Since the publication of Angela's Ashes nearly a decade ago, Frank McCourt has become one of literature's superstars. He is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the American Booksellers Association ABBY Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. More than four million copies of Angela's Ashes are now in print; its sequel, 'Tis, has sold more than two million in America; and the books have been published in more than twenty countries and languages.
In Teacher Man Frank turns his attention to the subject that he most often talks about in his lectures-teaching: why it's so important, why it's so undervalued. He describes his own coming of age-as a teacher, a storyteller, and, ultimately, a writer. He is alternately humble and mischievous, downtrodden and rebellious. He instinctively identifies with the underdog; his sympathies lie more with students than administrators. It takes him almost fifteen years to find his voice in the classroom, but what's clear in the thrilling pages of Teacher Man is that from the beginning he seizes and holds his students' attention by telling them memorable stories. And then it takes him another fifteen years to find his voice on the page.
With all the wit, charm, irreverence, and poignancy that made Angela's Ashes and 'Tis so universally beloved, Frank McCourt tells his most exhilarating story yet-how he became a writer.
Irish Storytelling At Its Finest.
What can I say...Frank McCourt does the Irish justice with his natural talent for storytelling: the humor is off the charts, the heart tugs at your tears only begging you for more tales. As an Irish girl with Limerick in her blood, I am instinctively drawn to Mr. McCourt, so similar to my own relatives to the point to where its uncanny. He paints his life in words that emanate laughter and tears interchangeably. Teacher Man is an excellent bookend to the previous Angela's Ashes and 'Tis. Three books high on my shelf of preservation and forever in my heart.
I was shattered last year as I monitored McCourt's health decline culminating in his death. The one person left living that I so dearly wanted the privilege of meeting someday...gone...that is until we are all united in the next life. It's a beautiful thought...that meeting. 'Tis.
Read: Spring 2009
Reviewed: March 29, 2010
Frank McCourt (1930-2009) was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Irish immigrant parents, grew up in Limerick, Ireland, and returned to America in 1949. For thirty years he taught in New York City high schools. His first book, "Angela's Ashes," won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the L.A. Times Book Award. In 2006, he won the prestigious Ellis Island Family Heritage Award for Exemplary Service in the Field of the Arts and the United Federation of Teachers John Dewey Award for Excellence in Education.
Visit the following websites relevant to the author:
*Personal literary collection.
