mass market paperback, 304 páginas
Publicado el 21 de Abril de 2009 por Ballantine Books.
She was born Marguerite, but her brother Bailey nicknamed her Maya ("mine"). As little children they were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Their early world revolved around this remarkable woman and the Store she ran for the black community. White people were more than strangers - they were from another planet. And yet, even unseen they ruled.
The Store was a microcosm of life: its orderly pattern was a comfort, even among the meanest frustrations. But then came the intruders - first in the form of taunting poorwhite children who were bested only by the grandmother's dignity. But as the awful, unfathomable mystery of prejudice intruded, so did the unexpected joy of a surprise visit by Daddy, the sinful joy of going to Church, the disappointments of a Depression Christmas.
A visit to St. Louis and the Most Beautiful Mother in the World ended in tragedy …
She was born Marguerite, but her brother Bailey nicknamed her Maya ("mine"). As little children they were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Their early world revolved around this remarkable woman and the Store she ran for the black community. White people were more than strangers - they were from another planet. And yet, even unseen they ruled.
The Store was a microcosm of life: its orderly pattern was a comfort, even among the meanest frustrations. But then came the intruders - first in the form of taunting poorwhite children who were bested only by the grandmother's dignity. But as the awful, unfathomable mystery of prejudice intruded, so did the unexpected joy of a surprise visit by Daddy, the sinful joy of going to Church, the disappointments of a Depression Christmas.
A visit to St. Louis and the Most Beautiful Mother in the World ended in tragedy - rape. Thereafter Maya refused to speak, except to the person closest to her, Bailey. Eventually, Maya and Bailey followed their mother to California. There, the formative phase of her life (as well as this book) comes to a close with the painful discovery of the true nature of her father, the emergence of a hard-won independence and - perhaps most important - a baby, born out of wedlock, loved and kept.
Superbly told, with the poet's gift for language and observation, and charged with the unforgetable emotion of remembered anguish and love - this remarkable autobiography by an equally remarkable black girl from Arkansas captures, indelibly, a world of which most Americans are shamefully ignorant.
"Era horrível ser negra e não ter controle sobre a minha vida. Era brutal ser jovem e já estar treinada para ficar sentada em silêncio ouvindo as acusações feitas contra a minha cor sem chance de defesa."
a obra traz uma visão nítida das relações raciais no período entreguerras e ensina como a voz pode transformar um mundo injusto.
One of the problems of African American literature is that the men pretend the women don't exist and the women normally write, quite understandably, about how all whites and black men oppresses them. This does not result in bad works, but books by male writers annoy women and books by women are considered "Women's Literature", because a woman's experience is always considered exceptional.
In any case, this is an excellent book about what it meant to be black, in the States, in the thirties. Angelou writes mostly about her own life, but the way she weaves in the lives of her relatives is one of the most interesting protrayals of the life of a minority I've ever read. The language is beautiful without being too flowery. The structure is mostly episodic, which style books would frown upon, but is there any other way to tell the experiences of chilhood?
It …
One of the problems of African American literature is that the men pretend the women don't exist and the women normally write, quite understandably, about how all whites and black men oppresses them. This does not result in bad works, but books by male writers annoy women and books by women are considered "Women's Literature", because a woman's experience is always considered exceptional.
In any case, this is an excellent book about what it meant to be black, in the States, in the thirties. Angelou writes mostly about her own life, but the way she weaves in the lives of her relatives is one of the most interesting protrayals of the life of a minority I've ever read. The language is beautiful without being too flowery. The structure is mostly episodic, which style books would frown upon, but is there any other way to tell the experiences of chilhood?
It seems outdated because it's almost forty years old, but this is the place to start if someone wants to know more about African American history through literature and biography.
