Angela's Ashes Sparknotes

Examining the Controversy Surrounding Frank McCourt’s Memoir, Angela’s Ashes
Frank McCourt’s memoir, Angela’s Ashes (1996), has been popularly received by readers and critics alike due to its raw, disturbing portrayals of Frank’s life growing up in Limerick, Ireland. The memoir was even turned into a film, which was again fairly well received. However, though some might argue that the stories contained within McCourt’s memoir are brutally honest and open, accurately depicting the life of a poor Irish family struggling to survive through various hardships, others – specifically the people of Limerick – have found the memoir to be offensive and inaccurate, casting the city in a negative light simply to elicit popularity among readers. This essay

will briefly examine the nature and validity of the controversies surrounding Angela’s Ashes, ultimately concluding that though it is impossible to truly say for certain how accurate the events in the novel are, it is possible that McCourt did exaggerate his traumatic childhood in order to successfully push his memoir into the international spotlight.
It is immediately apparent from the first few lines of McCourt’s memoir that this is a story of certain tragedy.

He states “people everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years” (McCourt n.pag.). Even with this description unpleasantly summarizing McCourt’s experiences, the reader is still shocked to experience the horrid details of these events. McCourt explains how his family must compete for charity vouchers, shares a disgusting bathroom with other families, and suffers financially due to his father’s alcoholism. To make matters worse, even after his father leaves for England, the family’s situation does not improve; they are evicted and his mother moves the family in with a cousin named Laman, who beats the children, and with whom she has a disturbing relationship that is indicated to be sexual, as McCourt says that “there are nights when we hear them grunting, moaning. I think they’re at the excitement up there” (McCourt n.pag). McCourt is finally able to leave Limerick at the age of 19, and establishes a new life in America, which is where he wrote his successful memoir, becoming far more wealthy than he surely ever thought

possible.
Unfortunately, though this story appears to be genuine and certainly pulls at the heart of the reader, the publication of Angela’s Ashes caused a great deal of controversy among the citizens of Limerick. According to an article by Kevin Cullen, Limerick has frequently been considered an unpleasant city, known for rough neighbourhoods; however, Cullen states that as Limerick “undergoes an economic renaissance, some people bitterly resent the image McCourt has presented to the rest of the world” (Cullen n.pag). And indeed, the account that McCourt presents of the city is far from optimistic; as described by Cullen:
While McCourt’s poignant, unflinching account of how poor people were marginalized by the wider society and humiliated by the Roman Catholic Church is as wildly popular in Ireland as it is in the United States, there are some here who do not share the enthusiasm for a book that has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide . . . the split here is between those who see “Angela’s Ashes” as an exaggerated, mean-spirited attack on the city and its people, and those who embrace the book’s art, humanity, and the attention, whether good or bad, it has brought Limerick. (Cullen n.pag.)
In another article, Zoe Brennan takes this debate one step further; instead of expressing distaste at the manner in which McCourt portrayed Limerick and its people, she questions how much of the memoir is fact, and how much is simply fiction, made up by McCourt in order to garner the attention of readers. She states that “Limerick locals, horrified at the squalid depiction of their town, counted a total of '117 lies or inaccuracies' in the 426-page book, that range from obscure details to wrongly accusing one local man of being a Peeping Tom. They called for a boycott of the film of Angela's Ashes” (Brennan n.pag.).
It is clear from these articles that there is a distinct divide between those who believe and respect McCourt’s memoir, and those – particularly the citizens of Limerick – who feel that McCourt has attacked and/or falsely represented the city.

It is difficult to determine the validity of such accusations merely from reading articles. To gain a full understanding of the situation, it would be necessary to visit the city and speak to citizens, as well as anyone living who might have known McCourt or those McCourt described in his memoir. On the one hand, McCourt’s descriptions are certainly graphic and dark on a level which seems almost too horrible to be true; on the other, it is obvious even from observing the news on television that horrible things happen frequently in the world, and to say that McCourt’s account must be false, simply because it is disturbing, would be to speak out of privilege-inspired

ignorance.
Angela’s Ashes is capable of conjuring shock and heartbreak, as Frank McCourt outlines an unhappy childhood in Limerick plagued with death, sickness, fear, poverty, and sorrow. The scathing portrayal of Limerick has caused controversy among some citizens of Limerick, who feel that the reputation of the town has been unfairly disgraced, but without firsthand knowledge, it is difficult to say whether or not their concerns are valid. One thing is certain: whether or not McCourt told the brutal truth or exaggerated for the sake of gaining popularity, Angela’s Ashes is a compelling story that cannot easily be forgotten.