Teacher man

Teacher man : a memoir/ by Frank McCourt.— Unabridged ed.— Prince Frederick: Recorded Books, 2005.

8 sound discs (9 hr.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.

ISBN: 9781419362705

Subtitle from container insert.

Performed by the author.

1. McCourt, Frank. 2. High school teachers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography. 3. Irish Americans -- Biography.

371.10092

Three things make McCourt's reminisces a delight: his natural gift for storytelling and his honesty and wit when relating his own self-doubts, failures as well as his successes. This third volume covers his decades of teaching high school English, most of it in public vocational-technical high schools, and then, at the end of his career, in an academic magnet. It is all the more interesting, because he is not teacher of the year or educational academic arguing for the latest or his favorite teaching method or educational theory. Although now a best-selling author, as he puts, it:

When I taught in New York City high schools for thirty years no one but my students paid me a scrap of attention. In the world outside the school I was invisible. Then I wrote a book about my childhood and became mick of the moment. I hoped the book would explain family history to McCourt children and grandchildren. I hoped it might sell a few hundred copies and I might be invited to have discussions with book clubs. Instead it jumped onto the best-seller list and was translated into thirty languages and I was dazzled.

If at all possible, listen to this book, or Angela’s Ashes or ‘Tis. Not all authors are the best readers of their own works, but McCourt’s voice is a marvelous instrument. Although born in America of immigrant parents, he returned to Limerick, Ireland as a four-year-old, where he grew up before returning to the United States. In the subsequent decades he has not lost the brogue and cadence of his ancestral land. Then, when you pick up the print version, it will continue to speak to you in the author’s voice.