Mass Market Paperback, 246 pages
English language
Published Nov. 5, 1993 by Bantam Books.
She was born Marguerite, but her brother Bailey nicknamed her Maya ("mine"). As little children they were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Their early world revolved around this remarkable woman and the Store she ran for the black community. White people were more than strangers - they were from another planet. And yet, even unseen they ruled.
The Store was a microcosm of life: its orderly pattern was a comfort, even among the meanest frustrations. But then came the intruders - first in the form of taunting poorwhite children who were bested only by the grandmother's dignity. But as the awful, unfathomable mystery of prejudice intruded, so did the unexpected joy of a surprise visit by Daddy, the sinful joy of going to Church, the disappointments of a Depression Christmas.
A visit to St. Louis and the Most Beautiful Mother in the World ended in tragedy …
She was born Marguerite, but her brother Bailey nicknamed her Maya ("mine"). As little children they were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Their early world revolved around this remarkable woman and the Store she ran for the black community. White people were more than strangers - they were from another planet. And yet, even unseen they ruled.
The Store was a microcosm of life: its orderly pattern was a comfort, even among the meanest frustrations. But then came the intruders - first in the form of taunting poorwhite children who were bested only by the grandmother's dignity. But as the awful, unfathomable mystery of prejudice intruded, so did the unexpected joy of a surprise visit by Daddy, the sinful joy of going to Church, the disappointments of a Depression Christmas.
A visit to St. Louis and the Most Beautiful Mother in the World ended in tragedy - rape. Thereafter Maya refused to speak, except to the person closest to her, Bailey. Eventually, Maya and Bailey followed their mother to California. There, the formative phase of her life (as well as this book) comes to a close with the painful discovery of the true nature of her father, the emergence of a hard-won independence and - perhaps most important - a baby, born out of wedlock, loved and kept.
Superbly told, with the poet's gift for language and observation, and charged with the unforgetable emotion of remembered anguish and love - this remarkable autobiography by an equally remarkable black girl from Arkansas captures, indelibly, a world of which most Americans are shamefully ignorant.
autobiography of her childhood growing up poor in America in the 1930s and 40s.
Audiobook (read by her!) added to the experience (its on libby, maybe free via your LPL).
Not an easy read at times - traumatic experiences - but, wow, what a story shared by a master storyteller.
Maya Angelou is an incredibly talented writer with a gut wrenching story that provides invaluable insight into modern American history. By far the best book I read this year.
"Era horrível ser negra e não ter controle sobre a minha vida. Era brutal ser jovem e já estar treinada para ficar sentada em silêncio ouvindo as acusações feitas contra a minha cor sem chance de defesa."
a obra traz uma visão nítida das relações raciais no período entreguerras e ensina como a voz pode transformar um mundo injusto.
Generally, I’m not a big fan of memoirs, and I didn’t expect much of this book. How wrong I was!
This the first part of Maya Angelou‘s autobiography. This book is about her childhood (from 6 to 16) with her grandmother in Arkansas and other places in the 1930s and 1940s. She talks about family and neighbors, friends and more adversarial characters, and her grandmother’s business as well as life in their church community. All of this takes place under the searing racism of the southern USA of that era.
What an excellent storyteller Maya Angelou is! She has a casual way of talking about occurrences - everyday events as well as remarkable ones. She looks back at her childhood full of wisdom and with insights she gained in her later life. Maya Angelou sometimes uses an almost poetic language, translating her perception of seemingly mundane situations. I marked several …
Generally, I’m not a big fan of memoirs, and I didn’t expect much of this book. How wrong I was!
This the first part of Maya Angelou‘s autobiography. This book is about her childhood (from 6 to 16) with her grandmother in Arkansas and other places in the 1930s and 1940s. She talks about family and neighbors, friends and more adversarial characters, and her grandmother’s business as well as life in their church community. All of this takes place under the searing racism of the southern USA of that era.
What an excellent storyteller Maya Angelou is! She has a casual way of talking about occurrences - everyday events as well as remarkable ones. She looks back at her childhood full of wisdom and with insights she gained in her later life. Maya Angelou sometimes uses an almost poetic language, translating her perception of seemingly mundane situations. I marked several phrases and paragraphs so I can come back to them later - timeless wisdoms that will stay with me for a long time.
It was a pleasure to follow the young Maya Angelou in this book. I learned a lot about this era of American history, as well as the places and (more importantly) the parts of society she experienced. This book is painful and heartwarming at the same time, and I happily did something I very rarely do: I give a five-star rating to this exceptional piece of literature.
Warning: This book contains scenes of violence, including rape, and describes the horrifying racism that Maya Angelou had to endure.
This remarkable memoir portrays Angelou's as a zig zag through chunks of the country. Her characters are strong, she herself is riveting, and she captures a child/teen's mind beautifully.
Angelou's approach to pervasive racism is interesting, in that she portrays it kind of like living near savages that sometimes attack and sometimes are barely visible. Racism comes across as horrific and unjust, but also as inevitable as fire and storm. It's not that she's writing a book about racism; it's a book about her life and the racism of America is simply one of many threads that run through it.
Angelou is really good at capturing all facets of life. There are moments of horror, moments of softness, and some moments that are just hilarious, like a woman being filled with a hysterical amount of Jesus.
While I occasionally felt Angelou was straining too hard for poetic metaphors, for the …
This remarkable memoir portrays Angelou's as a zig zag through chunks of the country. Her characters are strong, she herself is riveting, and she captures a child/teen's mind beautifully.
Angelou's approach to pervasive racism is interesting, in that she portrays it kind of like living near savages that sometimes attack and sometimes are barely visible. Racism comes across as horrific and unjust, but also as inevitable as fire and storm. It's not that she's writing a book about racism; it's a book about her life and the racism of America is simply one of many threads that run through it.
Angelou is really good at capturing all facets of life. There are moments of horror, moments of softness, and some moments that are just hilarious, like a woman being filled with a hysterical amount of Jesus.
While I occasionally felt Angelou was straining too hard for poetic metaphors, for the most part her writing is elegant and immediate. This is the first of 7 memoirs and I absolutely need to read the rest.
Childhood story of growing up poor, black, and female, and the utter normalcy of being excluded and outside. It's uplifting even so, I really enjoyed this.
I can't believe I hadn't read/listened to this until now. I remember she came to do a reading at my university as an undergrad, and hearing her speak was mind-blowing. I'm so glad I listened to this. Her voice was magical.
I had not read this book since the sixth grade (25 years ago), but the minute I started reading that first chapter it all came rushing back. I will never forget the image of someone bursting "like a dropped watermelon" cause they had to pee.
