The problem with reading a good book is that you will not be able to put it down. Sometimes you just speed through the whole pages, and even with the fingers all red from the paper cut, eyes almost pop out from moving too fast left and right, and head throbbing like mad in the morning from lack of sleep trying to finish the book the soonest as possible while all your other books are still lying helplessly in the shelf, still in its cover, waiting to be read.

And after that you begin to realize that good books are something you should savor to its last page, and not just flip flip flip without really getting a grasp of its real meaning, and then you suddenly stop, and go backwards, hoping you’d remember each and every characters in it. Trying so hard not to lose its plot.

‘Tis is definitely a good example of it.

Lord above knows just how many days I spent on that book, not because of I want to savor every little details in it, but simply because – forgive me, Mr. McCourt, I only got to read that book once the clock hits twelve at night, and I can only last 10 minutes of that book, for fear I will not be able to wake up the next morning to go to work.

But I spent the last 2 days finishing what I left off (about half of the whole book), and I wept my self to bed in the ending.

Damn it, Frank McCourt can write.
And damn it, he deserves the Pulitzer Prize. For all I know, he can bring home that bloody Nobel prize for Literature from Sweden, for he deserves it.

I know this is not much of a review.
But I tell you, I don’t need to give a review on ‘Tis and Angela’s Ashes. The books are simply must-reads.

Mr.McCourt, once again, hats off to you.
Wish I could meet you and tell you in person, just how much your writings have influenced me.
(Och, my bladder is near my eyes…)

First person: The Blue Man

“Well. People often belittle the place where they were bor. But heaven can be found in the most unlikely corners. And heaven itself has many steps…”

“There are five people you meet in heaven.” “Each of us was in your life for a reason. You may not have known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on earth.”

 

Second person: The Captain

“Sacrifice, “the Captain said. “You made one, I made one.” “We all make them. But you were angry over yours. You kept thinking about what you lost. You didn’t get it. Sacrifice is a part of life. It’s supposed to be. It’s not something to regret. It’s something to aspire to. Little sacrifices. Big sacrifices.”

 

Third person: The Father

“Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attaches the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.”

 

Fourth person: The Lover

“Love, like rain, can nourish from above, drenching couples with a soaking joy. But sometimes, under the angry heat of life, love dries on the surface and must nourish from below, tending to its roots, keeping itself alive.”

“Lost love is still love. It takes a different form, that’s all. You can’t see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. you hold it. you dance with it. Life has to end. Love doesn’t.”

 

Fifth person: The Child

“I was sad because I didn’t do anything in my life. I was nothing. I accomplished nothing. I was lost. I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be there.”

“Supposed to be there,” she said.

 

 

 

I read “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” and I learned a lot.

 

I cried.

I cried to know that perhaps in some instance, my life affects others in such a way that I won’t even realize it.

I cried to know that true love hurts, especially when they are gone.

 

Even in Heaven, you still have heartaches. But as time goes on, you will learn the meaning of your life.

 

Well, let’s best hope that I figure it out first before I go to heaven (or hell? – God forbid…)

 

 

Anyways, love your work, Mitch.

 

=Retti=

Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian writer whose name is famous in international.
Shame on me, i've just known his masterpiece.
Actually, The Alchemist, is his first book I've read... Thanks Retti, for introducing it to me.

The Alchemist story is really deep. I have quite problems to undertand the meaning of what the writer wanted to tell us. It combines philosophy and wisdom.

First of all, so sorry for being kinda late to fill the review.
I have finished with this book 2-3 weeks ago, I'm almost finish with The alchemist even now.
Well, better late than never......

About this book, Angela's Ashes...
Breathaking.. tremendously beautiful, can't stop reading...

Can you imagine born and living in depression-era and raised in the slum ? I can't!
This book told about Frank McCourt life, his own life, in a memoir. Very sad, but with his words he could transform his sad life into something funny, yet touchy.