Most of us have a few melancholy memories from our childhood, being picked on at school or breaking a favorite toy, but few of us had to worry about where our next meal was coming from or where we would sleep at night. Frank McCourt's memoirs of growing up in Limerick during the post-Depression era recount a poverty stricken life few of us could imagine. His mother, Angela, bears the grief of losing three small children and struggles to keep the surviving offspring fed. Meanwhile, McCourt's father drinks away his wages during brief terms of employment and rouses the children in the middle of night offering them a penny if they will vow to die for Ireland.
The book is written from a child's perspective, almost as a stream of conscience, with an innocence that belies the hardships that befall the family. McCourt, who taught English for many years in New York City, writes with an almost lyrical quality. His anecdotes are interspersed with snippets from songs and poems from the old country, and his Irish humor transcends the dire circumstances. For instance, after the family has gradually dismantled their apartment wall to fuel the fire, young McCourt notes how the landlord is perplexed over how the two room flat he thought he rented them is now only one room.
Despite the abject poverty, young Frank struggles to find employment and keep up his dream of traveling to the United States. As the eldest child he holds a sense of responsibility in caring for his siblings, and at a young age starts pilfering apples and bananas to feed the younger children. He eventually manages to get a string of jobs: reading to an elderly man (which ends quickly when the gentleman was institutionalized), delivering coal (which blackens him by the end of the day), and moonlighting for a local money lender (writing threatening letters to delinquent customers.)
Most of the book club members liked the book and would recommend it, but with the caveat that this is not a happy, uplifting story. It is, however, an exceptionally well written, endearing, poignant memoir that will make any reader appreciate all that they had growing up.