Andělin popel – McCourt Frank (2023)

When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how I even managed to survive. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: a happy childhood is hardly worth it. Worse than an ordinary unhappy childhood is an unhappy Irish childhood, and even worse is an unhappy Irish Catholic childhood." Thus begins the beautiful memoirs of Frank McCourt, who was born in Brooklyn to fresh Irish immigrants during the Great Depression and later grew up in the slums of Irish Limerick. Although Frank's father drinks away almost every paycheck and eventually disappears to England, Frank lives for his father's stories about Kukulín, who saved Ireland, and the Angel on the seventh step, who brings his mother children. The power of the narrative lies in the perspective of a small hero who vividly describes unimaginable poverty, suffering, constant hunger, the death of several siblings, the cruelty of neighbors and relatives, yet with warmth and compassionate indulgence. ***** Today, the classic novel Angela's Ashes is infused on every page with the author's amazing humor and literary artistry, and its film adaptation has also achieved success.