McCourt begins with the scary first day of teaching his own class at a vocational high school. After many years in vocational high schools, he gains a position at another public school, Stuyvesant High School, which had much competition for entry. The reviewer felt that "McCourt’s self-deprecating tone diminishes in this section, for now this innovative teacher is given free rein, and it is clear that he’s having a grand time.", citing one of the more memorable vocabulary lessons. The review is summed up by saying that "The teaching profession’s loss is the reading public’s gain, entirely." Thomas Hansen, a former teacher who moved up to the Illinois State Board of Education, reviewed this book and found it "a wonderful one if people are into teaching". McCourt "includes some of the funniest passages I have ever seen in a book. His style and his ability to manipulate the reader—through the use of sardonic and twisting adventures—are enthralling aspects of his writing." Regarding McCourt himself, says that "Teachers will all see through a lot of his yarns and predicaments … discovering underneath a lot of the foolishness of everyday life the author’s ability to teach. ... he is always a teacher." Rebecca Seal in The Guardian concludes that "At times McCourt can be a deeply frustrating protagonist, but this is, none the less, a really good read." Where the experienced teacher reviewing the book sees through every device, this reviewer notes that "The only place he [McCourt] ever seems to have belonged was in front of a class, ... although it's difficult to know whether his self-deprecation is disingenuousness or exaggeration, or if he really was as shy, miserable and irrational as he portrays himself to be." The contrast of reviews may point up that those who have been teachers can see through the devices of his style to understand the quality of this teacher. The memoir has "the lilting style and phonetic writing that marked out his last two books". Hillel Italie in the Los Angeles Times describes Frank McCourt, writing Teacher Man as his third and probably last memoir "proved with Angela’s Ashes that publishing was not just a young person’s game and that you didn’t need to be famous to get millions to care about your story." This third memoir continues his story, describing his development as a teacher, including many anecdotes from his classes, and the work