Comment

'Tis

a Memoir
Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of Surrey Libraries.
Jun 03, 2019
" They meet me on the streets and tell me that i look grand, that i look more like a Yank all the time. Alice Egan argues, Frankie McCourt hasn't changed one hour, not one hour. Isn't that right, Frankie?/ I don't know, Alice./ You don't have the slightest bit of an American accent./ Whatever friends i had in Limerick are gone, dead or emigrated, and I don't know what to do with myself. I could read all day in my mother's house but why did I come all the way from New York to sit on my arse and read? I could sit in pubs all night and drink but I could have done that in New York, too./ I walk from from one end of the city to the other and out into the country where my father walked endlessly. People are polite but they're working and have families and I'm a visitor, a returned Yank./ Is that yourself, Frankie McCourt?/ 'Tis./ When did you come?/ Last week./ And when are you going back?/ Next week./ That's grand. I'm sure your poor mother is glad to have you at home and I hope the weather keeps fine for you./ They say, I suppose you notice all kinds of changes in Limerick?/ Oh, yes. More cars, fewer snotty noses and scabby knees. No barefoot children. No women in shawls./ Jesus, Frankie McCourt, them's peculiar things to be noticing./ "