This sequel to 'Angela's Ashes' is the story of Frank McCourt's American journey from impoverished immigrant with rotten teeth, infected eyes and no formal education to brilliant raconteur and schoolteacher. Saved first by a straying priest, then by the Democratic party, then by the United States Army, then by New York University - which admitted him on a trial basis though he had no high school diploma - Frank had the same vulnerable but invincible spirit at nineteen that he had at eight and still has today.
This is a tale of survival as vivid, harrowing and often hilarious as 'Angela's Ashes'. Yet again, it is through the power of storytelling that Frank McCourt finds a life for himself.