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'Tis
A Memoir
First published 1999 · 608 pages
A lyrical, bittersweet exploration of mid-century New York and the messy, triumphant journey of finding one's place in a new world.
What it feels like
Reading this memoir feels like sitting in a dimly lit tavern with a master storyteller who has lived through it all. The narrative unfolds at a steady, conversational pace, wrapping you in a mood that is simultaneously gritty and deeply nostalgic. The prose is a marvel of voice, musical, wry, and steeped in an Irish cadence that finds humor in the darkest corners of poverty and displacement. You can feel the damp chill of the docks and the overwhelming scale of mid-century New York pressing in on the narrator. It is a deeply human experience, delighting readers who crave memoirs rich in emotional texture, where the struggle for education and belonging is met with self-deprecating wit and profound, hard-won grace.
- Mood
- bittersweet
- nostalgic
- gritty
- reflective
- Tone
- wry
- self-deprecating
- poignant
- observant
- lyrical
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- the immigrant experience · class struggle and assimilation · the transformative power of education · finding one's voice · family legacy and guilt
- The writing
- Conversational and musical, driven by a distinctly Irish cadence that effortlessly balances sharp, self-deprecating wit with profound melancholy.
- The arc
- Moves from the overwhelming bewilderment of a penniless arrival to a hard-won, bittersweet sense of belonging and self-acceptance.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love voice-driven, deeply human memoirs that explore the gritty realities of mid-century immigrant life with humor and heart.
Content notes
- poverty
- alcoholism
- grief and loss
- class prejudice
About the book
A and the eagerly anticipated sequel to the Pulitzer Prize–winning Angela’s Ashes, this masterpiece from Frank McCourt tells of his American journey from impoverished immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur.
Frank McCourt’s glorious childhood memoir, Angela’s Ashes, has been loved and celebrated by readers everywhere for its spirit, its wit and its profound humanity. A tale of redemption, in which storytelling itself is the source of salvation, it won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Rarely has a book so swiftly found its place on the literary landscape.
And now we have ’Tis, the story of Frank’s American journey from impoverished immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur. Frank lands in New York at age nineteen, in the company of a priest he meets on the boat. He gets a job at the Biltmore Hotel, where he immediately encounters the vivid hierarchies of this “classless country,” and then is drafted into the army and is sent to Germany to train dogs and type reports. It is Frank’s incomparable voice—his uncanny humor and his astonishing ear for dialogue—that renders these experiences spellbinding.
When Frank returns to America in 1953, he works on the docks, always resisting what everyone tells him, that men and women who have dreamed and toiled for years to get to America should “stick to their own kind” once they arrive. Somehow, Frank knows that he should be getting an education, and though he left school at fourteen, he talks his way into New York University. There, he falls in love with the quintessential Yankee, long-legged and blonde, and tries to live his dream. But it is not until he starts to teach—and to write—that Frank finds his place in the world. The same vulnerable but invincible spirit that captured the hearts of readers in Angela’s Ashes comes of age.
As Malcolm Jones said in his Newsweek review of Angela’s Ashes, “It is only the best storyteller who can so beguile his readers that he leaves them wanting more when he is done...and McCourt proves himself one of the very best.” Frank McCourt's ’Tis is one of the most eagerly awaited books of our time, and it is a masterpiece.
Description from Open Library.
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