A review by lindsayb
Gather Together in My Name by Maya Angelou

4.0

I have to admit, this was a strange read for me. There was something more perfunctory about this book than Caged Bird...it mostly just careened from one episode to the next with little time for reflection. At times it had the most cringe-worthy moments. She was rather viciously homophobic when she exploited her lesbian friends, though she attributed it to wanting revenge (for something fairly innocuous), and I was worried I'd reach the end of the book before she realized how terrible L.D. was. But then I realized I'd found its beauty. This installment of her autobiographical series is uncomfortable...exactly as uncomfortable as it is to remember myself at her age. So naive and stubborn in thinking we know it all. Angelou is a better person than I because she had the courage to write it without letting hindsight soften the foolhardiness. And it being so episodic requires the reader to spend more time reading between the lines and not just rely upon an interpretation from Angelou. She is, indeed, a phenomenal woman.