McCourt's uncluttered life

The first time I read Angela's Ashes I was going through a severe case of Irelust (I wanted to go to Ireland real bad). My introduction to the brogue and the lifestyle and all of that seems to have come from something beyond this book, but I can't remember what now. A boyfriend, I think, whose family was Irish? Maybe. At any rate, despite the troubles or Troubles, I feel in love with the idea of Ireland, the harsh realness of place that McCourt conjured up for me. Today, I read the book as an adult and think that it wouldn't be at all fun to live that lifestyle-- not that I thought it would be fun when I was younger, but I was more charmed by the exoticism of the whole thing--but I feel so in line with what McCourt notes was an "uncluttered life" in the snipped in our class readings.

I've always been a traveler, restless and full of wanderlust. But I've also lived a real comfortable life, full of all the amenities McCourt never had. My troubles, and thus the stuff of a memoir (who wants to read a memoir about a happy, perfect life?) didn't start til I had brain surgery, but they've given me something to write about. When I could force myself away from the clutter of travel plans and an exciting social life and work to do so. left Chicago last year because I wanted to do just that, get away from the clutter (and excitement) of a life that pulled me from my writing, and when I look back at the stuff I've written (for my memoir) today, I can't believe how cluttered it is sometimes. I think that comes from not really being sure how to tell the story.

McCourt says that the child's voice is "innocent," it can also be messy. Think of a 4 year old and how he tells a story. There's lots of "and then.. and then's" because their train of thought sort of peters off and reroutes itself sometimes. McCourt has managed to stay away from that here, and I wonder if part of his ability to nail the voice and mood so crystal clearly also comes from his writing at 66, after retiring, and after a life-time of telling the stories. He'd had plenty of practice in adopting the persona of young Frank, so he could write with some clarity, and leaving his job gave him time to write without the clutter of work and other papers.

What this does--this perfectly clear telling of the story, from the viewpoint of a child-- for me, is tell the story in a way I can understand while creating two different characters. There's the Frank/teller, who sounds smart and contemplative, and then there's the Frank/kid, who I don't feel like I see quite as well as I see Malachy. I see him of course, but he somehow seems less than childlike to me. It's weird, and I've only just begun to think about what that does for me as a reader. Because present tense is used, I feel a sense of currency in the reading, which might also be what makes me see Frank as less-than child, since I can't separate him in my head as an adult now? I know.. that kind of contradicts the idea of two Franks, but it muddles me all up to think about it. So much for an uncluttered mind as I read!