Perspective

Tis, A Memoir, is written from the perspective of Frank McCourt, and details his life in New York when he emigrates from Ireland at the age of 19. Though Frank has grown up in Ireland, he was born in New York when his parents lived there in his youth. When life in New York failed the older McCourt's, they moved their young family back to Limerick.

Frank's youth was colored by poverty and disappointment when his father abandons his family, leaving his wife Angela to seek charity in order to survive. Frank leaves school in order to help support his family, returning to New York and the lure of success so that his brothers do not have to work as he did. Though Frank eventually earns his degree and becomes a teacher as he dreamed when he was younger, his father's abandonment haunts him, causing Frank to question his...