I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou is a book I have had for awhile but never actually sat down to read. While I was in bed last week I pulled it out because my husband and I are doing a 2016 Reading Challenge and "autobiography" is one of the categories. I did not know much about Maya before I began the book, other than having read some of her more popular poetry, so it was exciting to get to know her more through her first autobiography.

The book really took me out of my element and into a world I am not familiar with. I could not relate to much of what she went through, but what I loved was that Maya's writing made me still care about what she was going through. My heart broke when she described her sexual assault at a young age. I was elated when she got the job as a trolley conductor in San Francisco. And at the very end as she describes sleeping with her newborn son and having him cuddled up against her I melted. The most striking thing about this whole book is that Maya is, essentially, alone. So there is not really anyone else to root for and those people who are around are not the most likeable people, aside from maybe her brother.

Maya Angelou looks at her life and describes it in such a way it is difficult to believe you are reading a book about the person it is written by. For her to be able to really look at elements of her life in a social, as well as personal, context and relate them back to racism and sexism and ageism was profound. This book felt like not only a reflection on Maya Angelou's early life, but also an examination of the life of someone living in a world full of oppression. Most of all, this book is a lesson and a gift. I hope to soon continue reading through Maya Angelou's autobiographies.