Hello my lovely readers! This was another re-read for me. I've been unintentionally re-reading a lot of books from my youth and a lot of them still hold up!
This book was no different. I first read this when I was 16 and spending the summer with my grandparents in Florida. Ah, the memories. This was such a beautifully written memoir and I'm so thankful to have read it again as a grown woman.
SYNOPSIS
Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is the beginning in a string of autobiographies about her life.
Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right.
Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and racial prejudice. At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime.
Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and racial prejudice. At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime.
Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.
MY THOUGHTS
Honestly, there's not much that I can say about this book that would even do it justice.
It's a tragic yet beautiful coming of age story of a Black girl in the South. It was exactly what I needed as a Black teenager living in Florida with her grandmother and grandfather who was suffering from Alzheimer's.
I saw a lot of myself in this memoir. Maya's assault deeply resonated with me as I was around the same age when I was assaulted myself. I didn't go through a period of silence like Maya did, but I wore a mask to cover how I was feeling inside to protect myself and the person that did this to me.
Maya dealt with the outward instances of racism and racial prejudice growing up in the South. I dealt with the passive aggressive tendencies of White people in the Midwest, though they may not seem the same, reading her book showed me essentially all White people act the same when it comes to Black folk...no matter how "evolved" they appear.
I gained more appreciation of this book re-reading it as a 34-year-old Black woman. For a long time, I always yearned for a coming-of-age book for a Black girl. I just didn't realize that I'd had it all along with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
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