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A Song Flung Up to Heaven
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 818.5409
EAN: 9780553382037
ISBN: 0553382039
Label: Bantam
Manufacturer: Bantam
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: April 01, 2003
Publisher: Bantam
Release Date: April 01, 2003
Studio: Bantam
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Editorial Review:
It's been a long time coming, but A Song Flung Up to Heaven triumphantly completes the six volumes of autobiography that began nearly 30 years ago with Maya Angelou's astonishingly successful I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a work that changed readers' perceptions of what autobiographical writing could achieve. The impact of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (which evoked the author's adolescence and sexual abuse in Arkansas) was unprecedented. It combined frankness and emotional force with a nuanced, poetic style--a style that Angelou has perhaps found more elusive recently. But it's here again, as affecting as ever. The book deals with the years 1964-68, a turbulent period in which Angelou came back to America after her African sojourn. This, of course, was the time of the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King; Angelou was on the point of working with the latter in the civil rights movement. Her voice is fresh and exhilarating as she deals with the tragedies and triumphs of a packed life, and there are some set-piece moments, such as her account of the misguided revenge she took on an ex-lover.
Many women have become celebrated as writers and poets, but Angelou has also enjoyed a distinguished career as a civil rights activist, producer, performer, actress, and filmmaker. With all of this under her belt, she can be forgiven for the note of self-congratulation that creeps in at times. But for those who've followed her unique writing, this is a journey into a fascinating life and a riveting picture of a divided America, always informed with that clear-sighted vision Angelou is famous for. --Barry Forshaw, Amazon.co.uk
The culmination of a unique achievement in modern American literature: the six volumes of autobiography that began more than thirty years ago with the appearance of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.A Song Flung Up to Heaven opens as Maya Angelou returns from Africa to the United States to work with Malcolm X. But first she has to journey to California to be reunited with her mother and brother. No sooner does she arrive there than she learns that Malcolm X has been assassinated.Devastated, she tries to put her life back together, working on the stage in local theaters and even conducting a door-to-door survey in Watts. Then Watts explodes in violence, a riot she describes firsthand.Subsequently, on a trip to New York, she meets Martin Luther King, Jr., who asks her to become his coordinator in the North, and she visits black churches all over America to help support King’s Poor People’s March.But once again tragedy strikes. King is assassinated, and this time Angelou completely withdraws from the world, unable to deal with this horrible event. Finally, James Baldwin forces her out of isolation and insists that she accompany him to a dinner party—where the idea for writing I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is born. In fact, A Song Flung Up to Heaven ends as Maya Angelou begins to write the first sentences of Caged Bird.
Praise for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings ¿I know that not since the days of my childhood, when people in books were more real than the people one saw every day, have I found myself so moved.¿ ¿James Baldwin Gather Together in My Name ¿Gather Together in My Name is part of a select body of literature that includes The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Claude Brown¿s Manchild in the Promised Land and Ernest J. Gaines¿ The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Maya Angelou regards the world and herself with intelligence and wit; she records the events of her life with style and grace.¿ ¿William McPherson, The Washington Post Book World All God¿s Children Need Traveling Shoes ¿This is a superb account by a great woman who has embraced a difficult destiny with rare intelligence and infectious joie de vivre.¿ ¿ The Boston Globe From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Disappointed
First let me say that I am a huge Maya Angelou fan! I couldn't wait to add "A Sung Flung Up to Heaven" to my library. When it arrived, I poured a cup of tea and dug in. When I finished, I felt a little cheated. It seemed that she rushed through this book, leaving me wanting more. It's a lovely book overall, but I expected more detail, more artistry... more Maya... in this final installment. I wanted more personal perspective on her relationships with Malcolm X and Dr. King. I'm still a big ... Read More
Rating: - Autobiography as Literature: Doing the Impossible
When a representative of Random House contacted Angelou with the suggestion that she write an autobiography at the tender age of forty, she demurred, and he lay down a challenge by saying that she might be right to refuse, for writing autobiography as literature is nearly impossible to do. Angelou picked up that challenge and met it squarely, for her six-volume autobiography does indeed qualify as literature. As has been noted in several reviews of her other books in this series, she writes not the ... Read More
Rating:  - Maya Angelou & Amazon; a perfect match!
I am an avid fan of Ms. Angelou and actively collect her books. Please continue to provide her works, especially her older books.
Rating: - About the unabridged audio version
About the book: She tells her story in wonderfully simple, delightfully entertaining narrative. As a very young woman when I read her first autobiographical installment (I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings) I became an ardent fan of her craft. Her story gave me entrance into a sisterhood; some of her poetry still stirs and inspires me.
However, in my listening experience, most authors (even some of my favorites) should NOT read their own works for audio publication. Maya Angelou is no exception. ... Read More
Rating: - Still I Rise
THIS POEM WAS THE BEST POEM I HAVE EVER READ AND I LOVE TO READ IT OVER AND OVER SO I GIVE THIS POEM 5 STARS
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