[PghBaldy]

I knew Angela; did Frank McCourt? - Angela McCourt, mother of author Frank McCourt http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1252/is_n19_v124/ai_20227028/?tag=content;col1

[GOP Poet]

great find. Thank you for posting. I knew Frank and am saddened by his death. Yet having read this short article, I feel I missed out tremendously by his flat drawn character-his mother Angela. I will give him a pass however as it was his first book. Frank was a man that loved to talk and talk he did with everyone. He may have loved talking more than writing. He loved being around people and having an audience. May he rest in peace.

[Albion Wilde]

Very interesting post -- thanks -- an article by the real Angela's neighbor. And yes, it is difficult to say whether he transmogrified his actual mother's experiences into a larger metaphor for the suffering of the Irish poor during the Depression, along with the ever-present alcoholism and martyrdom to a strict moral code. At the same time, I must say, there are many sides to my life that my offspring will never have any idea of. Or at least, no proof! His story is one that was seen through his eyes as a desperately hungry and needy child. His later life would be a testament to his sheer will to overcome.

Here is the final passage of the article to which you linked, which rings true:

For finally, it is possible that the Angela of Angela's Ashes and [the] Mrs. McCourt [that I knew] are one and the same person, nothing fictive about her - simply a new woman once she got Frank out of the house. Indeed, my children's clearest memory of Mrs. McCourt is seeing the formidable woman wreathed in a cloud of cigarette smoke. The ashes are nonfiction - or so it seems.