Scan barcode
A review by southernhon
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
5.0
I want to preface my review by saying that in general, I love memoirs. I guess I'm a tad voyeuristic, but I love entering the private life a person by reading the words they attach to their memories.
I picked up this book in my boss's office and thumbed through it briefly. It's one of those books that I had heard about for years, but never got around to reading.
I was taken in on the very first page and only put it down because I had to. Marguerite Johnson (Maya Angelou) and her brother, Bailey, are put on a train from California to Arkansas due to their parents' divorce. They are sent to live with their very religious, stern grandmother and a disabled uncle. The author's colorful and poetic language describes their life in the rural segregated South in a way that never criticizes or demands pity.
The reader is taken on several journeys with Marguerite and her brother, once to visit their mother in St. Louis (and back again to Arkansas) and eventually to California to live with their father.
Marguerite's intelligence and naivete are shown as contrasting elements to her personality. She is also characterized as "tender-hearted" by her grandmother. I viewed her many thoughts and feelings about life as a Southern African American female as very insightful and sometimes depressing, but never self-pitying. She cared very deeply about the plight of African Americans and their ability to make academic and social contributions to society.
It is obvious to anyone who has read Angelou's many literary works that she was able to do just that.
I picked up this book in my boss's office and thumbed through it briefly. It's one of those books that I had heard about for years, but never got around to reading.
I was taken in on the very first page and only put it down because I had to. Marguerite Johnson (Maya Angelou) and her brother, Bailey, are put on a train from California to Arkansas due to their parents' divorce. They are sent to live with their very religious, stern grandmother and a disabled uncle. The author's colorful and poetic language describes their life in the rural segregated South in a way that never criticizes or demands pity.
The reader is taken on several journeys with Marguerite and her brother, once to visit their mother in St. Louis (and back again to Arkansas) and eventually to California to live with their father.
Marguerite's intelligence and naivete are shown as contrasting elements to her personality. She is also characterized as "tender-hearted" by her grandmother. I viewed her many thoughts and feelings about life as a Southern African American female as very insightful and sometimes depressing, but never self-pitying. She cared very deeply about the plight of African Americans and their ability to make academic and social contributions to society.
It is obvious to anyone who has read Angelou's many literary works that she was able to do just that.