Product Description

Maya Angelou's six volumes of autobiography are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a Black woman she has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration. In this first volume of her six books of autobiography, Maya Angelou beautifully evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American south of the 1930s. She learns the power of the white folks at the other end of town and suffers the terrible trauma of rape by her mother's lover. 'I write about being a Black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it's like to be a human being. This is how we are, what makes us laugh, and this is how we fall and how we somehow, amazingly, stand up again' Maya Angelou

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5105 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
'I know that not since the days of my childhood, when people in books were more real than the people one saw every day, have I found myself more moved' James Baldwin

The first of five volumes of autobiography describing Angelou's often traumatic life is written with the pen of a poet who never loses her courage, resilience and optimism. Her story opens with her brilliantly evoked childhood in the American South of the 1930s, and the birth of her son shortly after graduating from High School. She goes on to describe her years in the slums of San Francisco, the lucky break which led to her transformation into a successful singer and dancer, her moves into writing and politics, and the relationship with her son Guy. (Kirkus UK)

Maya Angelou is a natural writer with an inordinate sense of life and she has written an exceptional autobiographical narrative which retrieves her first sixteen years from "the general darkness just beyond the great blinkers of childhood." Her story is told in scenes, ineluctably moving scenes, from the time when she and her brother were sent by her fancy living parents to Stamps, Arkansas, and a grandmother who had the local Store. Displaced they were and "If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat." But alternating with all the pain and terror (her rape at the age of eight when in St. Louis With her mother) and humiliation (a brief spell in the kitchen of a white woman who refused to remember her name) and fear (of a lynching - and the time they buried afflicted Uncle Willie under a blanket of vegetables) as well as all the unanswered and unanswerable questions, there are affirmative memories and moments: her charming brother Bailey - her own "unshakable God"; a revival meeting in a tent; her 8th grade graduation; and at the end, when she's sixteen, the birth of a baby. Times When as she says "It seemed that the peace of a day's ending was an assurance that the covenant God made with children, Negroes and the crippled was still in effect." However charily one should apply the word, a beautiful book - an unconditionally involving memoir for our time or any time. (Kirkus Reviews)

Sunday Express
‘powerfully emotional, thought-provoking and brilliantly written’

MARIE CLAIRE
'There's currently a glut of true-life stories written by
survivors of abuse, but this inspirational 1969 book is one of the first -
and the best ... [it] is testament to the immense strength of this
extraordinary woman'

Customer Reviews

Good & beautifully written but in some ways Maya's not a role model
Loved reading this book - very poetic & completely devoid of self-pity despite Maya's obviously deprived background & her having been the victim of extensive racial prejudice.

My only issue with it is how Maya who seems to be an extremely intelligent woman, doesn't ask herself whether it is a good thing that she had a baby resulting from an apparent one-night stand @ 16 - it seems that casual sex was almost expected & her Mum almost wanted her to be sleeping with strangers. She does seem to have come from the type of background placing her at risk of teenage pregnancy but maybe should have put a 'health warning' on young readers warning them not to indulge in risky sexual behaviours as getting pregnant at 16 is (despite what Maya seems to think) hardly something to be proud of.

Honest, explicit and a fearless pen
I learnt alot about American history and life in various cities in the US. This book is the autobiography of one of the most powerful women in America who lives, works and rose against the odds. This book must be deposited in every library around the world that women may read, learn and understand that life and its beauty in is doing different things under different and difficult circumstances which sometimes are cruel, nasty or not understandable to our way of life.

"... his teeth fell, no actually his teeth jumped, out of his mouth. ... grinning uppers and lowers lay by my right shoe, looking empty and ... contain all the emptiness in the world ... Sister Monroe was struggling with his coat, and men had to all but picked her up to remove her from the building ... 'Naked I came into this world, and naked I shall go out.' (pages 47) - made me laugh so much.

I also cried during the read on the fears of running a small family shop. I know those fears well. I felt those fears and I waited for those fears every day then.

The book is dedicated to all the Strong Black Birds of promise but reading it is an asset to any Bird who wants life to be one of promise and hope. What I take away most from this read is not to be ashamed of writing my truth. This reading gave me enough reasons why I should celebrate womanhood. The reading ended only after I felt and realised Freedom of the Press in the United States of America.

A book to keep and re-read
I originally studied this book at A-level; I love it and have read it three times more since finishing the course. This book will definitely have a permanent position on my book shelf.