Saving Nickels, Saving Dimes

I've finished reading the third volume of the McCourt memoirs and started Der Zauberberg by Thomas Mann, which is my last project this year, I guess.

I was given the McCourt memoirs by my high school lit teacher, who serves as a kind of literature guide/mentor in my life. Frank McCourt (died in 2009) was an Irish-American writer, and much more than that. He was born to Irish immigrants in New York, but the family moved back to Ireland when he was about 3 or 4. Later he returned to New York when he was 19. He wrote his memoirs in the 1990s, the first volume of which, Angela's Ashes, won the Pulitzer Prize. This was his first book. It is the story of his childhood, growing up in the slums of Limerick, a bigot Catholic village (town?), with a drunkard father, a beggar mother, and three brothers.
His life story was quite exciting and he had all kinds of jobs (e.g. telegram boy, forklifter, high school teacher, bank clerk, college professor), which reminds me of my favorite university professor, who has been a hairdresser, a waiter, a social worker (am I right?), and God knows what else. I love listening to old boys (don't take offense) telling the story of their life, especially if they have a sense of humor like McCourt's.
I think the first volume was the best, and in a way it came as a surprise, so the second part ('Tis) couldn't outperform its success. I also liked the third one, Teacher Man, though I don't consider it the final piece of a trilogy. It has the loosest structure ouf of the three, and it contains anecdotes from his teaching experience in five high schools and two colleges. The reason I could relate to it is of course that I'm a teacher (or a teaching person) myself, and there were lots of thoughts about becoming a teacher in it, e.g. what makes a good teacher, how can you become a good teacher, how long does it take, and all kinds of self-reflections. There was a part I really liked, something like how many jobs teaching involves, e.g. a trickster, a mentor - I can't remember them, but there were about a dozen, and I love hearing from someone else that yes, it is hard to be a teacher. There was a minor character mentioned who was planning to teach for one year, then write a book about it, and make a fortune (ha-ha, easy way, man.) McCourt often wondered about quitting the job and going back to the warehouses as a physical worker, but in the end he decided to take up the gauntlet (I copied it from the dictionary) and fight. This reminds me of the Christmas party where the owner of the school said we are everyday heroes no-one knows of (or acknowledges), but he did.

It's a good thing that McCourt showed me that you can be a self-made man, though I'm not referring to the business man type but, say, a literary person. It depends on you what and how much you read, and what and how much you put into your classes. And that makes all the difference.
So let's get back to work (and books). And who knows, one day I might turn out to be a Pulitzer Winner, too.