'Tis : a memoir (urspr publ 1999; utgåvan 2000)

End of book seemed rushed. Overall, not a very likable person, unlike his appearance in Angela's Ashes. ( )

As Tis opens, Frank is on his way to AMERICA! At last! But he has 'a pimply face, sore eyes and bad teeth' so not much has changed there since Angela's Ashes. Which is to say 'Tis is as compelling and bitter-sweet as the first memoir. Is that a brogue I hear?

The book begins as McCourt lands at Albany, New York, and quickly makes his way to New York City. Friendless and clueless about American customs, he struggles to integrate himself into American blue-collar society. He is then drafted into the US Army, sent to Europe, and rises to the rank of corporal. On his stay in Germany, he has confrontations with many people who try to show Frank how to get a Russian refugee girl to have sexual intercourse with him by giving her coffee or cigarettes. He is granted leave from the army as compensation for his exceptional service as a clerk-typist and goes back home to Ireland to see his family. He then decides to return to the US, where he attends New York University – despite never having graduated from high school. He falls in love with and eventually marries a middle-class American-born girl, Alberta Small (nicknamed Mike), whom he meets at university.

McCourt schreibt wunderbar, und dieses eine Mal kann ich mch auch nicht über den Übersetzer beschweren. Es ist sehr witzig, wie auch trauriges beschrieben wird. Nur gegen Ende hin ist die Geschwindigkeit weg... ( )

Here, McCourt relates his adventures teaching in the New York City schools and other tales of his family and his education in NYC. Funny, engaging, conversational, compulsively readable. ( )