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A review by inkerly
A Song Flung Up to Heaven by Maya Angelou
adventurous
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
This audiobook is a dramatisation of Maya Angelou’s 6th autobiography brought by the BBC Radio 4 cast. It is essentially a heavily cut down version of Maya’s 6th book with an entire crew of people narrating her story including herself.
In this book, Maya returns to America in anticipation to continue her work with Malcolm X , but tragedy strikes when the Muslim visionary is assassinated by his own people. She is distraught and moves to Los Angeles where she then seeks work in other ways and connects with black Americans there to understand the current plight.
This book brings Activist Maya and Poet/Writer Maya together because her civil rights activism and life in the Motherland help her to write powerful plays and poems that reflect the black experience.
The book comes full circle in the end with her being invited the opportunity to write a 10-series program on the African American experience for a Northern radio show, and later she is offered the opportunity to write an autobiography of her life and all she’s accomplished at the age of 40. Initially hesitant she ends up starting the 1st book, “I know why the caged bird sings” with a poem.
I think the dramatisation of this autobiography really captures her essence and the essence of the other Greats in her life. I think where this dramatisation could’ve been stronger is if it highlighted the work that she did for the movement. There’s a lot of mention of her past lovers and her relationships/connections with people like James Baldwin, who was also a playwright and colleague to her , but maybe 1 hr 10 minutes is too short to really capture that. I hope to read the full autographies very soon.
In this book, Maya returns to America in anticipation to continue her work with Malcolm X , but tragedy strikes when the Muslim visionary is assassinated by his own people. She is distraught and moves to Los Angeles where she then seeks work in other ways and connects with black Americans there to understand the current plight.
This book brings Activist Maya and Poet/Writer Maya together because her civil rights activism and life in the Motherland help her to write powerful plays and poems that reflect the black experience.
The book comes full circle in the end with her being invited the opportunity to write a 10-series program on the African American experience for a Northern radio show, and later she is offered the opportunity to write an autobiography of her life and all she’s accomplished at the age of 40. Initially hesitant she ends up starting the 1st book, “I know why the caged bird sings” with a poem.
I think the dramatisation of this autobiography really captures her essence and the essence of the other Greats in her life. I think where this dramatisation could’ve been stronger is if it highlighted the work that she did for the movement. There’s a lot of mention of her past lovers and her relationships/connections with people like James Baldwin, who was also a playwright and colleague to her , but maybe 1 hr 10 minutes is too short to really capture that. I hope to read the full autographies very soon.