Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
International Best Seller, First published in Great Britain in 1996
Reprinted 73 times
PS Section 2005
Waow this book is really amazing… Memoirs of Frank McCourt when he was 4 years old to 19 years old. This one hale of a book that’s made me hooked from the page 1.
Frank dilahirkan di New York, sulung yg mempunyai adik Malachi, twin Oliver & Eugene dan adik perempuan Margareth. Ayahnya Malachi & ibunya Angela. Buku ini menggambarkan kehidupan masa kecil Frank yang dipanggil Frankie sebagai seorang anak Irlandia Katolik. Jika saya membayangkan kata miskin, kehidupan yang Frankie jalani bersama keluarganya membuat pikiran saya melebihi apa yang dapat saya bayangkan (beyond of the beyonds). Mereka sangat miskin dan selalu kelaparan setiap hari.
Mereka tidak dapat bertahan hidup di Amerika sehingga ketika Frankie berumur 4 tahun, ia dan keluarganya kembali ke Limerick, Irlandia.
Buku ini mengingatkan saya pada buku yang saya baca tahun 1998 yaitu Sleepers (Lorenzo Carcaterra) yang filmnya dibintangi Brad Pitt, Jason Patrick , Kevin Bacon, Robert De Niro & Dustin Hoffman.
Frank McCourt sangat jenius dalam menggambarkan kehidupan masa kanak-kanak dengan kepolosannya dan detail dalam peristiwa yang melekat di pikirannya. It’s genuine innocence of the child. Humor-humor ironi dalam buku ini (black comedy) membuat pembaca tersenyum-senyum. Percakapan tanpa tanda petik seperti dalam buku Akar (Supernova) Dee. Memoir ini tidak ada yang ditutup-tutupi, bahkan ketika sering kali Frankie mencuri demi mempertahankan hidup dan bahkan demi mencapai cita-citanya untuk pergi dan bekerja ke Amerika suatu hari nanti.
Cerita yang paling lucu bagi saya adalah ketika pada hari Frankie menerima komuni pertamanya (First Communion) dan ia tidak sengaja muntah di rumah neneknya.
Page 143-144
In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It’s a day since my last confession.
A day? And what sins have you committed in a day, my child ?
I overslept. I nearly missed my First Communion. My grandmother said I have standing up, North of Ireland, Presbyterian hair. I threw up my First Communion breakfast. Now Grandma says she has God in her backyard and what should she do.
The priest is like the Firs Confession priest. He has the heavy breathing and the choking sounds.
Ah…ah… tell your grandmother to wash God away with a little water and for your penance say one Hail Mary and one Our Father. Say a prayer for me and God bless you, my child.
Grandma and Mam were waiting close to the confession box. Grandma said, Were you telling jokes to that priest in the confession box? If ‘tis a thing I ever find out you were telling jokes to Jesuits I’ll tear the bloody kidneys outa you. Now what did he say about God in me backyard?
He said wash Him away with a little water, Grandma.
Holy water or ordinary water?
He didn’t say, Grandma.
Well, go back and ask him.
But Grandma…
She pushed me back into the confessional.
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned, it’s a minute since my last confession.
A minute! Are you the boy that was just here?
I’m Father.
What is it now?
My grandma says, Holy water or ordinary water?
Ordinary water, and tell your grandmother not to be bothering me again.
I told her, Ordinary water, Grandma, and he said don’t be bothering him again.
Don’t be bothering him again. That bloody ignorant bogtrotter.
Juga ada peristiwa lucu lainnya ketika Frankie membantu neneknya mengantarkan makanan kepada Bill Gavin. Frankie yang kelaparan tergoda dan akhirnya memakan habis semua makanan yang bukan miliknya.
I’ll tell him I was attacked by a dog on the Dock Road and he ate the whole dinner and I’m lucky without being eaten myself.
Oh, is that so? says Bill Galvin. And what’s that bid of cabbage hanging on your gansey? Did the dog lick you wit his cabbagey gob? Go home and tell your grandmother you ate me whole dinner and I’m falling down with the hunger here in this lime kiln.
Cerita yang paling menyedihkan adalah ketika Frankie berulang tahun yang ke-16.
Ia sangat sedih setelah bertengkar dengan ibunya. Ia rindu akan ayahnya yang bekerja di England tetapi tidak pernah pulang dan bahkan tidak pernah mengirim uang. Ayahnya yang selalu bercerita tentang Cuchulain, tokoh favoritnya ketika Frankie masih kecil dan dipangku ayahnya. Ia sedih mengingat ketiga adiknya yang meninggal, Margaret, Oliver, Eugene ketika masih sangat kecil. Ia sedih memikirkan teman intimnya Theresa yang meninggal karena penyakit tbc, ia tidak dapat berhenti berpikir Theresa meninggal karena dosa yang telah dibuatnya. Ia sedih memikirkan banyak anak yang tidak berdosa meninggal di kamp konsentrasi. Ia sedih mengingat kedua matanya yang selalu sakit. Sampai-sampai Frankie tidak ingin berdoa lagi karena menganggap semuanya ini sia-sia.
Page 401-403
St Francis is no help, he won’t stop the tears bursting out of my two eyes, the sniffling and choking and the God oh Gods that have me on my knees with my head on the back of the pew before me and I’m so weak with the hunger and the crying I could fall on the floor and would you please help me God or St. Francis because I’m sixteen today and I hit mother and sent Theresa to hell and wanked all over Limerick and the country beyond and I dread the millstone around my neck.
There is an arm around my shoulders, a brown robe, click of black rosary beds, a Fransiscan priest.
My child, my child, my child.
I’m a child and I lean against him, little Frankie on his father’s lap, tell me about Chuchulain, Dad, my story that Malachy can’t have or Freddie Leibowitz on the swings.
My child, sit here with me. Tell me what troubles you. Only if you want to. I am Father Gregory.
I’m sixteen today, Father.
Oh, lovely, lovely, and why should that be a trouble to you?
I drank my first pint last night.
Yes?
I hit my mother.
God help us, my child. But He will forgive you. Is there anything else?
I can’t tell you, Father
Would you like to go to confession?
I can’t Father. I did terrible things.
God forgives all who repent. He sent His only Beloved Son to die for us.
I can’t tell, Father, I can’t.
But you could tell St. Francis, couldn’t you?
He doesn’t help me anymore.
But you love him, don’t you?
I do. My name is Francis.
Then tell him. We’ll sit here and you’ll tell him the things that trouble you. If I sit and listen it will only be a pair of ears for St. Francis and Our Lord. Won’t that help?
I talk to St.Francis and tell him about Margaret, Oliver, Eugene, my father sending no money from England, Theresa and the green sofa, my terrible sins on Carrigogunnell, why couldn’t they hang Hermann Goering for what he did to the little children with shoes scattered around concentration camps, the Christian Brother who close the door in my face, the time they wouldn’t let me be an altar boy, my shoe clacking, my bad eyes that I’m ashamed of, the Jesuit brother who closed the door in my face, the tears in Mam’s eyes when I slapped her.
Father Gregory says, Would you like to sit and be silent, perhaps pray a few minutes?
His brown robe is rough against my cheek and there’s a smell of soap. He looks at St.Francis and the tabernacle and nods and I suppose he’s talking to God. Then he tells me kneel, gives me absolution, tells me say three Hail Marys, three Our Fathers, three Glory Bes. He tells me God forgives me and I must forgive myself, that God loves me and I must love myself for only when you love God in yourself can you love all God’s creatures.
But I want to know about Theresa Carmody in hell, Father.
No, my child. She is surely I heaven. She suffered like the martyrs in olden times and God knows that’s penance enough. You can be sure the sisters in the hospital didn’t let her die without a priest.
Are you sure, Father?
I am, my child.
He bless me again, asks me to pray for him, and I’m happy trotting through the rainy streets of Limerick
Cerita berakhir ketika Frankie tiba di Amerika. Sequelnya adalah ‘Tis dan Teacher Man.
Angela's Ashes telah difilmkan pada tahun 1999.Terima kasih kepada temanku yang sudah meminjamkan buku ini. Ini adalah buku kesekian setelah One Shot, Storm, Fiddlers dan Thirteenth Tale yang dipinjamkan ke saya.
Seperti salah satu postingan peserta milis pasarbuku yang serasa mendapatkan harta karun karena dapat meminjam banyak buku dari suami temannya yang senang membaca buku. Demikian juga saya yang mempunyai teman-teman di kalangan perbukuan sehingga rasanya senang sekali bisa membaca banyak buku.
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