There Is an Isle was not, however, written in response to Angela's Ashes . The book was an existing manuscript that suddenly became marketable when McCourt's book took off. Against McCourt's artful bleakness, O'Flynn's rampant cheer can seem preachy and implausible. For an audience offended by McCourt, though, the book stands as a corrective. It may seem wishful to a neutral observer, but it raises the suspicion that McCourt is being wishful, too.
People can take it or leave it.
Sister Helen Prejean, the nun who counseled Robert Willie in prison, wrote Dead Man Walking and was played by Susan Sarandon in the movie directed by Tim Robbins. The fame of Willie's case is an essential part of Morris's experience as a crime victim, and what could have been a self-centered story is broadened and complicated by its account of what happens when someone's life becomes public property. If her past had been left alone, Morris likely never would have written her story at all. After they talked, Prejean invited her to take part in a Frontline documentary about the cases involved in Dead Man Walking . I'd been thinking more along the lines of volunteering at a rape crisis center or something like that.