I've read that Maya Angelou is one of the great writers of our time, but I wanted to see for myself. I found a copy of The Heart of a Woman for a dollar at a thrift store (okay so I'm frugal) and wondered if the book would live up to the hype. I'm not so great at image transferring, but this is roughly the cover:
I expected a memoir, diary type of presentation, but found the moving story of an Afro-American woman whose life had exciting moments meeting Reverand Martin Luther King, Jr, Billie Holiday, and Malcolm X, but also tender, confrontational, and ordinary times with her friends and son. Her relationship with her teenage son and how she deals with everything from his indifference to a gang bullying him is priceless. It is an overall theme and a worthy reason by itself to read the book. Her narrative of the struggles and triumphs in her life is both emotional and matter-of-fact without going on in any one direction for too long. Lively dialogue and engaging storytelling are woven back and forth in her recollections, and her marriage to an African businessman and freedom fighter gives a glimpse into African culture and civil rights.
For writers, Heart of a Woman is a valuable read for inspiration and a good prose example as well.
It's easy to forget while enjoying the jazzy side of Angelou's life, singing and dancing in New York City, that she was also a struggling writer. Her disappointments, dreams, and successes in writing are familiar to most authors and her descriptions, whether humorous or poignant, are deserving models.
I enjoyed reading the book and can only hope that I find the other three volumes of her continuing autobiography in another thrift store. Or maybe I'll even order them at full price since I can probably expect more good reading.
