"Of course Fintan knows who stood at the foot of the cross. Why wouldn't he? He's always running off to Mass with his mother, who is known for her holiness. She's so holy her husband ran off to Canada to cut down trees, glad to be gone and never to be heard from again."
Frank McCourt grew up in the U.S. and Ireland, and worked as a teacher in New York for several decades prior to his becoming an author later in life. All of his published works are autobiographical in nature, though Angela's Ashes is perhaps a more "polished" version of what was maybe not an entirely miserable childhood.
I read Teacher Man, the more recent of the two books first. I'm glad I did. I think if I had first read Angela's Ashes I would have been too depressed to continue on with Teacher Man.
In Teacher Man McCourt recalls his years teaching high school English. He graduates from a teaching program, finds a job, and ends up raising a family on a teacher's salary. This sets the stage for his observations on what it means to be a good teacher and some of the personalities he encounters over three decades in the classroom. It's a very witty, very charming book, and it reminded me of why I became a teacher in the first place.
Every teacher should read Teacher Man at least once. Twice would be even better.
In Angela's Ashes, the book that made McCourt famous, he recounts his childhood in Ireland and the struggles his family faced there. It is a singularly depressing book, though written in a more "literary" style than Teacher Man and lightened a bit by a certain black humor. It's a hearwrenching novel that deserved the Pulitzer awarded to it, though I found myself having to take breaks during the first half because it was so depressing.
Angela's Ashes was also adapted into a movie in 1999. I'm still not sure if I've seen the film, though parts of the book seemed very familiar. It could be that I saw another, similar film about Irish poverty, or it could be that I was just remembering parts of Angela's Ashes. I don't know.
What I do know is that Teacher Man is one of the best books I've read in a while. Angela's Ashes is also good, though it's definitely less accessible. Angela's Ashes is best approached in the way people approach Crime and Punishment or anything by Tolstoy. It's a book that will give you a lot to think about, but it's by no means light reading.
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"The Dharma Bums" by Jack Kerouac (1958)
"Captain Corelli's Mandolin" by Louis de Bernieres (1994)
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