re: #306 ggt

People don’t realize what poverty mean just 50 years ago. No rural electricity in some areas. People who never owned shoes.

In the book Angela’s Ashes, I was truly shocked to learn the author grew-up for a time in NYC without shoes.

Can you imagine?

I hated myself due to reading that book. By 3/4 of the way through it I was *wishing* for his parents to die due to what they had inflicted on their children. And I hated myself for wishing such on what were (or had been) real people.

Just the mention of the title brings out a lot of strong feelings. Which says a lot about the power of McCourt’s writing and the situations that he wrote about.