Maya Angelou had published six volumes of autobiography, so readers may consider themselves familiar with the writer's life. Her classic I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings details how she was raised by her grandmother, in Stamps, Arkansas, but Mom & Me & Mom details what brought her mother to send her and her brother away in the first place.
This slim book is packed with anecdotes, some of which could make you ask “Is that how is really happened?” As Angelou tells it, it did.
It is filled with the extraordinary love Angelou had for her mother, Vivian Baxter Johnson, whose singular character steered her through a life that was anything but ordinary. Vivian's story occupies almost every page of the book which also details Angelou's progress from strongwilled but directionless girl to modern American literature great.
Angelou treats her own story with little fanfare but lauds her mother for the trailblazing choices she made. You may find yourself in tears by the final pages.
