Our discussion of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Last night, we met to discuss I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.   Here are some of the highlights from that discussion:

• Two people started off by saying that once they picked up the book, they found it hard to put down.   They found the book very readable, which some other readers said, as well.
• However, not everyone enjoyed the book.   One reader said that she just didn't relate to the author, and didn't like her "voice" in the book.   She prefers when a memoir is more like storytelling, and for her, this book seemed pretty choppy, and the author didn't always seem present throughout.
• Another reader agreed that the book was a page-turner, but found that she doubted some of the author's stories.   For example, she found it very difficult to believe that Maya had spent a month in a junkyard living with other kids because this was during World War II, when scrap metal was precious.   For this reader, it was hard to believe there would be a junkyard full of old cars just sitting around.   She also found it very difficult to believe that Maya's father wouldn't have noticed that she had ran away, or that he didn't at least call her mother.    This led to some general discussion about Maya's father, and some of his behavior.
• We then had some general discussion about Maya's family, including her grandmother, mother and father.   We also talked about her brother, Bailey, and their relationship.   One reader said she really liked how close Maya was to her brother, and that she likes reading about good sibling relationships.
• One person mentioned that when reading this book, he was struck by how he had never read an account of growing up Black during this time period.  He found the book interesting, although he had the same reaction as another reader, where it felt like the author wasn't constantly engaged throughout the entire book.
• We had some general discussion about autobiographies, and how they are different from biographies in that it's the author's recollections of events.   One reader mentioned the graduation ceremony where the one school official spoke about all of the advancements at the White school.   She said she wondered if this is what he really said, or if this is what the author heard.  We talked about how people's memories can color things, and how they might remember things differently, looking back at them.   One reader said that she prefers autobiographies over biographies because they tend to be more interesting and engaging, and that in this book, it's an example of how someone focuses on the people and events that were important to her.   Another reader said that this book is really the history of the author's experience (and not meant to be an accurate history of events).
• We also had some general discussion of one of the hardest parts in the book for most readers, which was Maya's rape.  Some readers wondered if her feelings of guilt about this were a big part of her decision to write this book, and that at the end of this book (in the last sentence), it seems she has found some resolution.   We also talked about how the author wrote about this rape, and how she expressed what had happened.
• There were some readers who had read the author's other autobiographies, so there was some discussion about what happens in her life after this book (since it's a somewhat abrupt ending).   For one reader, while this really wasn't his kind of book, he did say that he might try one of the author's later autobiographies.

These are just some of the highlights from our discussion.    We found that we had a lot to talk about, not only about the author's own experiences, but about the culture in America during the time period covered in this book.    We do welcome more discussion, so if you have read this book, please feel free to leave a comment!