Teacher Man: A Memoir
by Frank McCourt
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Book Summary Information
Author: Frank McCourtNarrator: Frank McCourt
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
Published: 2005-11-15
ISBN: 0743549937
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Book Reviews of Teacher Man: A Memoir
Book Review: Teacher's Pet
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a review of the nine disc (actually eight plus a bonus preview of Tis and Angela's Ashes recordings by the author) recording of Professor Frank McCourt's reading of his own Teacher Man, which recording proves the Irish literary tradition is ever and always best illiterate but orally spoken, sung, shouted and whispered. We are fortunate to have but a fragment of the greatest novelist James Joyce recording in his own voice a key passage of his Irish epic Ulysses, Donal Donnely best and unabridged completes that overwhelming task. Here in this recording by the author himself of Teacher Man we have the work as it was integrally intended, with every intonation, dripping with irony where intended, and sincere sentiment where needed. Hear this and weep, and laugh and reJoyce.
Those whom Irishman Oscar Wilde required to sit by his side upon a British park bench to hear his stories, the vast majority of which were never published let alone written down, lamented that in the writing they lost most of their charm. Here we observe, or rather hear, the same phenomenom. Reading Frank McCourt is a joy, of course, but to hear him read his own writing, as he told these true tales for decades to his students, is to experience and live them holistically, as they were intended, and to breathe with Francis.
Irish literature remains an oral tradition.
In this recording, Frank takes us through his entire life up to retirement when he begins to write down his stories. He begins with how it was to go from Brooklyn to Ireland as a small boy not yet four, and to defend himself from attack by the Limerick lane boys for being a red skin and yankee, until he acquired his distinctive Irish accent. In these infant narratives we feel the opening pages of the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, in which we similarly feel a small child relating his perceptions through a sly and hidden adult narrative voice. It took me a few listenings to realize we were hearing the words of a boy of four or five, yet this in no way detracts from the narrative; it enhances the narrative.
A few sidebars here: Frank's voice is wonderful, a delight. If you have heard Seamus Heaney's recoding of his own translation of Beowulf, you hear a similar dry burr, but here with Frank it has life and joy; under Heaney it remains unrelentingly grim throughout, as due his gruesome subject matter. Frank brings his voice to unforced yet skillful inflections, reflecting each of the several characters and emotions he has to tell. We laugh with Frank; we get angry with Frank; we weep with Frank. This is as it must be.
The second sidebar is that this recording only improves with repeated listenings, and the fact the author himself reads means we feel his sincerity and urgency and truth, and so the recording does not ever ring false, but ever more profound. You quickly find yourself entranced ever more by this story, and repeated listenings are well rewarded. Hearing the same stories again does not wear them thin, but deepens them.
End of sidebars. Frank takes us through his journey back from Ireland to New York, his achieving his teaching license, his experiences as teacher, and his facing retirement, with a brilliance and completeness that is very satisfying. At every point he has much to say about teacher preparation and education in America, and what he says is true. Those who can't teach, teach teachers (a trite adage which Frank's taste and talent do not permit him to quote; he says it his own way more truly and originally). His experience with students and parents ring true for any teacher in America, not just New YOrk City of forty or fifty years ago.
In fact, Frank teaches us much very well about teaching itself, as a calling, a career and a professional practice. This recording is the best text for teacher preparation around. As a long time teacher myself, I learn much about how to teach, and receive much strength, from Frank's relatin of his experiences, and the wisdom he has derived from it, which he freely shares here. I am very grateful to Frank for this.
A very valuable recording as enterntainment, as wisdom, as comforting food for thought. You will not be disappointed hearing this talented and comprehensive shanachie of a thousand and one tales; you will listen to him again and again. You will sell your hi-def television and let Frank handle the entertainment responsibilities in your home. You will let Frank take up an honored residence within your lonely home and turn to him whenever you are at home for companionship, joy and strength, playing these disks constantly without fear of wearing out. It is that good. Let it grow on you.
Summary of Teacher Man: A Memoir
Nearly a decade ago Frank McCourt became an unlikely star when, at the age of 66, he burst onto the literary scene with Angela's Ashes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir of his childhood in Limerick, Ireland. Then came 'Tis, his glorious account of his early years in New York.Now here at last, is McCourt's long-awaited audiobook about how his thirty-year teaching career shaped his second act as a writer. Teacher Man is also an urgent tribute to teachers everywhere. In bold and spirited prose featuring his irreverent wit and heartbreaking honesty, McCourt records the trials, triumphs and surprises he faces in public high schools around New York City.
Teacher Man shows McCourt developing his unparalleled ability to tell a great story as he works to gain the attention and respect of unruly, hormonally-charged or indifferent adolescents. McCourt's rocky marriage, his failed attempt to get a Ph.D. at Trinity College, Dublin, and his repeated firings due to his propensity to talk back to his superiors ironically lead him to New York's most prestigious school, Stuyvesant High School, where he finally finds a place and a voice.
For McCourt, storytelling itself is the source of salvation and in Teacher Man the journey to redemption -- and literary fame -- is an exhilarating adventure.
For 30 years Frank McCourt taught high school English in New York City and for much of that time he considered himself a fraud. During these years he danced a delicate jig between engaging the students, satisfying often bewildered administrators and parents, and actually enjoying his job. He tried to present a consistent image of composure and self-confidence, yet he regularly felt insecure, inadequate, and unfocused. After much trial and error, he eventually discovered what was in front of him (or rather, behind him) all along--his own experience. "My life saved my life," he writes. "My students didn't know there was a man up there escaping a cocoon of Irish history and Catholicism, leaving bits of that cocoon everywhere." At the beginning of his career it had never occurred to him that his own dismal upbringing in the slums of Limerick could be turned into a valuable lesson plan. Indeed, his formal training emphasized the opposite. Principals and department heads lectured him to never share anything personal. He was instructed to arouse fear and awe, to be stern, to be impossible to please--but he couldn't do it. McCourt was too likable, too interested in the students' lives, and too willing to reveal himself for their benefit as well as his own. He was a kindred spirit with more questions than answers: "Look at me: wandering late bloomer, floundering old fart, discovering in my forties what my students knew in their teens."
As he did so adroitly in his previous memoirs, Angela's Ashes and 'Tis, McCourt manages to uncover humor in nearly everything. He writes about hilarious misfires, as when he suggested (during his teacher's exam) that the students write a suicide note, as well as unorthodox assignments that turned into epiphanies for both teacher and students. A dazzling writer with a unique and compelling voice, McCourt describes the dignity and difficulties of a largely thankless profession with incisive, self-deprecating wit and uncommon perception. It may have taken him three decades to figure out how to be an effective teacher, but he ultimately saved his most valuable lesson for himself: how to be his own man. --Shawn Carkonen
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