Tis A Memoir [Paperback]

Frank McCourt's glorious childhood memoir,Angela's Ashes,has been loved and celebrated by readers everywhere for its spirit, its wit and its profound humanity. A tale of redemption, in which storytelling itself is the source of salvation, it won the National Book Critics Circle Award, theLos Angeles TimesBook Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Rarely has a book so swiftly found its place on the literary landscape.
And now we have'Tis,the story of Frank's American journey from impoverished immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur. The same vulnerable but invincible spirit that captured the hearts of readers inAngela's Ashescomes of age. As Malcolm Jones said in hisNewsweekreview ofAngela's Ashes, It is only the best storyteller who can so beguile his readers that he leaves them wanting more when he is done...and McCourt proves himself one of the very best. Frank McCourt's'Tisis one of the most eagerly awaited books of our time, and it is a masterpiece.Chapter One

When the MSIrish Oaksailed from Cork in October 1949, we expected to be in New York City in a week. Instead, after two days at sea, we were told we were going to Montreal in Canada. I told the first officer all I had was forty dollars and would Irish Shipping pay my train fare from Montreal to New York. He said, No, the company wasn't responsible. He said freighters are the whores of the high seas, they'll do anything for anyone. You could say a freighter is like Murphy's oul' dog, he'll go part of the road with any wanderer.

Two days later Irish Shipping changed its mind and gave us the happy news, Sail for New York City, but two days after that the captain was told, Sail for Albany.

The first officer told me Albany was a city far up the Hudson River, capital of New York State. He said Albany had all the charm of Limerick, ha ha ha, a great place to die but not a place where you'd want to get married or rear children. He lÃå