NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The story of Maya Angelous extraordinary life has been chronicled in her multiple bestselling autobiographies. But now, at last, the legendary author shares the deepest personal story of her life: her relationship with her mother.
For the first time, Angelou reveals the triumphs and struggles of being the daughter of Vivian Baxter, an indomitable spirit whose petite size belied her larger-than-life presencea presence absent during much of Angelous early life. When her marriage began to crumble, Vivian famously sent three-year-old Maya and her older brother away from their California home to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. The subsequent feelings of abandonment stayed with Angelou for years, but their reunion, a decade later, began a story that has never before been told. In Mom & Me & Mom, Angelou dramatizes her years reconciling with the mother she preferred to simply call Lady, revealing the profound moments that shifted the balance of love and respect between them.
Delving into one of her lifes most rich, rewarding, and fraught relationships, Mom & Me & Mom explores the healing and love that evolved between the two women over the course of their lives, the love that fostered Maya Angelous rise from immeasurable depths to reach impossible heights.
Praise for *Mom & Me & MomMom & Me & Mom *is delivered with Angelous trademark good humor and fierce optimism. If any resentments linger between these lines, if lives are partially revealed without all the bitter details exposed, well, that is part of Angelous forgiving design. As an account of reconciliation, this little book is just revealing enough, and pretty irresistible.*The Washington Post *Moving . . . a remarkable portrait of two courageous souls.*People*
[The] latest, and most potent, of her serial autobiographies . . . [a] tough-minded, tenderhearted addition to Angelous spectacular canon.Elle
Mesmerizing . . . Angelou has a way with words that can still dazzle us, and with her mother as a subject, Angelou has a near-perfect muse and mystery woman.Essence
True to her style, [Angelous] writing cuts to the chase with compression and simplicity, and there in the background is a calypso smoothness, flurries and showers of musicality between the moments of wickedness. . . . A tightly strung, finely tuned memoir about life with her mother.Kirkus Reviews
In this loving recollection of a complicated relationship, Angelou for the first time details the mother-daughter journey to reconciliation and unwavering connection and support. . . . Angelou vividly portrays a spirited woman. . . . [A] remarkable and deeply revealing chronicle of love and healing.Booklist
Written with her customary eloquence . . . follows in the episodic style of Angelous earlier volumes of autobiography, pulling the reader along effortlessly. The lessons and the love presented here will speak to those trying to make their way in the world.Publishers Weekly
In straightforward style, Mom & Me & Mom dives deeply into Angelous complicated relationship with her mother. . . . At 84, Angelou shows few signs of slowing down.BookPage
From the Hardcover edition.
Review
Praise for *Mom & Me & MomMom & Me & Mom *is delivered with Angelous trademark good humor and fierce optimism. If any resentments linger between these lines, if lives are partially revealed without all the bitter details exposed, well, that is part of Angelous forgiving design. As an account of reconciliation, this little book is just revealing enough, and pretty irresistible.*The Washington Post *Moving . . . a remarkable portrait of two courageous souls.*People *[The] latest, and most potent, of her serial autobiographies . . . [a] tough-minded, tenderhearted addition to Angelous spectacular canon.*Elle *Mesmerizing . . . Angelou has a way with words that can still dazzle us, and with her mother as a subject, Angelou has a near-perfect muse and mystery woman.*Essence *True to her style, [Angelous] writing cuts to the chase with compression and simplicity, and there in the background is a calypso smoothness, flurries and showers of musicality between the moments of wickedness. . . . A tightly strung, finely tuned memoir about life with her mother.*Kirkus Reviews *In this loving recollection of a complicated relationship, Angelou for the first time details the mother-daughter journey to reconciliation and unwavering connection and support. . . . Angelou vividly portrays a spirited woman. . . . [A] remarkable and deeply revealing chronicle of love and healing.*Booklist *Written with her customary eloquence . . . follows in the episodic style of Angelous earlier volumes of autobiography, pulling the reader along effortlessly. The lessons and the love presented here will speak to those trying to make their way in the world.*Publishers Weekly In straightforward style, Mom & Me & Mom *dives deeply into Angelous complicated relationship with her mother. . . . At 84, Angelou shows few signs of slowing down.*BookPage*
From the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
Poet, writer, performer, teacher, and director Maya Angelou was raised in Stamps, Arkansas, and then moved to San Francisco. In addition to her groundbreaking autobiographies, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she has also written two cookbooks, five poetry collections, including I Shall Not Be Moved, three books of essays, including Letter to My Daughter, and six long-form poems, including Mother and On the Pulse of Morning, read at the inauguration of President William Jefferson Clinton.