'Tis by Frank McCourt is the second installment of McCourt's autobiography. I read the first book, Angela's Ashes, last year. McCourt is an Irish-American who was born in New York but grew up in Limerick. His family was completely impoverished because his alcoholic father drank his entire paycheck each week.
McCourt dropped out of school at 14 and worked as a telegram deliverer to save up money to move back to the U.S. He worked several jobs doing menial and manual labor and finally joined the army to fight in the Korean war. With the G.I. bill and encouragement from various acquaintances and friends, he talked his way into college, even without having attended high school.
Finally a teacher, as he had dreamed of, McCourt realizes how different school is in New York from school in Limerick. He would have been very grateful to attend high school, and considered it a privilege. I doubt many of us know an American-born teenager who is grateful to go to high school! He struggled with reconciling his American dreams with the American reality.
He's a great writer telling a fascinating story. Just as we expect of Irish writers, he is self-deprecating, self-analytical, funny, and lyrical. I will surely read the third book, Teacher Man, some day.
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