Hi, WM - Well, the truth is I couldn't get into McCourt's second book, 'Tis, either, and will have to go back and "revisit" it. I only read bits and parts of it, though. Frank's "Angela's Ashes," in which he writes so poignantly about his experiences as a poor Catholic child growing up in 1930s/40s Limerick is a real gem. While recounting many humorous incidents in a wonderful "Irish" dialogue -- still, you can all but feel the fleas in the mattresses, the impoverished parents' despair when one child after another sickens and dies, the lack of warm clothing, proper shoes, father's alcoholism, relatives reluctance to share limited resources, the gnawing hunger, meals of bread and tea - as Frank says, "a solid and a liquid." Life was very serious business for the McCourts, for the most part. Young Frank hauled coal to help with family finances even though it triggered a chronic, painful eye inflammation. He was later able to get a job delivering mail before emigrating to the U.S.A. I was struck by the fact that children (although fiercely loved) didn't seem to have a "soft place to fall," lacked the emotional support they deserved - indeed some of the adults they came in contact with in the community were quite cruel. Frank's mother, Angela, was humiliated in her attempts to get assistance from charities, although occasionally a shopkeeper would take pity on the family. She did find work as a domestic off and on in the homes of those better off. Years later, Frank would remark how it hurt him to see Americans wasting so much food. Jean ----- Original Message ----- From: <WMccorm348@aol.com> To: <IRISH-AMERICAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 5:29 PM Subject: Re: [Irish-American] Frank McCOURT's Limerick Memoir, "Angela's Ashes" (1996)... > I loved Angela's Ashes, but was very disappointed in the follow-up book Tis > which tells what happened when Frank McCourt came to America. That book did not > have the Joyce James lilt. What did you think of Tis? >