Las cenizas de Ángela: Lo es

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The sequel to Frank McCourt's memoir picks up in October 1949, when he returns to America after his family had moved back to Ireland due to poor prospects. Now an awkward 19-year-old with a "pimply face, sore eyes, and bad teeth," he feels out of place among the confident college students he encounters. His American experience is initially as harrowing as his impoverished youth in Ireland, marked by two of the bleakest Christmases ever depicted. McCourt's sharp eye and dark humor illuminate the challenges he faces, including race prejudice, casual cruelty, and dead-end jobs, as he seeks a way out. A glimmer of hope emerges through the army, where he gains white-collar skills, and New York University, which accepts him without a high school diploma. However, his path to teaching creative writing at Stuyvesant High School is fraught with difficulties. McCourt's exceptional openness to human emotion allows even the most troubled individuals he meets to be richly portrayed, fostering a sense of uncomfortable kinship. His magical prose, infused with Irish cadences, elevates even the most sorrowful events, culminating in a poignant final scene in a Limerick graveyard.