In Maya Angelou鈥檚 new memoir, Mom & Me & Mom, by contrast, the happy ending begins almost at once. Admirers of Angelou鈥檚 now-classic memoir 鈥淚 Know Why the Caged Bird Sings鈥� will delight in this sequel, which explains and (somewhat) excuses her mother鈥檚 absence from her children鈥檚 lives for many of their growing-up years.
Angelou returns to her own story when, at the age of 13, she is sent from her grandmother鈥檚 home in Arkansas to California to reunite with 鈥淟ady鈥� (the name she gives to the lively little woman she can鈥檛 quite bring herself to call 鈥淢other鈥�). Their beginning is rocky, but it soon becomes clear that this is a story of redemption.
Angelou gradually finds much to admire and eventually to cherish about her mother. The two ultimately bond to the point that today Angelou 鈥渃an hardly distinguish where she stops and I begin,鈥� making her memoir both a tender read and a lovely tribute to the special gifts that only a mother can bring.
