Two books - Frank McCourt and Helen Dunmore

Angela's Ashes has been around for a long time.  I could never make up my mind whether I wanted to read it but finally picked up a secondhand copy a while back to give it a go.  I'm so glad I did!  It is set in Ireland around the late 1930's and 1940's and shows the poverty experienced  in parts of Ireland, families in desperate times. Frank's family having gone to America come back to Ireland as times are hard but even in Ireland Frank's father cannot keep a job because when he receives his wages he spends the lot on drink while his family wait and hope that he will come home so they can eat that night.  When he finally arrives drunk he oversleeps the next day and is sacked from his job.

Here is an endless cycle of house moves, deaths of babies, begging for help through the welfare, the influence of the Catholic Church (enough to put you off religion for a life time!), the one toilet for a whole street which overflows and stinks the house out in summer, the winter which brings floods and the family have to live upstairs, the fleas, lice, illnesses and the discipline of school.  The family seem to live on slices of fried bread and mashed potato and Christmas was a pigs head for dinner!

Throughout all this depression one would think you would be taken down with it but McCourt's voice (of his childhood self) is full of humour and childhood innocence.  He tries so hard for his family in various odd jobs as he grows older but nothing lasts long.  There is one moment near the end of the book when he goes into a Franciscan church (having done the rounds of all the others in the past and had doors slammed in his face)  and pleads with God over his sins and how he sees no end to the torment of his life.  I cried with him and wanted to shout 'give this kid a break'.  Life seemed so unfair.  Father Gregory is the only one who comes across as a true Christian.  He is lovely to the boy, really listens to him and what he says makes a great difference to Franks' life.

Finally he begins to earn money and saves as much as he can.  The last we see of him he has arrived in America and has been seduced by a lady at a party he is taken to!.  Life is beginning for the young Frank.  Is there a sequel?  I would love to know more.  A really engaging story that I couldn't put down.

Helen Dunmore's With Your Crooked Heart was a strange read.  I often got confused over which character was speaking and occasionally whether it was the past or the present.  The story centres around Paul and his wife Louise and Paul's younger brother Johnnie.  Paul has always looked after his brother after their father died and his mother never recovered from it.  All the chances he gives him Johnnie blows (in illegal doings!).  Louise has a one night fling with Johnnie resulting in Anna who Paul brings up as his own but knows he is not the father.  Louise's drink problems mean that she struggles to bring up Anna and Paul divorces her to marry Sonia and takes Anna away up north (Louise is in London).  The story goes back over the the past showing how Paul becomes obsessed with doing right by his brother but is also controlling.  There are self destructive works in force here.  The story had an unhappy ending.  I was hoping it wouldn't!  Not sure what to say about this book.  In parts it was good but not the easiest read, though I sat in bed last night to finish it because it got to a crucial point!