Search - Teacher Man : A Memoir

Nearly a decade ago Frank McCourt became an unlikely star when, at the age of sixty-six, he burst onto the literary scene with Angela's Ashes, the Pulitzer Prize- winning memoir of his childhood in Limerick, Ireland. Then came 'Tis, the glorious account of his early years in New York.

Teacher Man is McCourt's long-awaited book about how his thirty- year teaching career shaped his second act as a writer. It is also an urgent tribute to teachers everywhere. In bold and spirited prose featuring his irreverent wit and heartbreaking honesty, McCourt records the trials, triumphs and surprises he faced in public high schools around New York City. His methods anything but conventional, McCourt created a lasting impact on his students through imaginative assignments (he instructed one class to write "An Excuse Note from Adam or Eve to God"), singalongs (featuring recipe ingredients as lyrics) and field trips (imagine taking twenty-nine rowdy girls to a movie in Times Square!).

Teacher Man shows McCourt developing his unparalleled ability to tell a great story as, five days a week, five periods per day, he worked to gain the attention and respect of unruly, hormonally charged or indifferent adolescents.

For McCourt, storytelling itself is the source of salvation, and in Teacher Man the journey to redemption -- and literary fame -- is an exhilarating adventure.