Monk Swimming - Hardcover

McCourt, Malachy

3.36

4,681 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0330361120 ISBN 13: 9780330361125

Publisher: Picador USA, 1998

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2 cassettes / 3 hours
Read by the author, Malachy McCourt

"[Malachy McCourt] here makes his vivid, whimsical, raucous, murderous joy and voice available to the rest of us in tales of riot and glory which build on the story of the McCourts' early life so dazzlingly told in Angela's Ashes by his brother Frank."
--Thomas Keneally, author of Shindler's List

In 1952, Malachy McCourt left a childhood of poverty in Limerick, Ireland, heading for the promise of America. This is the story of what he brought with him, and what he thought he left behind.

Larger than life, a world-class drinker, McCourt carved out a place for himself in New York City: in the saloons, as the first celebrity bartender, mixing with socialites, writers, and movie stars, on stage and on television, where the tales he spun made him a Tonight Show regular.

He had money and women and, eventually, children of his own; and that's when he found he had not left his memories as far behind as he had thought. He had no choice but to stop and turn and face his past.

Darkly funny, shockingly raw, and everywhere making the English language do tricks the British never intended, Malachy McCourt, a true original, tells this story with passion, wit, irreverence, and charm.

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Review:

Roll up your sleeves and settle in for a rough and tumble story of the hard life and fast times of an original Irish American rogue. Read by the author in his thick and hearty brogue, A Monk Swimming expands on the up-from-your-bootstraps tale of the McCourt family, which was so beautifully detailed in his big brother Frank McCourt's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Angela's Ashes.

Reared on "warm words, serried words, glittering poetic, harsh, and even blasphemous words," McCourt has storytelling in his blood. In this life-affirming recording he carries on a vocal tradition learned at the knees of family and friends as they "spun out the silver-gold yarns and, by sheer eloquence, made our miserable surroundings disappear."

From his arrival in America wearing patched clothes and broken boots, McCourt swore he'd fight before ever tasting the bitterness of poverty again. In this heartfelt memoir he pulls no punches and carries the listener along as he climbs up through every level of society: from the flop houses of Calcutta to the swank poolside cabanas of Beverly Hills. A celebrity barkeep, society darling, Hollywood striver, and world-class drinker, McCourt has lived a life of outsized adventure. In A Monk Swimming, he shares each hard-knock lesson in the passionate cadence of his uniquely Irish voice. (Running time: three hours, two cassettes) --George Laney

From the Publisher:

I do my laundry on Saturday afternoons. While I'm folding and sorting (or attempting to sort), I listen to AudioBooks.

I love nothing more than a good story about New York City- Joseph Mitchell's Up in the Old Hotel, Breakfast at Tiffany's, even the recent flood of books about The New Yorker. I knew I'd like A Monk Swimming, I didn't know how much.

Malachy McCourt is hilarious. His stories of meeting Prince Philip (I think he was drunk), his first appearance on the Tonight Show (I think he was drunk), and even the story of the birth of his first child (I think he was drunk) - all are told with Irish accent and a warm heart. I was laughing so hard at one point (during the Price Philip piece), I forgot I was at the Laundromat...

If you like the idea of meeting someone who has wonderful stories to tell about the city that was New York in the 50-60s, about the celebrities he knew, his foray into theater, and appearances on television, that belly up to the bar and have Malachy tell you a tale.
-Carrie, Random House AudioBooks Publicity

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