海角大神

Maya Angelou鈥檚 new book 鈥淢om & Me & Mom鈥� 鈥� released a month before this year鈥檚 Mother鈥檚 Day 鈥� focuses on her relationship with her mother.

The book by Angelou 鈥� the author and poet well known for her many autobiographies as well for her role at Bill Clinton鈥檚 1993 presidential inauguration 鈥� discusses her life with her mother. Angelou and her brother were separated from their mother for many of their early years, living with their grandmother while their mother struggled with her marriage.

鈥淢om & Me & Mom鈥� tells the story of how Angelou and her mother were able to reconnect later in life. Angelou told the Huffington Post that she realized recently how supportive her mother was of her.

鈥淲hen teachers or people in authority put me down or in one way or another tried to make me feel less than equal to what they thought I should be 鈥� my mother was on my side,鈥� she said.

鈥淢om & Me & Mom鈥� was released on April 2. The writer鈥檚 other autobiographical works include perhaps the most well-known, 鈥淚 Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,鈥� as well as 鈥淭he Heart of a Woman鈥� and 鈥淎 Song Flung Up to Heaven.鈥�

Reviews of Angelou鈥檚 newest memoir have been mostly positive, with the Monitor鈥檚 books editor Marjorie Kehe writing that 鈥渁dmirers of Angelou鈥檚 now-classic memoir 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' will delight in this sequel.鈥�

鈥淗er memoir [is] both a tender read and a lovely tribute to the special gifts that only a mother can bring,鈥� Kehe wrote.

Boston Globe writer Carmela Ciuraru agreed, writing that 鈥減age by page, Angelou鈥檚 story is astonishing.鈥�

鈥淭here is a slightly frustrating lack of chronology in this book, and several odd lacunae in the narrative 鈥� but life is messy, and so is memory,鈥� she wrote. 鈥淲hat matters is that 'Mom & Me & Mom' is a superb account of reconciliation, forgiveness, and survival.鈥�

Fiona Sturges, a writer for The Independent, was also impressed.

鈥�'Mom & Me & Mom' is a profoundly moving tale of separation and reunion, and an ultimately optimistic portrait of the maternal bond,鈥� she wrote.

However, Bernardine Evaristo of The Observer found contradictions in details between 鈥淐aged Bird鈥� and "Mom & Me & Mom" distracting.

鈥淢emory, it seems, is a fickle, fictional, fantastical thing,鈥� Evaristo wrote of differences in Angelou鈥檚 portrayal of her mother in the two books. 鈥�'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' was a ground-breaking triumph. 'Mom & Me & Mom' does a good job of undermining it.鈥�