too long. I was irritated by the continual harping on about how fortunate the Americans were, with their electricity, hot and cold running water and cooked food, about how beautiful they all were. It didn't matter what happened to McCourt, good or bad, he was always moaning about how unlucky he was to be Irish, have bad eyes and teeth. None of these things seemed to hold back his brothers, it was just Frank and his dismal view on life and his inability to stay away from the drink. Even when the beautiful Mike / Alberta falls for him, he continues to jeapordise his happiness by his miserable attitude and apparent need to argue and his stubbornness. When his mother arrives on the scene, it is clear where he got his aptitude for seeing the darker side of life; they were a pair made in heaven, well-matched in their ability to be ungracious and ungrateful. Perhaps the reason this grated with me so much was because I have recently read The Adventures of Augie March describing life in a poor Jewish family in Chicago, with an overlapping timeframe, and they were living in similar poverty and squalor; this was by no means the exclusive fate of Irish immigrants and McCourt suggests is was.

It wasn't until the second half of the book that it really came to life for me. McCourt's descriptions of his teaching at the vocational college on Staten Island and later at community college and an upper-class high school in Brooklyn were fascinating, sometimes hilarious and probably ring true for all teachers of teenagers. The way Frank won students over to his side, or at least got them discussing books, even if they weren't the books on the syllabus, was wonderful. His reverse psychology which resulted in an entire class enthusiastically acting out five of Shakespeare's plays was amusing and inspiring. The fact that he could become a teacher at all, having never gone to high school in Ireland himself, is both proof of 'the American dream' and a sad indictment on the American education system of the time, especially considering McCourt's extreme poverty when starting out as a teacher, unable to pay his way in life and certainly unable to save.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book, although I never warmed to the author himself. Perhaps if I heard these stories told by the man himself as a self-deprecating comic over a pint of beer, I would appreciate it more. It was also a shame that he didn't paint longer portraits of some of his friends, many of whom seem to have been real characters, such as Horace at the docks and his neighbour Virgil Frank. In fact, the whole book seems to be rather self-centred, and this is what lowers my rating. Entertaining, but not memorable enough.

I have a sentimental spot in my heart for Frank ever since I read Angela's Ashes. Giving 4 stars but will not be everyone's 'decent cup of tea' (sly wink for those who know understand the reference).

3,5 stars
I adore “Angela’s Ashes”. So it would be not an exaggeration to say I was frightened of go on with trilogy - it seems unlikely that such powerful book as “Angela’s Ashes” can be repeated. And yes, “‘Tis” is a not bad book, in parts is brilliant even. But sweet irony, kindness and sharpness of the first book turn here into sad bitterness, anger and frustration. Young and then middle aged Frank became a person who not easy to love as Frank the kid. This bitterness is quite understandable due all he had to struggle with in his childhood. Nevertheless a scrappy structure of the book, tediousness of the same writing techniques which were so good in “Angela’s Ashes” but here simply don’t work anymore, a lot of unimportant characters which take the time from the main ones, make a sequel just a shadow of its brilliant predecessor.

I really enjoyed Frank McCourt's second memoir after finishing "Angela's Ashes," and I'll be reading his third, "Teacher Man," next. I love his voice and style, the way he weaves words with humor, the way he does dialogue and uses repetition so uniquely. So much to learn from him, both about writing and life.