ay inBoekverslag Engels
Title: Angela’s ashes
Author: frank McCourt
By Nicolai Cavens, H5c
Teacher: Lem
Before reading
I never heard of this book. And I only read it because of school assignment and I don’t know what to expect
Chapter 1
The book starts in the future with frank looking back on his childhood and sort of intnoducing the main characters. After that the story of his childhood begins with the birth of franks mom, Angela Sheehan. 'Ah, Lord above, says Nurse O'Halloran, this child is a time straddler, born with her head in the New Year and her arse in the Old or was it her head in the Old Year and her arse in the New. You'll have to write to the Pope, missus, to find out what year this child was born in and I'll save this dress for next year.
'. Then the narrator talks about her going to New York and meeting his father Malachy. They are both Irish, Malachy he is from the north but did his bit for a free Ireland, Angela is in contrary from the south and is a Catholic. Her family condemn this relation ship because Malachy is a protestant. The narrator discribes the rough lives they had in the early years in America and their friends and families who had been with them. Frank and Malachy jr are also born. So are their brothers Oliver and eugene who are twins. But Angela’s family is not amused with her rapid reproduction rate and cut all ties with her. Malachy senior has some drinking troubles during their time in New York and barely brings home any money because he drinks it all away, the curse from the north. On one occasion Angela, Frank and malachy jr. and the twins. Were looking all over the city for Malachy sr. when he stayed away after work while they had no money for food. Malachy sr. is likes to sing Irish songs when he comes home and makes his children promise to die for Ireland. Frank gets a story told by his father about a war hero Cuchulain. He wants to keeps the story for his own. Because it’s his story and no one else according to him. So he had a fight with a other kid about that on the play ground, Freddie Leibowitz. Frank says sorry and they move on, but Freddies parents are jew and they got some stories too so Frank gets interested in them and ask about them.
There is another child born, Margaret but she never gets to live through her childhood because she dies after she is a few weeks old due sickness. Malachy had finally dealt with his drinking problem but as soon as he died it got worser than ever and Angela had gone mad. So mrs. Leibowitz sees that the situation is getting worse by the day because malachy is never at home and is wandering all over New York and Angela is lying in bed all day. So no one is taking care of the children. So she and Minnie Macadorey decide to inform their family about their current situation. So a few days later Angela’s cousins Delia and Philomena arrive at their home. They call their current situation a disgrace so they decide to write Angela’s mom that it is better for them to return to Ireland. And they go on ship across the ocean Ireland.
Chapter 2
They arrive in Belfast. Malachy jr. and Frank see strange things they never saw before. 'We sat with her and watched the sky turn red and then blue. Birds started to chirp and sing in the trees and as the dawn came up we saw strange creatures in the fields, standing, looking at us. Malachy said, What are they, Dad? Cows, son.
What are cows, Dad?
Cows are cows, son.
We walked farther along the brightening road and there were other creatures in the fields, white furry creatures. Malachy said, What are they, Dad?
Sheep, son.
What are sheep, Dad?
My father barked at him, Is there any end to your questions? Sheep are sheep, cows are cows, and that over there is a goat. A goat is a goat. The goat gives milk, the sheep gives wool, the cow gives everything. What else in God's name do you want to know?
' Malachy sr. decides to go to his parents first. Grandpa McCourt says you could get money from doing his bit for Ireland. His mother is skeptical about him coming to Ireland since the situation is worse than in America. But they are off to Dublin to mr. Harrington to so he can get his pension. But there are no records so they are on the streets again with no money and no where to go because they don’t have money for a ticket to travel somewhere else, so they are stuck. The police finds them and suggest they can stay in the barracks till they can move on. A few days later a telegram is send to Angela's mother in Limerick and Malachy sr. pays a driver to drive them to Limerick. They meet up with grandma Sheehan. And get introduced to Aunt Aggie and her husband Pa Keating and uncle ab Sheehan, the abbot. They are allowed to stay till they got their an own house. They go to charities to get furniture and malachy sr. trying to get some money. They get their house a while later. But Oliver is getting sick and is brought to the hospital where he dies. Eugene will be still looking out for him till he returns because he doesn't understand what death is. Weeks later Eugene becomes sick too and dies. Malachy sr. is drinking like a mad man again and is getting drunk on the night before the burial of his son. Frank goes to him and tells him to stop drinking and that he shouldn’t bring the coffin of eugene into the pub. The family reunites on the burial the next day.
Chapter 3
Angela cant stand living in the house where 2 of her children died. So they move to a new house. They can hardly pay the rent so they can’t move again, they discover why the rent is so low because there is a public lavatory in front of the house. It’s christmas and they can barely afford food. But malachy sr. refuses to bring food on the table because he will never sink that low as being a beggar. So Angela and frank go to the butcher and get a pig head. A few weeks later Michael is born. They also get checked by a charity if they are really deserving their help. They are disgraced by their current situation. They are desperate asking for boots so the charity gives them boots. Malachy sr. finally finds a job on the factory but he manages to lose it with a month and they are on the dole again.
Chapter 4
Frank and his brothers have their first communion. He meets Mikey Molloy, a smart guy who knows everything according to Frank. He tells him about a story of Cuchulain his wife who had won him by a woman pissing contest in Ireland. Frank has also new school master Mr. Benson, who is a fanatic Catholic who tells his student how they had suffered by the irish. Frank is still very worried about the story Mikey told him so he confesses that on his first confession. After his confession he goes to his grandma and has dinner. 'Look at what he did. Thrun up his First Communion breakfast. Thrun up the body and blood of Jesus. I have God in me backyard. What am I goin' to do? I'll take him to the Jesuits for they know the sins of the Pope himself'. So he is dragged by his grandma to the churcch to confess his sins again. 'In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It's a day since my last confession.
A day? And what sins have you committed in a day, my child?
I overslept. I nearly missed my First Communion. My grandmother said I have standing up, North of Ireland, Presbyterian hair. I threw up my First Communion breakfast. Now Grandma says she has God in her backyard and what should she do.
The priest is like the First Confession priest. He has the heavy breathing and the choking sounds.
Ah… ah… tell your grandmother to wash God away with a little water and for your penance say one Hail Mary and one Our Father. Say a prayer for me and God bless you, my child.
Grandma and Mam were waiting close to the confession box. Grandma said, Were you telling jokes to that priest in the confession box? If 'tis a thing I ever find out you were telling jokes to Jesuits I'll tear the bloody kidneys outa you. Now what did he say about God in me backyard?
He said wash Him away with a little water, Grandma.
Holy water or ordinary water?
He didn't say, Grandma.
Well, go back and ask him.
But, Grandma…
She pushed me back into the confessional.
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned, it's a minute since my last confession.
A minute! Are you the boy that was just here?
I am, Father.
What is it now?
My grandma says, Holy water or ordinary water?
Ordinary water, and tell your grandmother not to be bothering me again.
I told her, Ordinary water, Grandma, and he said don't be bothering him again.
Don't be bothering him again. That bloody ignorant bogtrotter.
'
Chapter 5
Grandma won’t talk to Angela again because of the puking incident. Angela and Malachy Sr. has also their teeth replaced because of their smoking habit. The story takes a jump into the future of 3 years. Frank is now 8 going for 9. Frank has to take Irish dancing classes. But he doesn’t feel like it and spends the money on other things and invents other dances when asked to show his moves. His cover is blown when a teacher is sending notes asking where frank is. Malachy Sr. takes him to a priest and forces him to confess it.
Chapter 6
Frank is in the fourth class now. He has now geometry from mr. O’Neal is now in the fourth form, which is taught by Mr. O’Neill, a man passionated by geometry. Mr O’Dea, the fifth-form master, is very angry when he discovers from Paddy Clohessy that Mr. O’Neill is teaching the boys Euclid and geometry, because geometry isn’t supposed to be taught until the fifth form. The headmaster is forcing Mr. O’Neill to stop teaching it. Every day, Mr. O’Neill the student who answers the question of the day rewards with a great delicacy,. Today Fintan Slattery. He is discribes asan saint by frank who goes to church every day with his mother. Fintan shares apples with Frank, Quigley, and Paddy Clohessy. This humiliates the boys, who do not want to be associated with the feminine Fintan. Paddy and Frank gets invited to his house after school, luring them with promises of food. Fintan’s mother serves milk and sandwiches with mustard. Paddy and Frank are worried, however, by the fact that Fintan went to bathroom with them and says he enjoys watching them. The next day Fintan does the same but in contrary to giving them food he makes them watch eating his lunch. They leave angrily and skip classes to steal aplles and milk. When Frank is told that his parents know he doesn’t go to school and home anymore because he is afraid is is going to be killed. So he stays at paddy his house He returns one day later to home when his mother was worried and went looking for him with the help from a guard.
Chapter 7
They are still living on the dole. But Malachy Sr. is drinking the money away even though they don’t got enough money for it. On school there is a boy called Mickey Spellacy. Everybody is envying him because he gets a week free from school for every brother or sister who dies. So frank and his frank tries to take their advantage from it from being present at the wake but it is only for family their plan fails to get free from school. Grandma decides it is time for Frank to get a job and says he should help his uncle with delivering news papers. One day he delivers a news paper to Mr. Timoney. They go along well with each other and Mr. Timoney suggest he should read for him because he can’t read anymore and Frank can read very well. His mother approves her son having two jobs. He sympathizes with buddism so the priest view this as a threat and is labeled as demented and is taken away. That summer Angela gives birth to another child who will be named Alphie. His grandpa sends money for his new grandson but malachy Sr.has other idea on how the money will be spend and takes it to the pub and drinks it away with disapproval of his sons and wife. Frank is raging inside because of it. So his father goes home. His look does remind him of his brother Oliver and Eugene
Chapter 8
Frank is ten now. He will be going to church for his confirmation. Some of his friends decided to climb on a pipe and peak on the girls. One started masturbating. Quasimodo, Peter Dooley, his mother caught them. So she tells Angela that Frank should go to Confession before his Confirmation the next day, but Angela says she won’t have him rejected from being Confirmed just because “he climbed a spout for an innocent gawk at the scrawny arse of Mona Dooley.” Angela drags Frank home and makes him swear in front of the picture of the pope that he didn’t see Mona naked. After being confirmed Frank has a nosebleed he goes to the doctor and is diagnosed with typhiod. the hospital they first think he is near death but then Frank is sure that he will live. He still has to stay there for while. During his stay he meets a girl, Patricia Madigan. Who has a deadly disease they befriend Seamus the janitor. They share poems with each other. But the nurse forbids them to visit each other and that the janitor isn't allowed to talk to patients. Patricia dies a few days later. Frank is able to leave the hospital a few days after his eleventh birthday. The nurses invite him for Christmas dinner when he leaves. On his return he is put in the same class with his younger brother Malachy Jr. he feels humiliated by the idea and prays he is put back into the sixt form. His prayers are heard and is put back because he is way ahead his fellow students in his class. Frank goes to the christmas dinner he was invited to. At home the lavatory begins to smell and flies begin to spread across the house.
Chapter 9
Angela is done having children. So she refuses sex as an alternative to birth control since it isn't accepted in Ireland. Malachy Sr. is annoyed because she is not performing her wifely duties. In England there is a worker shortage in the factories because the second world war is raging across Europe. So English agents begin to recruit Irish men to work in their war industry. Malachy Sr. accepted the offer because they pay above the wages you earn in Ireland so he goes with other men to England to work but in contrary to other men sending money to their families, he fails doing so. Since they lost all income they have to go to the dispensary as last resort. Frank has an eye infection. He is sent to the hospital again. He sees Seamus and Mr. Timoney there, he read sometimes for Mr. Timoney but says he should rest he his eyes or they might fall out. Seamus is off to England working in the factories. When returning to his home he discovers that his father is going mad in England and his drinking problem is worse than ever. He drinks away all the money he earns.
Chapter 10
They have all moved upstairs to escape the cold and wet. The boys started stealing food and fuel from the rich areas of the town. Frank describes him self as robin hood because he steals from the rich and gives it to the poor. Soon a guard visits them and finds out tpwhy they are not at school. Grandma and aunt Aggie are called to get watch over the boys and Angela is send to the doctor and is being diagnosed with pneumonia. The boys are staying with aunt Aggie. Pa Keating is trying to be nice, but aunt Aggie is hitting and yelling at them constantly. So Frank ask his father to return to Ireland. And he does that, also delivering his first paycheck at his family. But leaves as soon as Angela returns home. And they are off to the dispensary again.
Chapter 11
Frank decides to start a soccer team with his friends and he calls it “the red hearts of Limerick” Mikey Molloy had just turned sixteen. He is taken to the pub for his first pint. Frank discovers he was born six months after the wedding of his parents. He think he is a miracle baby but Mikey Molloy explains; 'Naw, he says, naw. You're a bastard. You're doomed.
You don't have to be cursing me, Mikey.
I'm not. That's what they call people who aren't born inside the nine months of the marriage, people conceived beyond the blanket.
What's that?
What's what?
Conceived.
That's when the sperm hits the egg and it grows and there you are nine months later.
I don't know what you're talking about.
He whispers, The thing between your legs is the excitement. I don't like the other names, the dong, the prick, the dick, the langer. So your father shoves his excitement into your mother and there's a spurt and these little germs go up into your mother where there's an egg and that grows into you.
I'm not an egg.
You are an egg. Everyone was an egg once.
Why am I doomed? 'Tisn't my fault I'm a bastard.
All bastards are doomed. They're like babies that weren't baptized. They're sent to Limbo for eternity and there's no way out and it's not their fault. It makes you wonder about God up there on His throne with no mercy for the little unbaptized babies. That's why I don't go near the chapel anymore. Anyway, you're doomed. Your father and mother had the excitement and they weren't married so you're not in a state of grace.
What am I going to do?
Nothing. You're doomed.
Can't I light a candle or something.
You could try the Blessed Virgin. She's in charge of the doom.
' Frank is off to light a candle. He is very afraid of his doom but on a Saturday morning he beats a rich boys soccer club and he decides that it proves he is not doomed. Frank gets a job, he will be delivering coal with his next door neighbor. But the coal irritates his eyes and he is forced to quit, hedoesnt want to because he wants to be a man, but Mr. Hannon is forced into retirement anyway because of his health condition. Mr. Hannon says on their final meeting that Frank gave him the feeling of a son.
Chapter 12
That christmas malachy Sr. comes home. He bring a half eating chocolate box with him. Qnd leaves as soon as the dinner is over. So grandma says they could stay with Laman Griffin. Michael is bringing stray dogs and homeless people into their house because he finds them sad. But his mother said he can’t do that. Because they bring diseases. One night Frank is listing on the outside to a neighbor her radio she invites him inside and listen to Shakespeare. Angela is behind paying the rent. They started burning the walls inside but she tell the boys to leave the beams because they support the house. Frank doesn’t listen and he cut on of the beams and so the house collapses. They are forced to move within a day. Grandma brings them to Laman Griffing where they can stay. Frank announces that grandma has died from pneumonia abruptly and that malachy Jr. Moved away to join the music school of the army.
Chapter 13
Frank wants to go on a bicycle trip around the country with his friends. Frank can borrow Laman his bike. If he cleans his chamber pot every day. At school they say he should keep on going to school instead becoming a messenger boy. Angela goes to the christian brothers school. He gets the door slammed into his face. Angela is infuriated. He gets a job at the post office. He is very pleased by it. On the day before the trip he forgot to empty the chamber pot so Laman is angry and won't let him borrow his bicycle. Frank is infuriated. He keeps saying that he promised it till Laman started beating him. Then Frank runs away and is going to live with Ab Seehan..
Chapter 14
Angela sends michael to Frank to say he can come how. He refuses, but finds it sad to see him walking away in broken shoes and ragged clothes. He will buy him clothes one day ehen he got a job promises Frank to him self. He spend his days walking along the country beggingand sometimes stealing food and milk. He goes to Ab’s house in preperation of his first day on the work he sleeps in his grandmothers dress and dreams about being caught.
Chapter 15
On his fourteenth birthday he walks into the post office, but finds out he is scheduled on next Monday. They laugh about Frank his clothes. Aunt Aggie takes him to a cloting store to buy him self some decent clothes. The next Monday he starts working on the office there are permanent telegram boys who get paid well and a guaranteed carreer on office as postman or teller. Temporary telegram boys have to leave at the age of sixteen and are paid less. He goes to paddies house he noticed that they got new furniture and clothing. Paddy and his father had gone to England and send money home. On one ocassion he had to deliver a telegram to a house of an consumption patient it was raining and Frank was invited inside, Theresa had consumption. But they made love on the sofa and in the coming weeks frank came back till one day he had to deliver a telegram to her mother where he find out that she had been hospitalized. She died one week later. He is afraid he send her to hell because they had sex before marriage. He goes to masses to pray for her soul.
Chapter 16
Frank has to deliver a condolence telegram to a Englishman, who had just lost his wife. He is invited inside. Frank is forced to drink sherry. And eat bread then he is left along in with the corpse of mrs. Harrington. She is lost soul, thinks frank and tries to baptize her but is caught. Then he pukes on out of the window and runs away. He is fired from the post office till a priest writes alp letter and he returns to the job. One day he is send to an elder lady named Mrs. Brigid Finucane. She lets him write letters with threats to her debtors for money. He hears very negative reactions about whoever is writing those letters. He feels guolty but he needs the money for America. He refuses to take the postman exam so he walks away. When his boss hears about it he is publicly denounced infront of his former colleagues. 'Mrs. O'Connell has the tight mouth and she won't look at me. She says to Miss Barry, I hear a certain upstart from the lanes walked away from the post office exam. Too good for it, I suppose.
True for you, says Miss Barry.
Too good for us, I suppose.
True for you.
Do you think he'd ever tell us why he didn't take the exam?
Oh, he might, says Miss Barry, if we went down on our two knees.
I tell her, I want to go to America, Mrs. O'Connell.
Did you hear that, Miss Barry?
I did, indeed, Mrs. O'Connell.
He spoke.
He did, indeed.
He will rue the day, Miss Barry.
Rue he will, Mrs. O'Connell.
Mrs. O'Connell talks past me to the boys waiting on the bench for their telegrams, This is Frankie McCourt who thinks he's too good for the post office.
I don't think that, Mrs. O'Connell.
And who asked you to open your gob, Mr. High and Mighty? Too grand for us, isn't he, boys?
He is, Mrs. O'Connell.
And after all we did for him, giving him the telegrams with the good tips, sending him to the country on fine days, taking him back after his disgraceful behavior with Mr. Harrington, the Englishman, disrespecting the body of poor Mrs. Harrington, stuffing himself with ham sandwiches, getting fluthered drunk on sherry, jumping out the window and destroying every rosebush in sight, coming in here three sheets to the wind, and who knows what else he did delivering telegrams for two years, who knows indeed, though we have a good idea, don't we, Miss Barry?
We do, Mrs. O'Connell, though 'twouldn't be a fit subject to be talking about.
She whispers to Miss Barry and they look at me and shake their heads.
A disgrace he is to Ireland and his poor mother. I hope she never finds out. But what would you expect of one born in America and his father from the North. We put up with all that and still took him back.
' his mother has come now too to Ab’s house with his brothers
Chapter 17
Frank has his first pint with Pa Keating on his sixteenth. It is not what he expected from going to the pub talking about troubles in the world like how a nazi escaped his punishment for what he did to the pub so he leaves early. He goes home drunk he has a discussion with his mother and slaps her. He feels terrible about it and leaves then at St. Francis he throws all his anger and frustration out: 'I'm finished with you, St. Francis. Moving on. Francis. I don't know why they ever gave me that name. I'd be better off if they called me Malachy, one a king, the other a great saint. Why didn't you heal Theresa? Why did you let her go to hell? You let my mother climb to the loft. You let me get into a state of doom. Little children's shoes scattered in concentration camps. I have the abscess again. It's in my chest and I'm hungry.
St. Francis is no help, he won't stop the tears bursting out of my two eyes, the sniffling and choking and the God oh Gods that have me on my knees with my head on the back of the pew before me and I'm so weak with the hunger and the crying I could fall on the floor and would you please help me God or St. Francis because I'm sixteen today and I hit my mother and sent Theresa to hell and wanked all over Limerick and the county beyond and I dread the millstone around my neck.
' A priest comes out and lays a hand on his shoulder and tries to calm him down and says he can confess anytime he want. But he doesn't want to confess everything but he does it to the statue of St. Francis. Frank finds some confort in the priest words. Frank begins to work for a protestant paper, “the Irish time”. He becomes senior delivery boy for the paper. Angela begin working too. She works for a man who had known mr. Timoney. Malachy jr. Works for a school in England and is fired beecause he acts beyond his class, the Irish. So he told them 'they can kiss his royal Irish arse ' He begins working as a coal shoveler. And will be joining Frank in America.
Chapter 18-19
Frank is almost turning 19 and has his money almost together for america he finds mr. Finucane dead on the night before his nineteenth birthday. He takes 17 pounds and destroys the debts from the debtors so they don’t have to pay anymore. And he leaves. He has now everything he needs for the trip. On the night before he boards the ship to america his family throws out a party for him. After boarding the ship he feels the regrets coming up. After all he should have taken the post office job and live a happy life with his family in Ireland. But it is too late now. He is accompanied by a priest on the deck. The priest is invited to a dinner on shore. The priest ask if he would like to come too. Frank accepts the offer. During the dinner frank is lured away by a women who is seducing him into having sex with her the priest knocks on the door. He comes out with the priest looking disapproving. When the wireless officer says to him; 'My God, that was a lovely night, Frank. Isn't this a great country altogether?' ‘’tis’ answers Frank.
After reading:
This book is very long and complex with many characters with stories of their own. I would recommend this to any advanced reader who likes long complex books. But maybe this book is a little too long. Because I had hoped there was more about him living in america but his entire youth already took more than 90 percent of the book and ends when the boat reaches america.
here…