This memoir by Frank McCourt’s younger brother is the literary equivalent of sharing a Guinness or ten with a loquacious, life-loving Irishman. Actor, bar owner, smuggler, raconteur—McCourt wears many hats. After escaping the grinding poverty of Limerick as a child, he comes of age in 1950s New York and lives life at full speed, becoming the man everyone wants to drink with, a regular guest on The Tonight Show, a terrible husband and father. He’s a big name dropper and (one suspects) embellisher of tales. At times the storytelling inches toward bloviation, but there’s always a chuckle or an outright belly laugh to keep you reading to the end. The book is a whole lot of fun.