Apr 23 2007
did you decide to stop reading that book?
Book: Tis. A Memoir. Frank McCourt
Franks use of plain language, provides a raw, powerful, funny and poignant walk through the experience of emigrating to America. It’s an impressive book. I’ve finally given up trying to read it half way through. I’ve no stamina, I got bored. The story simply wasn’t gripping enough to make me drool over what might be on the next page. The rest of this review is based on the first half of the book.
Synopsis:
In 1949 a nineteen year old boy, the author, from Limerick (Ireland) emmigrates to his dream city, New York. The book is a sequel to Angela’s Ashes that easily stands alone.
“that’s what you’re faced with when you come to America, one decision after another” p54
Themes:
- Immigrants: Everyone is American and something else laden with prejudices. Spicks, Mickeys, Polacks, Pueto Ricans, Natives, Greeks, Swedes, Chinks. Rather than an absence of prejudice the book paints a complex, explicit and diverse prejudices.
- Poverty: America’s not like you expect it to be after watching films, there is poverty here too. The book makes explicit comparisions between poverty in Limerick, Ireland, and New York.
- Health: nealry every character’s health is vividly described, conjunctivitus, arthritus, blood infections, alcoholism. How these conditions effect their ability to earn money and pay for health care et.
- real Americans: just like you see in the movies. We see these people from a distance as they go to church or stay in hotels. These people go to college, have blond blue-eyed girlfirends, are healthy, smell clean have amazingly white aligned teeth, always have food available and warm homes:
“they can afford to smile because they all have teeth so dazzling if they dropped them in the snow they’d be lost forever” p59
did you decide to stop reading that book?
