Writer to speak on life experiences
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 2, 2000 9:00 p.m.
 UCLA Performing Arts Frank McCourt, a
retired New York City public school teacher and author of "Angela’s
Ashes," will speak at UCLA’s Royce Hall this Sunday, Nov. 5 at 7
p.m.
By Amie Howell
Daily Bruin Contributor
With two best-selling books under his belt, it’s easy to
forget that acclaimed writer Frank McCourt was once, and at heart
still is, a teacher.
Prior to writing the phenomenally successful memoirs
“Angela’s Ashes,” McCourt spent 27 years
educating students in New York City public schools.
His time spent in education made him a passionate advocate for
the improvement of the school system and the raising of the status
of teachers.
“Politicians come in every four years, and they go on
about education. Then they forget about it. My God, if kids voted,
schools would be getting as much money as the Pentagon,”
McCourt said.
He intends to continue his quest to teach by conducting a
two-city lecture tour, delivering talks on his own life
experiences, the tenacity of the human spirit, and his most recent
book, “Tis,” a sequel to “Angela’s
Ashes.”
McCourt will speak at Royce Hall on Sunday at 7 p.m. He will
appear at Chico State the following night.
McCourt’s first memoir, “Angela’s
Ashes,” depicted his life with his family in 1930s
Ireland.
Stricken with poverty, despair and adversity, young Frankie
McCourt’s exploits drive readers around the world to weep and
chuckle, depending on the paragraph they are reading.
“Angela’s Ashes” relates McCourt’s
childhood years in New York City and Limerick, Ireland. With
memorable characters like McCourt’s proud mother and wayward
yet loving father, McCourt creates a moving testimony of a time
when his family rarely had enough food to go around and shoes were
considered a luxury.
“If you had nothing else, you remember what you
had,” McCourt said, accounting for the detailed descriptions
of his life in his books. Although he writes about experiences that
took place six decades ago, his vivid descriptions make the
incidents feel as though they could happen today.
“We had nothing. We didn’t even have electricity, so
what we had was memorable,” McCourt explained . “I can
remember making toast, when I was 10, one morning over a fire,
holding the bread on a fork. These things stick with you the rest
of your life because (mine and my family’s) lives were
uncluttered.”
Hearing him speak in his soft Irish brogue, one cannot help but
think of Frankie’s tragedies and triumphs in the haunting
memoir, “Angela’s Ashes.” The book won McCourt
the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1997.
“Angela’s Ashes” also received the 1996 L.A.
Times Book Award, and was selected as the No. 1 nonfiction book of
1996 by both Time Magazine and Newsweek.
Not bad for his first try.
“There is simplicity in the style, simplicity in the
language and it’s the voice of a child in
“˜Angela’s Ashes’ … we have a feeling that
children don’t lie,” McCourt explained when asked about
the universal appeal of his first memoir.
This writing style is also present in his newest work,
“Tis,” which picks up where “Angela’s
Ashes” left off.
“I found some kind of voice, some kind of style that
carried over from one book to the other,” McCourt said.
While this unique voice has gained him two bestsellers thus far,
McCourt’s first passion still remains teaching.
“If I had a mission, that’s it,” McCourt said.
“It’s to keep talking about schools and kids. If you
write a book, people start listening to you so I keep
talking.”
AUTHOR: McCourt will be speaking at Royce Hall, Sunday, Nov. 5
at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at the Central Ticket Office for
$30, $24, and $15 for UCLA students with valid ID. For more
information call (310) 835-2101.
