How was the author (frank mccourt) able to remember his childhood memories to such incredible detail. Do you think that parts of the story are embellished?
2006-09-25 00:30:12 · 7 answers · asked by Whore_of_Babylon 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."
So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank's mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank's father Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story.
Perhaps it is a story that accounts for Frank's survival. Wearing shoes repaired with tires, begging a pig's head for Christmas dinner, and searching the pubs for his father, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors -- yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness.
One must realise that old memories are often more vivid that recent ones. As time goes by our short term memory fades but long term memory becomes more vivid. I can still recall as if it were yesterday events from my childhood in the 1940's and 1950's with such clarity. I am sure that, like all authors, Frank has embellished the stories to make better reading but I am also sure that any embellishment is merely colour on the canvas of his life that would, in no way, match the original events.
2006-09-25 02:14:10 · answer #1 · answered by quatt47 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Great question! And great book!
I wish I knew... As someone pointed out, memories like McCourt's must be rooted quite deeply within his mind. Then again, I know I could not scrape together a few hundred pages of actual memories from my childhood. He had to have used some imagination. Would you assume, then, that most autobiographers do this? I really don't know for sure, but that is an interesting thought.
2006-09-25 13:27:37 · answer #2 · answered by mtnlady 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree with some of the others. He had such a rough childhood that it would be hard to forget the details. Great book. He did end up living the American dream and made the most of what he grew up with.
2006-09-25 00:40:41 · answer #3 · answered by cutiepatootie 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Any autobiographical work is going to be affected by both the narrow point of view of the author or the filtering affects of memory. I'm sure Mr. McCourt spoke to siblings and friends from his years in Ireland to gather their recollections and used them in the story.
2006-09-25 01:41:58 · answer #4 · answered by Sandie 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think that the fact that he grew up in such poverty left some pretty indelible memories in his head. The anecdotes he relates in Angela's Ashes involve a lot of privation and hardship. I'm sure those memories didn't fade with time.
2006-09-25 00:33:02 · answer #5 · answered by cheyennetomahawk 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Wonderful book, I loved the spirit the kid had, kept his hope somehow. I agree that those horrible things he went through left deep scars & wouldn't be forgotten even after so many years.
2006-09-25 00:38:48 · answer #6 · answered by fuzzylilhippiechick 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
My view is that, as in all fiction, reality is enriched with imagination. Wonderful book btw.
2006-09-25 00:31:58 · answer #7 · answered by antigone 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋