(Originally Published 1996, Paperback Edition 363 pages)
Eighty pages into 'Angela's Ashes,' it was brought to my attention that
the book had stirred up quite the ire of the people who live in
Limerick, Ireland. All memoirs have an element of intentional or
unintentional fiction. Our memories are notoriously unreliable in
remembering how actual events unfolded especially the further you go
back into your own history. However, based upon the reactions of
Limerick citizens, they are adamant that most of the late Mr. McCourt's
work is pure BS. The author was just as adamant that it was all true.
The hell if I know who to believe.
What I can say is the thing sure sounds authentic when compared to my wife's and my background growing up Catholic during the 1960s and 70s in Maine. I, however, have been an agnostic for about thirty years now. College and critical thinking have a way of doing that to many Catholics. Ireland is well known for being deeply religious especially during the 1930s and 40s when the memoir takes place. A lot of the cockamamie Catholic superstitions and peer pressures are on full display in the book: Unbaptized babies don't go heaven but some odd place called Limbo: you can't eat meat on Fridays or you go to hell; you can't masturbate or you also go to hell; all Protestants have a one-way ticket to Satan Central, blah blah, blah... the list of religious infractions is nearly endless. Add to that regional prejudices, abject poverty, oodles of uneducated adults, a high infant-mortality rate, an educational system that meted out corporal punishment to kids for the silliest of excuses, and lastly, a major-league-alcoholic father and, mercy me, you won't be mistaking 1930s-40s Limerick, Ireland for Shangri-la.
There are also many funny adventures accompanied by the mandatory Catholic guilt trip. I enjoyed Mr. McCourt's memoir despite the controversy surrounding it. Even if many of these escapades were simply pulled out of the author's backside, the very well-written work certainly conveys the times and nature of poverty and religious mindset during the early part of the 20th Century. 'Angela's Ashes' deserved the Pulitzer Prize.
What I can say is the thing sure sounds authentic when compared to my wife's and my background growing up Catholic during the 1960s and 70s in Maine. I, however, have been an agnostic for about thirty years now. College and critical thinking have a way of doing that to many Catholics. Ireland is well known for being deeply religious especially during the 1930s and 40s when the memoir takes place. A lot of the cockamamie Catholic superstitions and peer pressures are on full display in the book: Unbaptized babies don't go heaven but some odd place called Limbo: you can't eat meat on Fridays or you go to hell; you can't masturbate or you also go to hell; all Protestants have a one-way ticket to Satan Central, blah blah, blah... the list of religious infractions is nearly endless. Add to that regional prejudices, abject poverty, oodles of uneducated adults, a high infant-mortality rate, an educational system that meted out corporal punishment to kids for the silliest of excuses, and lastly, a major-league-alcoholic father and, mercy me, you won't be mistaking 1930s-40s Limerick, Ireland for Shangri-la.
There are also many funny adventures accompanied by the mandatory Catholic guilt trip. I enjoyed Mr. McCourt's memoir despite the controversy surrounding it. Even if many of these escapades were simply pulled out of the author's backside, the very well-written work certainly conveys the times and nature of poverty and religious mindset during the early part of the 20th Century. 'Angela's Ashes' deserved the Pulitzer Prize.
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