A Song Flung Up to Heaven - Hardcover

Angelou, Maya

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0753198347 ISBN 13: 9780753198346

Publisher: ISIS Large Print Books, 2003

Synopsis

In a sixth stunning memoir, the acclaimed author and poet describes her return from Africa to the U.S., her work with the civil rights movement, her devastation over the assassinations of both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and the feelings of isolation that followed, and the writing of her first autobiographical work, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. (Biography)

About this title

Review:

It's been a long time coming, but A Song Flung Up To Heaven triumphantly completes the six volumes of autobiography that began nearly 30 years ago with Maya Angelou's astonishingly successful I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings- a work that changed readers' perceptions of what autobiographical writing could achieve. That book sold over half a million copies in its Virago edition alone, and Angelou enthusiasts will relish this sixth volume, even though its pleasures are more subtle than its predecessors.

The impact of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (which evoked the author's adolescence and sexual abuse in Arkansas) was unprecedented. It combined frankness and emotional force with a nuanced, poetic style--a style that Angelou has perhaps found more elusive recently. But it's here again, as affecting as ever.

The new book deals with the years 1964-68, a turbulent period in which Angelou came back to America after her African sojourn. This, of course, was the time of the murders of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King; Angelou was on the point of working with the latter in the civil rights movement. As always, her voice is fresh and exhilarating as she deals with the tragedies and triumphs of a packed life, and there are some set-piece moments, such as her account of a misguided revenge she took on an ex-lover.

Many women have become celebrated as writers and poets, but Angelou has also enjoyed a distinguished career as a civil rights activist, producer, performer, actress and filmmaker. With all of this under her belt, she can be forgiven the note of self-congratulation that creeps in at times. But for those who've followed her unique writing, this is a journey into a fascinating life and a riveting picture of divided America, always informed with that clear vision Angelou is famous for. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

Praise for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
"I know that not since the days of my childhood, when people in
books were more real than the people one saw every day,
have I found myself so moved."
--James Baldwin
Gather Together in My Name
"Gather Together in My Name is part of a select body of literature that includes The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Claude Brown's
Manchild in the Promised Land and Ernest J. Gaines'
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Maya Angelou
regards the world and herself with intelligence and wit; she records the events of her life with style and grace."
--William McPherson, The Washington Post Book World
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
"This is a superb account by a great woman who has embraced a
difficult destiny with rare intelligence and
infectious joie de vivre."
-- The Boston Globe

"From the Hardcover edition."

Praise for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
"I know that not since the days of my childhood, when people in
books were more real than the people one saw every day,
have I found myself so moved."
--James Baldwin
Gather Together in My Name
"Gather Together in My Name is part of a select body of literature that includes The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Claude Brown's
Manchild in the Promised Land and Ernest J. Gaines'
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Maya Angelou
regards the world and herself with intelligence and wit; she records the events of her life with style and grace."
--William McPherson, The Washington Post Book World
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
"This is a superb account by a great woman who has embraced a
difficult destiny with rare intelligence and
infectious joie de vivre."
--

Praise for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

"I know that not since the days of my childhood, when people in
books were more real than the people one saw every day,
have I found myself so moved."
--James Baldwin

Gather Together in My Name

"Gather Together in My Name is part of a select body of literature that includes The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Claude Brown's
Manchild in the Promised Land and Ernest J. Gaines'
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Maya Angelou
regards the world and herself with intelligence and wit; she records the events of her life with style and grace."
--William McPherson, The Washington Post Book World

All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes

"This is a superb account by a great woman who has embraced a
difficult destiny with rare intelligence and
infectious joie de vivre."
-- The Boston Globe
"From the Hardcover edition."

Praise for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I know that not since the days of my childhood, when people in
books were more real than the people one saw every day,
have I found myself so moved.
James Baldwin
Gather Together in My Name
Gather Together in My Name is part of a select body of literature that includes The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Claude Brown s
Manchild in the Promised Land and Ernest J. Gaines
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Maya Angelou
regards the world and herself with intelligence and wit; she records the events of her life with style and grace.
William McPherson, The Washington Post Book World
All God s Children Need Traveling Shoes
This is a superb account by a great woman who has embraced a
difficult destiny with rare intelligence and
infectious joie de vivre.
The Boston Globe

From the Hardcover edition."

Praise for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
"I know that not since the days of my childhood, when people in
books were more real than the people one saw every day,
have I found myself so moved."
--James Baldwin
Gather Together in My Name
"Gather Together in My Name is part of a select body of literature that includes The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Claude Brown's
Manchild in the Promised Land and Ernest J. Gaines'
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Maya Angelou
regards the world and herself with intelligence and wit; she records the events of her life with style and grace."
--William McPherson, The Washington Post Book World
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
"This is a superb account by a great woman who has embraced a
difficult destiny with rare intelligence and
infectious joie de vivre."
-- The Boston Globe

From the Hardcover edition.

About this edition

• Publisher: ISIS Large Print Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0753198347
• ISBN 13: 9780753198346
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 162