Frank McCourt is ill
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- July
- 17
AP reports that Angela’s Ashes author Frank McCourt is gravely ill with meningitis. The 78-year-old writer’s brother says he’s unlikely to survive.
This reminds me of the rumors of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s failing health and likely demise that began about a decade ago. With McCourt, however, the word comes not from unspecified rumors, but from the a family member. Malachy McCourt, Frank’s brother, told the Associated Press that his 78-year-old brother was in a hospice with “his faculties shutting down,” and that “he is not expected to live.”
That doesn’t mean we can’t wish him well, and we do.
I got to see Frank McCourt speak once at the Barnes & Noble on Union Square in Manhattan. It’s the book seller’s flagship story in Manhattan, and they get the big names there. I also saw Toni Morrison reading from her 2008 novel A Mercy. Another time, Jimmy Carter spoke there. On August 11, Richard Russo and Pat Conroy are scheduled to appear.
McCourt is an engaging speaker. He’s not spellbinding or overly dramatic. He’s just a guy talking to you, telling interesting stories about his years teaching. (The one concrete detail I remember from the talk was when he showed how wearying it was when another student, a girl, complained to him about a boy in school who didn’t love her back. It sounds a little cruel now, but it was funny. Really.)
Marquez returned to give us more writing. We’ll keep an eye on, and our best thoughts with, McCourt.
This entry was posted
on Friday, July 17th, 2009 at 10:02 am by Ken Valenti.
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