A Bit Superficial So Far?

[Camilla]

I'm only a quarter of the way through the book, so I could be very off base here, but does anyone else think this book is a little superficial? This is my first non-poetry Angelou. Perhaps the reader is expected to have read her other works, but so much is being glossed over.

The book is about her relationship to her mother, so I understand why some important things like her rape wouldn't be talked about much. But I don't get a sense of how she really feels about her mother, or who her mother even really is. I don't get a sense of why their relationship is special or interesting. All in all I'm a bit disappointed so far.

[Ross]

Leanne to me the author is being honest to her feelings and the attitudes of the times. It is an autographical book but as with all great authors she sees beyond her own, considerable suffering to how things were in the environment at the time.

I found her mother and there relationship to be realised vividly. This is I think my favourite of the selected works so far. May I ask why you created a new thread and not put your review in the comments thread for this book.

[Camilla]

Ross wrote: "Leanne to me the author is being honest to her feelings and the attitudes of the times. It is an autographical book but as with all great authors she sees beyond her own, considerable suffering to ..."

We're welcome to make new threads here unless something has changed? I didn't want to bring negative thoughts of the book into a place where people usually go to discuss what they liked. Seemed more polite to make a new thread, and I definitely think the style of writing and what the author does and does not share is a worthy topic of discussion; it's not really a review.

I'm not objecting to Angelou talking about the broader theme of the time period she's in (although honestly I don't even think she goes very far into that. It's mostly touched on in her first job so far at least). What I object to so far is how she seldom actually says how she feels, and almost everything we know about her mother--the other subject of the book--is through snippets of conversation where the mother delivers the lesson we and Angelou are supposed to have learned, usually tacked onto the end of the chapter, sometimes with extra commentary on Vivian's words that mostly just affirms what she said.

Even how Angelou went from not thinking of Vivian as a mother and calling her "Lady" to calling her "Mother" is mostly glossed over. We know it's from Vivian accepting Angelou's pregnancy and helping her care for her son in a nonjudgmental way, but I don't feel we actually get a feel for what this action means to Angelou on a deeper emotional level.

I'm not sure what you mean by "sees beyond her own." I feel the book is very focused on her own life, with just hints of the outside world. Maybe more examples will come up later, though. I would appreciate the added depth to the book. I think the book has some great stories and some beautiful quotable lines, but it still feels shallow and kind of padded out as a book. I don't feel it really gives us much to think about or even feel. I simply know more about the chronology of the author's life.