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Frank McCourt, author of  Teacher Man, has led one of the most amazing lives in history.  I am happy that I chose to listen to this book on audio, because it was read by the author himself.

McCourt skillfully waves an enthralling tale of his 30+ years as a school teacher in the New York City School System.  He laughs and cries, condemns and scolds, and always with his unique insight to life, literature, and the human psyche that challenges the listener [reader] and endures Frank McCourt as a truly American author.

“As he did so adroitly in his previous memoirs, McCourt manages to uncover humor in nearly everything. He writes about hilarious misfires, as when he suggested (during his teacher’s exam) that the students write a suicide note, as well as unorthodox assignments that turned into epiphanies for both teacher and students. A dazzling writer with a unique and compelling voice, McCourt describes the dignity and difficulties of a largely thankless profession with incisive, self-deprecating wit and uncommon perception. It may have taken him three decades to figure out how to be an effective teacher, but he ultimately saved his most valuable lesson for himself: how to be his own man.” –Shawn Carkonen

It’s not pretty or proper, but then again, neither is Frank McCourt.  But life is often messy and happiness or depression is where you find it.  One thing is for certain, once you meet Frank McCourt, and you allow him to permeate your soul, you will forever be changed.

QUOTABLES

• “I didn’t call myself anything. I was more than a teacher. And less.”
• “In the high school classroom you are a drill sergeant, a rabbi, a shoulder to cry on, a disciplinarian, a singer, a low level scholar, a clerk, a referee, a clown, a counselor, a dress-code enforcer, a conductor, an apologist, a philosopher, a collaborator, a tap dancer, a traffic cop, a priest, a mother-father-brother-sister-uncle-aunt, a bookkeeper, a critic, a psychologist, the last straw.”
• “I was already dreaming of a school where teachers were guides and mentors, not taskmasters.”
• “I’m teaching. Storytelling is teaching. Storytelling is a waste of time. I can’t help it. I’m not good at lecturing.”
• “F. Scott Fitzgerald said ‘there are no second acts in American lives.’ I think I’ve proven him wrong. And all because I refused to settle for a one-act existence, the 30 years I taught English in various New York City high schools.”