Oh dear this was a "did not finish" book for me, I have tried 3 times to read it, this time I made it half way before getting bored and giving up. It's a very bleak book, which I have no problem with, I think my problem is I was unable to connect with the characters and one thing kept bugging me, the detail, if you had gone through what McCourt did as a kid would you be able to remember every single little conversation? Even the times he chats with his mates you get the whole conversation, (a conversation that quit often leads nowhere and doesn't add to the flow of the book), surely that can't all be recalled? Too much embellishment for me.

I haven't seen the film, a lot of reviews on here have done the film before the book, maybe that might help you feel more towards the characters.

This might not be a 1 star book but this reader gets 1 star for his attempt.