The book details his early childhood in Brooklyn, New York, but focuses primarily on his life in Limerick, Ireland.

In Brooklyn, the McCourts live in modern tenement housing next to a park and share a floor, and an indoor lavatory, with other immigrant families.

The family is forced to rely on the dole and charity from the local Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, which requires a humiliating application process.

When the U.S. joins World War 2, many Limerick men, including Malachy Sr, find work at defence plants in Coventry, England, and they send money home.

He meets Mrs Finucane who buys clothes for people at a discount, and then they pay her back over time for the full price; she asks Frank to write threatening letters to encourage them to repay these loans.

He works for the post office until he is 16, and he finds a job with Eason's, a company that supplies magazines and newspapers to Limerick stores.

When his mother shames him for drinking like his father, Frank hits her, accusing her of being a whore for Laman Griffin, and he is immediately ashamed of himself.

[2] Michiko Kakutani concluded her review in The New York Times of Angela's Ashes by writing "The reader of this stunning memoir can only hope that Mr. McCourt will set down the story of his subsequent adventures in America in another book.

"[3] McCourt "has used the storytelling gifts he inherited from his father to write a book that redeems the pain of his early years with wit and compassion and grace."

The book is compared "with The Liars Club by Mary Karr and Andre Aciman's Out of Egypt as a classic modern memoir."

Kakutani remarks that "Writing in prose that's pictorial and tactile, lyrical but streetwise, Mr. McCourt does for the town of Limerick what the young Joyce did for Dublin: he conjures the place for us with such intimacy that we feel we've walked its streets and crawled its pubs.

It is "a powerful, exquisitely written debut, a recollection of the author's miserable childhood in the slums of Limerick, Ireland, during the Depression and World War II.

"[4] Nina King wrote in The Washington Post that "This memoir is an instant classic of the genre -- all the more remarkable for being the 66-year-old McCourt's first book."

"[5] Reviewing the book at its publication in 1996, John Blades wrote in the Chicago Tribune that "Like McCourt himself, Angela's Ashes is a bundle of contradictions, as uproarious as they are grievous, whether the young Frankie is pushing his baby brother around Limerick, dumping loose coal and turf into his pram; his "pious, defeated" mother is begging a sheep's head for their Christmas dinner; or his soused father is rousing the boys in the middle of the night to sing "Kevin Barry" and other patriotic Irish songs."

Billing themselves as "A Couple of Blaguards," he and his younger brother, Malachy, re-enacted their Limerick boyhood in story, song and verse for audiences at the Royal George and other theaters."

But it's the blackguard father, also named Malachy, who obsesses McCourt, and who commandeers center stage in his memoir, long after he's abandoned his wife and family."

Although the tough, challenging and sad events of his childhood might present a negative story to the reader or listener, "The book is full of tears and laughter.

"[7] Writing a review in 2020, Ashley Nelson stated "This story is challenging to the emotions; it deals with many elements and situations that make people uncomfortable.

However, it has you holding back laughter, as Frank McCourt has this magical ability to make light of being starving in the pouring rain walking through the streets of Limerick.

This book is a "quintessential coming of age story viewed through the grimy, unyielding, and sometimes downright heartbreaking lens of poverty.

[citation needed] McCourt was accused of exaggerating his family's impoverished upbringing by many Limerick natives, including Richard Harris.

[11][12][13] McCourt's mother denied the accuracy of his stories shortly before her death in 1981, walking out of a stage performance by her two elder sons; Malachy's recollection is that she said it was "all a pack of lies.

[14][15] McCourt was a member of the Boy Scouts, a middle-class pursuit the poor could not afford, and family photographs show the children and Angela as well-fed.

He realized how much the city had changed since McCourt's childhood years, including destruction of the slum area where his family lived when Frank was in school.

[17] Similarly, Alan Parker, who directed the film version, said that Angela's Ashes "was a work of art which met Gore Vidal's definition of autobiography, being an 'impression' of a life, rather than a memoir.

The film soundtrack was composed and conducted by John Williams, and features songs by Billie Holiday and Sinéad O'Connor.

A stage musical adaptation of Angela's Ashes by Adam Howell (Music & Lyrics) and Paul Hurt (Book) received its world premiere at the Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick on July 6, 2017 with following performances at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin and the Grand Opera House, Belfast.