Barbara L.B. Storey

"Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives." This line from "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" went straight to my heart, connecting me to Maya Angelou's life and this book. I, too, understand this lack of alternatives, a truth from my own childhood. This book was every bit as poetic as I expected it to be, coming from Angelou, as she weaves her adult voice and vocabulary and understanding through childhood experiences, trying to understand and explain. I also identified with her sense of being unattractive, awkward, but possessed of a strongly creative mind that somehow managed to retain a certain amount of naivety even in the midst of trauma.

What an interesting life, too, within the prejudice and trauma she experienced. She lived in Arkansas and St. Louis and San Francisco, went from strict religious upbringing to living next to gambling dens and learning how to play poker and other such games. She was the first Black hired to work on the San Francisco streetcars, because of her unwavering persistence; she simply wore them down until they gave her the job, realising she wasn't going to go away. She lived on the streets, sleeping in an abandoned car and becoming part of a community of homeless children when a vacation with her father in Los Angeles went badly awry. Her resilience, her determination in the midst of uncertainty, and her survival as a creative being is amazing, and brings to mind this quote: "To be left alone on the tightrope of youthful unknowing is to experience the excruciating beauty of full freedom and the threat of eternal indecision. Few, if any, survive their teens. Most surrender to the vague but murderous pressure of adult conformity."

What she endured, both the horrible and the good, is a compelling story of childhood, beautifully and brutally told. I love this book, and I look forward to reading more of Angelou's work. I didn't realise that the book would, literally, cover only her childhood - the book ends with the birth of her son, when she was seventeen. I think she has written other autobiographies, so I will have to seek those out now.

I suspect this book might also be one that can be reread at various times throughout one's life, and appreciated in different ways with each reading.