In 'Mom & Me & Mom,' Maya Angelou explores the complexities of her relationship with her mother, Vivian Baxter, a woman of vibrant strength and resilience. Through poignant memories and raw honesty, Angelou reveals the challenges of love, forgiveness, and connection amidst a backdrop of hardship. This memoir delves into their tumultuous yet beautiful journey of understanding, reconciliation, and empowerment. As she unravels the profound impact of her mother's influence, readers are invited to reflect on their own familial bonds. Discover how one woman's spirit shaped an extraordinary life in this captivating tale of motherhood and awakening.
By Maya Angelou
Published: 2013
""I had a mother who would emote at the drop of a hat, and a son who would gladly drop that hat for her. In that kind of love, you find the essence of life itself.""
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A moving memoir about the legendary author’s relationship with her own mother. Emma Watson’s Our Shared Shelf Book Club Pick! The story of Maya Angelou’s 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 presence—a presence absent during much of Angelou’s 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 life’s 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 Angelou’s rise from immeasurable depths to reach impossible heights. Praise for Mom & Me & Mom “Mom & Me & Mom is delivered with Angelou’s 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 Angelou’s 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 Angelou’s 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
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“"I had a mother who would emote at the drop of a hat, and a son who would gladly drop that hat for her. In that kind of love, you find the essence of life itself."”
Mom & Me & Mom
By Maya Angelou
Discover a world of knowledge through our extensive collection of book summaries.
Maya Angelou (1928-2014) was an acclaimed American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist, renowned for her powerful and poignant writing that explores themes of identity, resilience, and the human experience. Her most notable works include the autobiographical series 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings', 'Gather Together in My Name', and 'All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes'. Angelou's writing style is characterized by vivid imagery, lyrical prose, and an ability to convey deep emotional truths. She received numerous awards throughout her career, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and remains a significant figure in American literature and social justice.
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