I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Short Thoughts: Angelou is a beautiful writer, but that beautiful writing is made better by her reading it. The words are lyrical and she knows how they were intended to be read. So listening to her voice read her words which tells her story seems to me to be the best option. I will eventually get to the autobiographies that she doesn't read and have to read them without her voice, but I will read the six and seventh, which have audio before I read the middle ones which do not.

This is story based, not chronological history. As I was glancing around, I saw that some called this autobiographical fiction. But that seems to be wrong to me although I have not read enough to be definite about that. I have read Madeline L'Engle and Sarah Arthur's biography of L'Engle which talks about L'Engle's shaping of her story. And that model seems to me likely true here too. Angelou is shaping her story for a purpose. Not to misrepresent her story, but to find meaning and truth in the story.

This is not a rated G autobiography of a childhood (it ends at age 17). Rape, pregnancy, abuse, homelessness and tragedy are all here, as well as much joy. Because a child is the subject, does not mean that it is a ‘children's book'.


My longer thoughts are on my blog at http://bookwi.se/i-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings/