Writer’s Narration Of Memoir A Masterpiece

“Angela’s Ashes” By Frank McCourt

In my 15 years as an audio books aficionada, “Angela’s Ashes” is the only book that I unequivocally recommend listening to instead of reading.

Frank McCourt’s unabridged narration of his childhood memoir is an audio masterpiece.

There is something profoundly satisfying about hearing McCourt read aloud his story of little Frank, “just like his father, the same odd manner, the same oul’ northern jaw.”

The street boys of Limerick mock Frank and his little brother. “The boys in Leamy’s National School want to know why we talk like that. ‘Are ye Yanks or what?”’ McCourt’s performance allows the listener to detect how Limerick street dialect is different from his “Yank accent.”

McCourt has a perfect ear and performs the sweet voice of little Frank singing the verses of Kevin Barry and Roddy McCorley for their father when he comes home from a night at the pubs.

The audio book rises to a more personal level, achieves tragic emotions and - just as in McCourt’s writing - there is no bitterness in his voice, no tone of grief. His voice is almost hypnotic and enlarges our sense that he is not a disinterested chronicler.

Reduced to its essentials, the story is of unspeakable poverty and of Frank’s mother Angela’s desperate attempt to hold her family together on 19 shillings a week (about $3) while her unemployed husband drank away the dole. Frank’s twin brothers and baby sister died in the filthy slums.

If this all sounds terribly depressing, it actually is often funny. The book is full of tears and laughter. McCourt is forgiving of his family’s tragic life. When he reads, there is no rancor in his voice. And even though the father was a drunken slob, he did feed Frank’s imagination with the gift of stories about the Irish hero Cuchulain.

The unabridged version, recently released, was produced in the New York studios of Recorded Books (purchase $96, rental $18.50, 11 cassettes, 15 hours, phone 1-800-638-1304) after 40 hours of studio time spread out over January and February. McCourt finished it a few weeks after he won the Pulitzer Prize and called the taping “a spiritual experience.”

The book works better when read unabridged, but Simon & Shuster has an abridged audio version (4-1/2 hours, $24) also with McCourt reading.