I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Before reading this book, I regularly came across Maya Angelou's quotes, and her words often resonated with me. “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud,” “Nothing will work unless you do,” and “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you” are my favourites. So I was glad when an opportunity presented itself to read the first of her autobiographical books, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” Despite the disturbing topics the author touches upon while sharing her memories of her childhood and younger years, surprisingly, it turned out to be a gentle book. While reading, I felt like I saw Maya Angelou smile, her eyes crinkling at the corners. The healthy dose of humour, which she used to describe the bad things that happened to her, shows, in my opinion, acceptance, something that exists on the other side of hate directed not only at one’s offenders but at all humanity. I admire it. I also felt, though, that the author did not share everything, skipping and blurring some details, mostly about her family. It didn’t affect the enjoyment from reading, as it sometimes does when an author tries to hide something in order to make themselves appear better than their actions or thoughts would have led readers to believe. With Maya Angelou, the reason for evasiveness was different. At least, that’s my impression. I completely understand her wish to shield, for example, her mother from public scrutiny and condemnation. The part that I particularly enjoyed is where the author shares her memories of the time she and her brother spent living with their grandmother in a small town in the South. Although she had written the book when she was an adult, she managed to convey her memories through the lens of a little girl. And it was fascinating to learn about life in the US in the 30s-40s as a black girl saw and felt it. At that age, we don’t judge, we watch. We draw conclusions according to our still pure system of values, not yet fiddled with by society, mass media, and politicians. When Maya Angelou described the scene where white girls demonstrated disrespect to her grandmother, she told us about what she was thinking and how she was feeling at that moment, rather than what we should think and feel. That is what I loved most about this book. I was offered the facts, not necessarily objective ones, but such as the author perceived them. And I was given the freedom to ponder and decide. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou is a wonderful book, and I highly recommend it.

Angelou is highly regarded and for good reason. This book is on the level of classics like To Kill a Mockingbird, and My Bondage and My Freedom. It’s a beautiful story, and also has an introduction by Oprah Winfrey, which is a lovely edition to read. It’s a book that gives me personally a little bit of hope in life, every time I read it.

Maya Angelou wrote her life story so nonchalantly. I love that because that’s how life should be. We survive much better when we live through our traumas and healings in a casual calm, and relaxed manner. No need for anxiety, interest or enthusiasm. Bad things can happen. Good things can happen. Stay on your course what ever that may be. That one lesson, though there are many more, is worth five stars from this reader.

Here's my review on one of the three books that I've read by Maya Angelou: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings: Smiling Through Sadness Maya Angelou’s first memoir, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, captures the sweetest, purest, and the most honest inner voice of a black child who grew up to be a heroine. Dr. Angelou does not censor anything; She wants us to know it all. It is so true, straightforward, and uncensored that many white parents have attempted to ban this book from schools. This memorable and mysterious autobiography - originally published in 1969 - was followed by another masterpiece entitled: Gather Together In My Name. Both books are available in audio format recorded by Random House Audio. It is amazing that we can hear Dr. Angelou reading her own books to us just like a grandmother putting us to sleep with her adventurous bed-time stories. Dr. Maya Angelou, who has been honored and awarded numerous times, is a pure soul writing about the evil world of the racist America keeping a matching voice on each chapter of her life. When she is writing about her experiences as a five-year-old, you hear a five-year-old talking to you. Being one of the most recognized public figures and a civil rights movement’s heroine, Maya Angelou, gives us a poetic journey of how a poor disadvantaged black girl was rejected by everyone including her own mother, raped by her mother’s boyfriend, and had to witness his crippled uncle hiding under a pile of onions and potatoes to be protected from racist white beasts on a regular basis. The good news is that the story of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings does not end here. This bird sings her heart out until the cage breaks and she becomes our national treasure. This powerful modern American classis has changed many readers’ (and listeners’) hearts and minds in a way that every great work of literature should. This book became the best-seller immediately after it was published. What added to my personal itch to read this book when I was first introduced to it was the fact that Dr. Angelou has described William Shakespeare as one of her strongest influence on her life and works. Shakespeare is my all-time favorite “pennist.” Buy it, read it, keep it, reread it, highlight it, talk about it, advertise it, buy more of it and give it out as a gift, learn from it, and apply what you’ve learned from it in your daily life. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is coming from a heart and soul of someone who had to witness the unnecessary, harsh, and brutal insults that no ordinary human being can bear. Maya Angelou writes the story of a human who was pushed to her limits by the ugliness of this world and while being in a saddest cage, sang the happiest song. Once precious Maya Angelou told her younger generation that seem to be unable to cope with the racism in the past and present: “You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure. So use that anger. You write it. You paint it. You dance it. You march it. You vote it. You do everything about it. You talk it. Never stop talking it.”

Excellent book, great literary work

This is a very compelling insight into racial bigotry in 1930s U.S. I thought I had some understanding of what it must have felt like to be black in the "Jim Crow" era, even though I grew up on the other side of the racial divide. But this book really gave me a compelling new insight. Maya Angelou, sent, with her older brother Bailey, to be raised by her paternal grandmother (called "Momma") in Stamps, Ark., described graphically what it was like. In compelling prose, often bordering on poetry, she described her feelings, sensations, and fantasies in the oppressive apartheid environment. She describes how she was so segregated from the white population that she was not sure there really were white people. The most compelling description was when she needed emergency dental treatment. Stamps had only a single white dentist. Maya was in unbearable pain. Finally, "Momma" decided to defy the system and ask the white dentist to treat her granddaughter. "Momma" thought it might work because she had loaned money, interest-free to the dentist when he was on the verge of bankruptcy. Maya and "Momma" were forced to wait outside the back entrance to the dentist's office for a long time before he would emerge to talk to them. He was adamant--no matter what "Momma" had done to help him, and no matter how much pain the little girl was experiencing, he would not treat her. "I would rather put my hands in a dog's mouth than a niggah's." "Momma" then instructed Maya to wait outside while she went inside. The book describes Maya's fantasy of how her grandmother was confronting the bigot and putting him in his place. In fact, "Momma" extracted bus fare from the dentist as compensation for the earlier loan that had saved his practice. Then grandmother and Maya took the bus to the nearest African-American dentist in Texarkana. This autobiography takes us through Ms. Angelou's high school graduation. It was a remarkable experience as she and Bailey moved from Stamps, to St. Louis, back to Stamps, then to San Francisco, as they were raised first by paternal grandmother, then by mother and maternal grandmother, then back to paternal grandmother, then back to mother (with an intervening visit by Maya to father in Los Angeles). She goes through many of the trials and tribulations of adolescents and teenagers, but all through the lens of depression era racial bigotry and a splintered family. This is one of the most compelling books I have read a long time. I could not put it down.

Beautiful story - and hard to read sometimes because it can be triggering for victims of sexual assault. I didn’t know what to expect as all I’d ever read of Maya Angelou was her poetry. I was remiss in not reading her work sooner. She is an amazing storyteller (explains why she was Poet Laureate). I highly recommend this for anyone looking to give the one finger salute to the people banning books…and especially for those who just enjoy a good read.

This book is worth reading on a lot of levels. First, her use of language describing her insights and observations is profound and beautiful. Example 1: "Then the wife who had been so charming and ready to smile changed into a silent shadow that played infrequently along the walls." Example 2: "The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance." Example 3: "The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education." Example 4: "He was a simple man who had no inferiority complex about his lack of education and, even more amazing, no superiority complex because he had succeeded despite that lack." Second. The stories she tells give a flavor of living in that place and time, as well as the cultural differences. For example she tells a story that starts with: "One afternoon, I was invited into our smoke-filled dining room to make the acquaintance of Stonewall Jimmy, Just Black, Cool Clyde, Tight Coat, and Red Leg. Daddy Cidell explained to me that they were the most successful con men in the world, and they were going to tell me about some games so that I would never be 'anybody's mark.'" Third. She gives specific examples of how the Black culture differed form the White, specifically the educated Black youth. Example: "We were alert to the gap separating the written word from the colloquial. We learned to slide out of one language and into another without being conscious of the effort. At school, in a given situation, we might respond with 'That's not unusual.' But in the street, meeting the same situation, we easily said, 'It be's like that sometimes.'" Fourth. She depicts the good, the bad and the ugly, not only in herself and her family but also in the Black and White culture. She does not gloss over her fears and failures. She does this not in a judgmental, mean or racist way, but almost as a non involved bystander would, or a journalist trying to be fair. There is much wisdom in this book and I hope my review will encourage you to read it.

The book arrived with a rip on its cover

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.

El libro es maravilloso y devastador al mismo tiempo. Fácil de leer y difícil de no enganchar, de no sentir impotencia, y frustración y cariño. Lectura obligada para entender un poco de lo que significa ser una minoría.

Todo perfecto. Muchas gracias!