In my review of "Angela's Ashes" I wrote of it's dual elements of an interesting story and descriptive language and unfortunately, didn't really find "'Tis" to have either of these things.
I often felt like I was simply reading a journal of "then I did this, after that I did that" and none of it was terribly interesting. McCourt's chronicle of his years as first a a newly arrived immigrant in New York and then a teacher, husband, father and sometimes caretaker of his mother at times seemed like a series of lists.
It may not have occurred to me had I not seen criticism of McCourt as a son in this Richard Harris interview, but I didn't find McCourt's actions and attitudes towards both his wife and mother to be that endearing. It's hard to form a well-versed opinion on simply what was written in "'Tis", but frankly, I felt bad about his mother's time in New York after the struggle she went through keeping McCourt and his siblings fed when they grew up poor in Limerick, Ireland.
Probably not going to read the third McCourt memoir, "Teacher Man".
