Well, it is certainly not a genie in a bottle or a space filled with Grammy awards or a museum in Ireland. It is the archetypal rags-to-riches caliber of their stories. It is when a generally obscure person rises from poverty to Gatsbyesquewealth and fame. Our boy Frank McCourt, a child from the slums of Limerick who suffers from starvation and poverty during the majority of his early life, went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in his robe because of his comic memoir (yeah, that is right--comedian), published in 1996, about growing up in Ireland during the Great Depression and WWII.
According to McCourt's memoir, let us just say his life is still on the list of Top Ten Worst Childhoods. He climbs up dirt-poor at New York during the Great Depression, then proceeds to Limerick, Ireland, in which the situation's even worse. He has an alcoholic father who drinks up any salary he earns. Three of his sisters die before age three because of poverty and disease and lack of access to health attention. On top of this, there are outdoor latrines next to his home at Limerick, flea-ridden bedding, ragged clothes, constant desire, along with a nearly fatal bout of typhoid fever. Not to mention loads of guilt--according to the writer, loads of religion-inspired remorse for just about what he thought or did.
But somehow this lifestyle eventually goes nicely. Frank McCourt goes back to America at nineteen and becomes a teacher in Nyc. As a method of preventing classwork, his pupils punish him with questions about his own life from Ireland, and he makes the decision to write down a few of the stories that he tells them. Angela's Ashes is the first of many memoirs, and is made into a movie with a cast of famous British, Scottish, and Irish actors.
Even though the book's a smashing victory, maybe not everyone's happy about it. Much Angela McCourt, Frank's mother along with the title character of the book, protested her portrayal. Once, when her sons were doing scenes from their youth in a New York theater, she jumped up from the audience and cried, "It did not happen like that! It is all a bunch of lies!" (origin). Hence the question remains: was McCourt exaggerating, or did he just stretch the fact far enough to make his story compelling?
But in the close of the day, is not that what a fantastic storyteller does? His portrait of his youth is humorous and loving, despite all the distress. He tells the story from the point of view of his na�ve youth self, with all the hopes and disappointments, adventures and misadventures that some child encounters. What save young Frank are his smarts, tenacity, and enjoy learning.