McCourt Tells it Again

I cannot remember what drove me to read Angela’s Ashes when I did, but once I finished with it, I had an immense liking for the author. I loved the ‘innocence’ that seemed flow in the telling of the tale, and the ‘innocence’ in the way it was written. That Frank McCourt, I thought, now he seems like a nice fellow.

A couple of years later, he continued wrote Tis, a follow-up to his previous memoir, that wasn’t received all that well, but I enjoyed it a lot anyway. The innocence was still there in the book, but I think because the critics had lavished so much upon him for Angela’s Ashes (including the Pulitzer), that a new book, no matter how well written, was going to be doomed to a lesser reception than his previous juggernaut. Tis, ’there would be no movie from this title.

Now along came his latest memoir, Teacher Man, which I had wanted to read for year, but struggled with, because I tried to stay away from reading altogether. Finally last month, I was able to pick it up and to read about his thirty year story in the New York school system, as you guessed from the title, as a teacher, and again I am very impressed.

McCourt candidly talks about his highs and lows in the teaching profession, and admits to all of the crazy and sometimes, insurmountable issues that arise in the classroom that he has trouble dealing with. It could be anywhere from an unruly pupil, to a uncouthly principal. But whatever it is, McCourt is able to make things easy for the reader, and easy for the students in his classroom, who endlessly seem like they want to take advantage of him.

Although he may not have been the best teacher to ever have entered New York, a notion that he will admit openly, he is perhaps one of the smartest teachers to have ever written about his profession, perhaps more successfully, than any other teacher man out there, making his efforts as a teacher, a very good one.