I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou’s autobiography was written really well. It didn’t feel like I was reading an autobiography at all, more like a fiction novel because it was so enjoyable to follow even though it covers some very important and slightly graphic topics. This book addresses issue of molestation, rape and racism and it does this through the trials of Maya growing up. It does talk about these issue in quite a direct way, but it’s not so graphic where it would be uncomfortable to read. However, even if uncomfortable, this book would be very educative for everyone and mostly adolescents. This book, I’m sure, isn’t intended to be a form of education. It’s an autobiography of Mayas life, what she went through as a child, which we could use as a form of learning. You need to however bear in mind that not everyone will find this book enjoyable. It’s not fiction, it’s real life. I enjoyed Mayas writing and learning about her life was an added learning bonus, that I find is very vital. I work with adolescents and I could easily take this into my work to make them more aware of these issues. Maya (aged 3) was sent to her grandmother, along with her brother Bailey (aged 4) to Stamps, Arkansas. From Reading I found that Maya’s grandmother was a privileged Black person, as privileged as any Black person could be. However, her grandmother had a very strict and old-fashioned way of living. Maya was well educated and so was her brother. They went to good schools and was top of their classes. Maya hardly knew her parents, and honestly I found them to be quite irresponsible. At age 8, Mayas father turned up to take her and Bailey to their Mothers, where they will be staying along with her Mothers lover. As the synopsis states, Maya was soon raped by her Mothers lover, however Maya seemed to not understand this at first. Who would at the age of 8. It was quite uncomfortable for me to read, I don’t regret it though. ‘He said, “Just stay right here, Ritie, I ain’t gonna hurt you.” I wasn’t afraid, a little apprehensive, maybe, but not afraid. Of course I knew that lots of people did ‘it’ and that they used their ‘things’ to accomplish the deed, but no one I knew had ever done it to anybody. Mr. Freeman pulled me to him, and put his hand between my legs.’ He done it again after that. I was furious with the situation, still am, as anyone would be. You know considering how privileged her grandmother is in Stamps and how she selflessly helps out the White people, she is still under appreciated as a Black person. No matter how much she would help a white person, the colour of her skin alway set her apart. Like a situation where Maya had a toothache and the only dentist she could be taken to was the White one in Stamps. The White dentist said; ‘I’d rather stick my hand in a dog’s mouth than in a n*****’s.’ Mayas badass Momma took care of him though, an rightly so. I would love a grandmother like her. I would highly recommend this book, an so would Barack Obama, President Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey. So there is no excuse. Phenomenal writing and a vital learning experience

Rating: 4 stars Category: Memoir Synopsis: ‘Memoir’ seems far too simple a word to describe I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Maya Angelou, a writer and civil rights activist (among numerous other careers) recounts her childhood experiences growing up first with her grandmother in the poor, isolated small-town Stamps and later with her mother in the lively glamour of San Francisco. However, she also relates these experiences into much wider issues from oppression to women’s sexuality. Someone asked me what the book is about and I found it so hard to summarise – it is a kaleidoscope of social exploration, perception, complex relationships, powerful moments and wisdom. Review: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was my first experience of reading a memoir and I had my doubts… after all, don’t we read fiction to escape from real life? However, I was immediately engrossed by the combination of Maya Angelou’s compelling voice and the incredible variety and depth of her experiences. Her story comes close to covering the entire spectrum of human emotion; it leads readers through the horrifying, funny then achingly sad in a relatively short space of time. Its almost lyrical style means the memoir reads almost like fiction and I had to keep reminding myself of its reality. In fact, Maya Angelou is credited with redefining the boundaries of autobiography, intending to ‘write an autobiography as literature.’ There is a thoughtful beauty in her writing, with so many words of wisdom that I had dozens of highlights on my Kindle and found it very difficult to pick just one favourite quote! However, I think the true poignancy of this memoir lies as much in the words she does not use. "she would not sit beside a draft dodger who was a Negro as well. She added that the least he could do was fight for his country the way her son was fighting on Iwo Jima. The story said that the man pulled his body away from the window to show an armless sleeve. He said quietly and with great dignity, “Then ask your son to look around for my arm, which I left over there." It is understood that powerful moments such as this need no further commentary. Instead, they are allowed to speak for themselves. Also, the approach taken to portraying the complex relationships in the book is very much one of interwoven moments rather than a monologue. No attempt is made to simplify or explain these relationships; to do so would be to reduce them, and detract from the way in which the memoir explores the true nature of human connections. I was particularly fascinated by Maya’s relationship with her mother and grandmother, as well as the influence these two starkly different women had on her life. Something about the book, other than its genre, felt strange and different when I first started reading it. It took me a while to put my finger on it, but then I realised that I have not read a book from a child’s perspective for a very long time (since Room by Emma Donoghue). I always enjoy the immediacy of reading from children’s viewpoints, so focused on present experience, but I found young Maya’s unique, intensely observant view of the world especially captivating. However, I also relished watching her child’s perspective mature throughout the book as she ages. With the progress of the story, Maya begins to challenge, as well as observe, the nature of our world. I felt privileged to read about the experiences of such an extraordinary woman, who has had a truly extraordinary life. Favourite quote: “See, you don’t have to think about doing the right thing. If you’re for the right thing, then you do it without thinking.”

Brilliant and funny and sad! Brilliant

A wonderful, enlightening book. It's beautifully and sensitively written, yet painfully honest. I had a bit of knowledge of Maya Angelou before reading this, so didn't expect any humorous passages, but some parts of he story made me laugh, (especially some of the church scenes!) She recounts her sometimes brutal childhood years in the 'deep south' with her intensely devout Grandmother and the experience of the black community in the 1930s: still feeling the 'superiority' of the white people. Maya comes over as a brave and sometimes foolhardy child, who creates her own adventures, sometimes out of adversity. The incident when her Dad takes her to a bar and what follows is again, tragic, yet funny too! Then she was determined to get a job in a field where black people had never been employed. I was in awe of this young woman! She has a close and mutually supportive relationship with her brother, Bailey which is lovely to read about, but, ultimately, her need to be loved in her early years, and her lack of 'sex education' in her later years lead to far-reaching consequences for her and her family. I have ordered the second volume of her autobiography, (Gather together in my name), already!

The book arrived with a rip on its cover

Letter to My Daughter is also autobiographical and spans lessons from her whole life that she wants to pass along to everyone who is willing to learn. She writes: I gave birth to one child, a son, but I have thousands of daughters. You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish-speaking, Native American and Aleut. You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all. Here is my offering to you. And it is just that — an offering. Maya offers a collection of 28 stories from her life and what she has learned from some of them, although she writes that she "[has not] told how I have used the solutions, knowing that you are intelligent and creative and resourceful and you will use them as you see fit." She has found that the greatest virtue is courage. The stories seem to be told chronologically and detail stories of love, some of embarrassment, and some of terrifying danger that kept me turning the pages until the very end. She tells of growing up with her grandmother in segregated Arkansas and the difference between growing up and growing old. She writes of a young sexual encounter that left her cold and pregnant, and how her mother and step-father took it in stride without so much as a reprimand. There is a humorous account of Maya attending a glamorous party in Senegal at the home of the famous actress, Samia, where she mistook the reason guests were not walking on a very expensive carpet. Thinking to set an example, she walked on it despite glances askance from others. A little later, servants came in, rolled up the carpet and replaced it with another equally beautiful one, after which they placed dishes of food on it. Then, the hostess invited everyone to sit on the carpet to dine on dishes prepared in honour of her special guest, Maya Angelou. The most shocking story was about a beau Maya had named Two Finger Mark, so called because of a factory accident which caused him to lose three fingers and destroyed his dream of being a prize fighter. He had never been anything other than kind and gentle with her until one evening when he drove her to a secluded spot and stripped and beat her within an inch of her life because he believed her to have two-timed him. If he hadn't driven her back to town and showed some friends her beaten body in the back seat of his car, she might have died. They recognized her, told a friend of her mother's, who, with some contacts, tracked her down and rescued her. She believed it to be an answer to prayer. Included is a commencement address she gave, some of her poetry, and an incident in an southern airport café where she thought she and her friend were being discriminated against, only to find that the cook was out of grits and half of the people in the restaurant hadn't received their breakfast. You will laugh and cry and be left wanting more. Maya Angelou lived an amazing life to the full and has left an incredible legacy through her writing.

I loved Maya Angelou's narration of her early years, the joys and struggles of childhood, and how she put the situation of Black lives in perspective. Highly recommended.

So easy to read and so fascinating. Highly recommended book for anyone who has heard about Maya and her genius.

Es un libro magnífico, te atrapa desde el inicio, las anécdotas son tan atractivas y narradas con una elegancia que te hacen querer saber más. Sin duda compraré los siguientes libros autobiográficos de Maya Angelou.