In this bestselling memoir, Malachy recounts his flight from a childhood of poverty in Limerick, Ireland, heading for the promise of America. Armed with savage humor and a gift for storytelling, fueled by rage and the desire to never go hungry again, he ran from memories of a drunken, vanished father and the humiliations suffered by Angela, his mother. He arrived in a fast-moving 1950s New York: a dark, glittering city, with a saloon on every corner and a new story to embellish every night. Larger than life, a world-class drinker, McCourt carved out a place for himself; in the saloons, as the first celebrity bartender; on stage, performing the works of James Joyce and Brendan Behan; 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 thought. From the notorious Tombs prison in NYC, to poolside arrest in Beverly Hills; in the company of gold smugglers in Zurich and whores in Calcutta; from Paris to Rome, and to Limerick once more, McCourt kept running until he had no choice but to stop 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 his story with passion, wit, irreverence, and charm. Book jacket.