This book has a different reading history compared to most books I've read. I started it as a audio book and got through about half of it before I ran into broken tapes. The next quarter or so was read in two or three page bursts as a "car book" when I had to wait for 5 or 10 minutes before tutoring or kung fu. The remainder was read on my flight to Copenhagen for vacation.
The audio book was really the best way to read this book. McCourt read it and with his Irish accent brings more life and reality than I can in my head. Reading it a bit at a time was also good, as the anecdotes he tells are generally short and stick well. Reading it in large chunks, though, is not so good, as it is a rather depressing story.
So, McCourt gives us the story of his childhood. How his parents escaped Ireland for America, only to go back again, thinking there would be more chance to work there than in the US. Instead, resulting from a drunk father and a fertile mother, there is little more than death and poverty.
It is a good book for what it is. McCourt is a good story teller and is able to relate his life well. The poverty is overwhelming in many cases. I can understand---though not condone---why his father wouldn't come back.
7/10
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