This is the sequel to McCourt's wonderful first autobiographical volume,
Angela's Ashes. McCourt has returned to the
USA and the book describes his experiences there. Arriving in New York,
he works in a number of dead-end jobs, until he is called up and becomes
a soldier stationed in Germany. Released back into civilian life he
obtains a degree and becomes a teacher. He marries and has a much-loved
daughter, but the marriage fails. All this is described with his usual
deadpan humour; for once the overworked adjective "bittersweet" seems
exactly right.
To embark on a sequel to a successful book is always something of a
gamble. McCourt uses a great deal of direct speech, and I did find that
I missed the chorus of Irish voices that characterized the first volume.
But his ear for New York dialect is as good as for the Irish voices of
his childhood, and Irish characters are not wholly lacking, because
McCourt is part of the large expatriate Irish community and he goes back
to Limerick on holiday. The book works well in its own right, but it
will be irresistible to readers of Angela's Ashes, who will be
anxious to know what happened to McCourt when he survived his amazing
Limerick childhood. I get the impression that the two books were
conceived as a whole, because the implication contained in the title of
the first volume reaches its conclusion only at the end of the second,
when McCourt's mother dies and is cremated and her ashes are scattered
in the graveyard outside Limerick.