Letter to My Daughter
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Maya Angelou shares her path to living well and with meaning in this absorbing book of personal essays.
Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter transcends genres and categories: guidebook, memoir, poetry, and pure delight.
Here in short spellbinding essays are glimpses of the tumultuous life that led Angelou to an exalted place in American letters and taught her lessons in compassion and fortitude: how she was brought up by her indomitable grandmother in segregated Arkansas, taken in at thirteen by her more worldly and less religious mother, and grew to be an awkward, six-foot-tall teenager whose first experience of loveless sex paradoxically left her with her greatest gift, a son.
Whether she is recalling such lost friends as Coretta Scott King and Ossie Davis, extolling honesty, decrying vulgarity, explaining why becoming a Christian is a “lifelong endeavor,” or simply singing the praises of a meal of red rice–Maya Angelou writes from the heart to millions of women she considers her extended family.
Like the rest of her remarkable work, Letter to My Daughter entertains and teaches; it is a book to cherish, savor, re-read, and share.
“I gave birth to one child, a son, but I have thousands of daughters. You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish speaking, Native Americans and Aleut. You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all. Here is my offering to you.”—from Letter to My Daughter
Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter transcends genres and categories: guidebook, memoir, poetry, and pure delight.
Here in short spellbinding essays are glimpses of the tumultuous life that led Angelou to an exalted place in American letters and taught her lessons in compassion and fortitude: how she was brought up by her indomitable grandmother in segregated Arkansas, taken in at thirteen by her more worldly and less religious mother, and grew to be an awkward, six-foot-tall teenager whose first experience of loveless sex paradoxically left her with her greatest gift, a son.
Whether she is recalling such lost friends as Coretta Scott King and Ossie Davis, extolling honesty, decrying vulgarity, explaining why becoming a Christian is a “lifelong endeavor,” or simply singing the praises of a meal of red rice–Maya Angelou writes from the heart to millions of women she considers her extended family.
Like the rest of her remarkable work, Letter to My Daughter entertains and teaches; it is a book to cherish, savor, re-read, and share.
“I gave birth to one child, a son, but I have thousands of daughters. You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish speaking, Native Americans and Aleut. You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all. Here is my offering to you.”—from Letter to My Daughter
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Community Reviews
This was a quick read, and I listened to it while running errands over the past couple of days. While I love Angelou's writing and spirit, this went from 5 stars to 4 stars with the final chapter, in which she admits that she has never allowed herself to consider the nonexistence of God, and in an heartbreaking anecdote, a white guy forces her to read the words "God loves me" over and over until she felt emotional with the weight of the words. What really happened, as it is clear to someone who knows how psychology works in high-pressure situations, was that she was put "in her place." White people forced a colonial religion, language, and behavioral expectations on the human beings they enslaved, and Angelou's description of her upbringing in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" never shies away from the facts of this. She has always written courageously about peace, and how people can live together, and move forward harmoniously. I admire her for this quality, and learned a lot from her, and am reflecting on my own resistance and bitterness. I am, however, reminded that as a descendant of the people who forced their Christianity on everybody because it kept them in power, I am also part of the system that keeps education and scientific literacy so inaccessible to so many people of color, even a brilliant woman of letters like Angelou. I wish she could have come to know the wonder of science and its implications about justice and the human condition.
This book made for a super quick listen. I love Maya Angelou, though I’ve currently only read one of her other works. When I saw this one was available through the library, I had to check it out. It’s essentially lessons from Maya Angelou’s life that she thinks would benefit her audience. She narrates this book (thank goodness), and hearing her first hand encounters is amazing. If you’re wanting to read some Maya Angelou, HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
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