Happy November, blog! November is the one-year anniversary of my first novel, The Girl with the Empty Suitcase.
I can't believe it's been a year already!
For the first book review of the month, I am looking at Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."
I started reading this book for "Banned Books Week" at the end of September this year, and I am ashamed to say that was the first time I'd read it. It was always on my TBR pile; never in my hands.
Finally, I read it.
And I loved it.
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
This book chronicles Angelou's childhood and youth, when she and her brother were sent to live with their traditional, devout grandmother in a small southern town. There they face not only their own family and childhood dramas, but also the constant reality of prejudice.
She returns to her mother, where, as a young girl, she is attacked by a man many times her own age. The consequences and confusion of this assault last her a lifetime, and are poignant, but very hard, to read.
“Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.”
Back to the south, then back to her mother. Angelou "discovers" herself and tries to find her place in the world. Ideas of family and self and race are all interwoven as she grasps to her love of literature, grapples with her social situations, and time and again faces consequences and triumphs and hardships.
There are a few books that everyone really, really should read. This is one of them. Angelou's voice is not preachy; it is sincere. She talks about her childhood rape, her living in a car, her strict grandmother, her first crush, her brother, her endeavoring to get a job as the first black streetcar attendant, all with the same poignancy and poetry.
“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.”
This story is beautiful. It is heartbreaking.
It's something everyone should read.
Have you read anything by Maya Angelou? What do you think of reading frequently banned books? Any to recommend me? I'd love to read your thoughts, below, or feel free to contact me via my website. And while you're there don't forget to subscribe to my monthly newsletter (that comes out the first Tuesday of every month), or check out my upcoming events, where I will be selling The Girl with the Empty Suitcase. Stop by and chat about books, or pick up a great Christmas gift!