Tis
Last week I finished ”Tis’, the sequel to ‘Angela’s Ashes’. I got to say I think I kind of liked it more than ”A.A.’
Angela’s Ashes was great in the sense that it was almost a historical document - what’s it like to grow up poor in Ireland during the late 30 to early 50’s - with an alcoholic father. Of course I enjoyed the story and the humour - but I liked how in ‘Tis’ Frank’s personality starts coming through. In the earlier novel he really is a bit of a pawn, a faceless player in all the drama that is happening around him. I’m not saying that he has no personality, but he’s not too much in charge of his life and I recognize that has a lot to do with the fact that he’s a child in 90% of the book and not really too in control of his destiny.
But in ‘Tis’ you can really see the way he develops and starts to take control of his own life. He goes from hapless poor and naive immigrant (even though the US is the land of his birth) to a man with a career and realized dreams.
His personality really shows through and he’s not as pure or good as he is in Angela’s Ashes. He gets angry, he’s conflicted about making commitments, he’s frustrated with his job, he drinks, he gets angry at his mom…etc. I LIKE that so much, he’s actual a real person in this book.
I also really liked the ’struggling to make it in a new city’ aspect - which is what I went through in 1984 when I moved to Toronto. I related to a lot of the faux pas and troubles he went through in this.
As an extra bonus, I had no idea that his brother Malachy was a famous radio personality and has written books himself. So I’m off to read the other brother’s books as soon as I can.
