Dull and boring drinking stories with some name-dropping thrown in to capture some attention. Didn't work for me.

Writing was great and author is very humorous. This did disappoint me a little after reading Angela’s ashes. I didn’t expect him to be a terrible person and asshole just like his dad. I think the very end was a wake up call but it wasn’t really what I was expecting.

What dross! A self-involved adolescent who never progresses past Freshers’ Week style debauchery. I struggle to see where it is supposed to be funny… Nothing at all to recommend this - the worst book I have bothered to finish in a long, long while.

I was inclined to write a review on Malachy McCourt's A Monk Swimming after seeing the reviews of several other readers who seemed rather disappointed in the book. A Monk Swimming is a beautifully written memoir of Malachy McCourt’s life in New York City after leaving the slums of Limerick, Ireland where he grew up. Malachy’s loud and demanding presence, and his beautiful Irish-way with the English language made him something of a celebrity when he began acting on the stage, and off the stage when entertaining lively crowds in varies New York pubs. One of which belovingly adorning the name “Malachys.” But Malachy’s life slowly descends into drunken chaos as he becomes too affectionate of the warm drink, and unknowingly descends the same path of his father, whom Malachy both loves, and hates, for abandoning him and his family in the slums of Limerick. The story follows Malachy as he walks a tight rope of insanity and alcoholism, as he ironically abandons his own children, and as he escapes his misery with booze-driven travels around the world. The story ignites both love and hate for Malachy, whose sense of humor is gut wrenching, and whose honesty is eye opening.

Some reviewers condemn Malachy for his hedonistic and immoral lifestyle, but to me they seem to miss the point entirely. To some Malachy's behavior is disgusting and unacceptable, but that is beyond our scope as reviewers of a story to judge. What should be judged here is not whether we condone his behavior, but whether his behavior and his story was told skillfully and entertainingly. This was a book that made me burst out laughing on one page, and almost burst out crying on the next. Malachy is a comic genius with a rather sophisticated ability to tell a story. He is brutally honest about how he lived his life, and in that honesty we glimpse lessons on human nature and glean insight into the world around us. We learn how history has shaped so much of the world today, like the history between Great Britain and Ireland, and how wars from years ago still influence the lives of people today. We are reminded that we all must deal with the baggage left for us by the ones that have come before. We learn about mental illness, forgiveness, love and hate and most of all we get a glimpse into the confusion and madness of an alcoholic young man raised in poverty. This isn’t a story with a lesson that is straightforward and beautiful, instead the lessons are hidden between the lines and can only be grasped by someone with a keen eye for life.

He's no Frank. His life is much more adventure-filled but he has no writing style.

I wanted to like Malachy McCourt, I met him in Angela's Ashes, and was so glad he'd made his way to the US and a possible fortunate future with food and housing.

Malachy McCourt takes all the goodness and prosperity that was before him and drinks it away, just like his father. That isn't reason to give this book a 2 star rating though.

The rating is because the book is a shallow account of a shallow man who in writing this book is a name dropping account of his tenuous stardom.

The book started of well enough; McCourt can be a very clever writer but it just got so egotistical- how many women he could and did sleep with, how many drinks he could and did drink. how many people he could and did swear at, how many well known people he could and did insult. His writing ability deserved better than this

The best of the book is to be read in the last part five- Father to the Man. It is heartbreaking and so well written. Would that the whole book had been so well written...

What do you get when you send an archetypical drunken Irishman around the world to courier contraband gold to India? Malachy tells tall tales, drinks anything alcoholic and somehow holds his optimism and humor together throughout. He made me laugh but inside you could feel the sad little boy who was deserted by his father many years ago.

Although McCourt comes across as a hopeless drunk & a self-centred philanderer who moans about missing his wife n kids while fornicating across the planet, nevertheless there is something hilarious and fascinating about this memoir. The irony that the author fails to see is that he is turning into the father whose ghost haunts the family with his drunken abuse and neglect the original cause of so much pain.

I had a hard time reading this book. The writing style (a bit of a drunk lyrical bouncing-about series of short stories) is not one I do well with. I gave up about a third of the way in.

whatever you do, stay away from this book. It's not worth the paper it's written on and certainly not worth one iota of anyone's precious time. Malachy McCourt is an oaf and a lout!

Entertaining read. The author was upfront about his asshole behavior. The Apple didn’t fall far from the tree. He presents his memoir in a humorous way but his violence and narcissism supersedes the humor.

I liked other books by this author but didn’t like this one at all. There were phrases that were hilarious but the humor and stories overall were just too much. Overdone, trying too hard. I didn’t finish