Under the Naga Tail by Mae Bunseng Taing and James Taing; The God of Naziland The Fuhrer's Master Book One by Elyse Hoffman

 

Under the Naga Tail by Mae Bunseng Taing and James Taing 

Under the Naga Tail is a poignant and stirring account of Mae Bunseng Taing’s childhood and young adulthood in Cambodia during the reign of the Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer Rouge was a Communist movement led by Pol Pot that won the Cambodian Civil War, seized the capital of Phnom Penh and overthrew the Khmer Republic in 1975. Their reign was autocratic, totalitarian, and repressive. Many deaths happened as a result of social engineering projects, widespread famine from failed collectivization and self-sufficiency programs, the murder of political opponents, racist emphasis to maintain Cambodian national superiority, and genocide of Cambodian minorities. It ended when Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia in December 1978 and Pol Pot was toppled the following month. 

Taing recalls his youth as a time of being sheltered and ignorant from the changes soon to occur. He writes about being amazed about the Apollo 11 Moon Landing despite school curriculum describing the United States as an enemy. His family store often welcomed soldiers as customers, and the occasional straggler from military desertion. Sometimes adults whispered about battles and revolutions in the capital but as a child, he paid it no mind.

The sad part was Taing recalls that the Khmer Rouge revolution was something that the people of his village were hoping for. Hindsight would tell them otherwise but at the time, they didn't know that. They thought that finally the people would have a voice in their government, the rural villages would be represented, and the old structure would fall. 

It's a terrifying echo as the Taing Family welcome the military with a parade of heroes only to have those same soldiers order them to leave their homes in a forced evacuation.They once looked upon the Khmer Rouge as freedom fighters against the monarchy that once held power over them. Instead, they exchanged one group of dictators for another.

Among the more traumatic moments are the times in which the forced evacuations resulted in separations from family members by death, detainment, or just simply trailing behind and losing sight of each other. Taing recalls one woman weeping when she couldn't find her son who was with her in line but then disappeared. Taing heard stories about a Chinese couple taking in a Cambodian child but were not verified. 

A few times Taing himself was separated from siblings, nieces, and nephews, and his father. He wouldn't reunite with many of them until years later and his strong loving father was reduced to a broken old man.

There are many pages and chapters which focus on the hard physical labor that Taing and his family endured in the collective farms. It was excruciating, painful, back breaking labor that served no real purpose except as a means of torture. They were also subjected to physical, mental, and sexual torture and abuse by soldiers and a regime that considered them as less than human. It was a traumatic time that left scars on Taing's mind, body, and heart for decades.

The main theme of the book is endurance. Taing’s endurance through such adversity can be seen throughout the book especially when he escapes through the jungle rather than be tortured and abused any longer. He spent a lot of time living off the land, using landmarks to figure out his location, and brokering alliances with other escapees who would rather die quickly in the jungle than slowly under captivity.

 Even after the Khmer Rouge was defeated, he and other refugees faced suspicion, prejudice, and poverty while in exile in other countries like Thailand. In some ways their situation wasn't too different except they weren't living under a dictatorship. That strength and endurance carried Taing and his family from Cambodia, to Thailand, to the United States where they settled into a new life.

Taing eventually settled in Connecticut where he ran a house painting business for over 30 years, married, and fathered children of his own. He eventually reunited with his father, siblings, and many members of his extended family. His son, James, inspired by his father's past, served as co-author of this book.

This book is a testament to Taing's strength and endurance surviving under a dictatorship, escaping it, and building a new life in another country. 

The God of Naziland The Fuhrer's Master Book One by Elyse Hoffman 

This is going to be a hard book to review.

In Elyse Hoffman’s Aliza in Naziland, Aliza, a young Holocaust survivor, was chosen by Ha-Satan to control one particular Zone in Hell, Zone N-1 which Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, Josef Goebbels, and Hermann Goering reside. Aliza got a sadistic delight out of torturing the human monsters that ruined her life and destroyed millions of others. However there were lines that she wouldn't cross and when they were, she asked herself if she was seeking justice or revenge and if she had become the same monster that she once despised.

The follow up looks at the residents of Zone N-1 particularly Hitler and Heydrich and follows their afterlife of physical and emotional turmoil having all eternity to come to terms with what they did in life. As compared to its predecessor which was set shortly after the Holocaust ended, The God of Naziland is set in modern day and Zone N-1 has been through 612 Masters. Hitler and his fellow Nazis prepare for the next one and are in for a few surprises. #613 or Gottchen (“Little God”), as they call her, is unlike the other Zone Masters. The former Nazis weigh their confusion, suspicion, and ambitions for what they can do through this young girl.

This book is hard to review because it does something that might be controversial. It humanizes the Nazis without excusing or defending their actions in life. I cannot overstate how difficult a task that must be for any author, let alone someone like Hoffman who has written several WWII/Holocaust Historical Fiction novels that combined with Jewish folklore such as the aforementioned Aliza and The Book of Uriel.

To explore and fully understand a dictatorship and why it happened and the guilt and justice during the aftermath, it's important to understand the people who perpetrated it. Here Hoffman does it extraordinarily well.

She does it not by justifying them by any means but exploring their feelings about this young Master who is so different from her predecessors. She is  7 when most are teenagers to adult age. She also stumbled upon the summoning book that sends the Master to Ha-Satan unlike previous masters like Aliza who Ha-Satan purposely singled out and communicated with before giving them the book.

Gottchen’s accidental discovery is different but not fully explained why. There are a couple of possibilities why this happened. One could be because of her age, Ha-Satan thought that she wouldn't understand the responsibility or be able to weigh the consequences because she was too young. (The questions of why he let her do it at all, didn't keep it from her, and find a more suitable age-appropriate Master is unanswered.)

Another possibility is the time period on Earth. Unlike the previous book, it is set in modern day, not the mid-20th century. Aliza’s hatred for the Nazis was still fresh and the trauma was still recent and real. Gottchen only knows about the Nazis from history books so she has no personal feelings towards them that can be manipulated. Ha-Satan might have just figured that anyone will do.

There is another possibility that makes perfect sense once we learn about Gottchen's backstory. She is filled with hatred but not for the Nazis. Without going into the details, her life on Earth is one of abuse, neglect, and betrayal from adults that she thought that she could trust. Perhaps Ha-Satan recognized that anger and powerlessness and realized that she can transfer that hatred onto the Nazis. 

Oddly enough it is that trauma that influences how she actually treats them by not doing anything to them at all. She knows what it's like to feel small and vulnerable so she doesn't take advantage of it. 

In a strange way, it also explains why she gets along with the Nazis. Any person in any place, even Nazis in Hell, are far better than the people that she left behind. Her abuse from home is what is at the forefront of her mind and Hitler and co’s actions are faded into a history in which she knows of second hand.

The fascinating aspect is that Gottchen's kindness puts the Nazis more on edge than if she was cruel. Heydrich in particular suspects ulterior motives and is waiting for her to reveal a more duplicitous nature to the point of paranoia. He does this even though he bonds with the young girl to the point of learning about her past.

 Heydrich observes Gottchen closely, searches for her motives or clues about her real character, and hopes for a blind spot or moment of weakness that he can exploit. This almost predatory behavior puts a dark edge on his seemingly endearing moments with the girl. 

Hitler also has a unique position. He is traumatized by a recent encounter with a Master in which he experienced the Holocaust first hand. That memory is still in his mind so even though he acts like his anti-Semitic self, there is a small part of himself that remembers that punishment and the life that he could have lived. It's also worth mentioning that he tells the other Nazis that he is only befriending the girl so she can be swayed to their thinking and take their views to the mortal world.

In fact that's what makes this book a hard one to like. For all of the torture and the eternal suffering, the Nazis are still irredeemable. They never acknowledge that they were wrong in life or that they created an evil genocide. The closest that they come to is when Heydrich defends Gottchen from some of his allies.

 It is a half-hearted attempt that he doesn't realize that the system that he helped create was the problem, not the personal attacks on this one girl. Instead he and the other Nazis hide behind their usual excuses. They want to create a better Germany. It's what they were raised to believe. That they, except Hitler, were following orders. Blah blah blah. 

It's understandable that Hoffman would do this and not give the Nazis a redemption story. Let's not make sinners out of saints, especially the worst ones. But it makes for tedious reading to read from the points of view of characters who made those choices in life and have to face the consequences in death without realizing why those consequences are so important. Perhaps it might have been better to use Gottchen's point of view though it wouldn't have been as much of a writer's challenge. 

 Since this is the first book in this particular series The Fuhrer's Master, it makes one wonder how far Hoffman will go with writing about the Nazis. Will she make them more hateful? Continue the middle ground in making them understandable but not empathetic? That can only be stretched so far. Or will Elyse Hoffman do the impossible? Will she redeem the irredeemable and should she?

Eyes Behind Belligerence by K.P. Kellenborn, How to Lose The Life You Love A Memoir of Conditioning Collapse and Sovereignty by Mike Karame, Barside Manner by Brian Baleno

Eyes Behind Belligerence By K.P. Kellenborn 

 Eyes Behind Belligerence is a powerful and highly relevant novel about racism, xenophobia, cultural identity, patriotism, and what it means to truly call oneself an American even when others won't define you as such.

The Japanese-American population of Bainbridge Island, Washington State felt the impact of the attack by the Japanese Imperial Army on Pearl Harbor. Suddenly, barely tolerated racist jokes and stereotypes become the norm. Members of the community are ostracized or treated with outright hostility by white neighbors, schoolmates, church members, and authority figures. They are forbidden from having possessions that might be used as weapons or short wave radios believing that they could be used for spying. Finally, they are sent to internment camps.

This is a heartbreaking novel about a shameful time in American history which unfortunately is still in practice today just with new names, faces, and targets for racist and xenophobic abuse. It's staggering how quickly certain groups are seen as enemies and how easily many can be swept up in paranoia and propaganda. 

The moments before and during the times in the camps feature dehumanizing practices used to isolate, divide, and internally destroy the people who are targeted. Some of the more insidious actions result in detainees not only trusting the white officers holding them but in their fellow inmates. Some act as inside informants. Others resort to random acts of vandalism and for mini gangs for survival.

 Sometimes division between Japanese born immigrants who came from Japan and settled in the US (issei) and those with Japanese ancestry but lived in the US their entire lives (nissei) is revealed. If they can be divided, it becomes easier for the American authority to break them.

The book is largely told from the points of view of teenage boys Goro/Russell Hamaguchi and Jimmu/Jim Yoshimura who are swept up in that generational divide within the camps and their own families and the racial and cultural divide from the government surrounding them. 

Both are Japanese-Americans whose parents fled to the US either before they were born or as children. They consider themselves more American than Japanese. They adopted American names, hardly understand their families’ first language, and have fully assimilated into the society around them. 

Russell in particular is fond of the country in which he lives. He mocks his parents’ traditional ways and scoffs at their ideals like honor and family loyalty ahead of individual liberty. He considers himself just as American as the white kids that he attends school with, maybe even more so.

Unfortunately that patriotism serves little use for him in a country that shows right away that it has no love for anyone who was born different. They don't see an American boy. To them Russell is Japanese and is treated like an enemy. Unfortunately his Japanese elders aren't any warmer either. Some like his siblings basically think that he sold out and question his loyalty. A fistfight with one of his closest friends reveals the buried resentment and lack of belonging simmering within him.

Jim also is torn between embracing his cultural heritage and assimilating into the world around him despite its rejection. Unlike Russell who treated assimilation like a calculated strategy for survival, Jim’s dismissal is fueled by personal trauma.

Jim’s journey is probably the most emotional even before the war begins because of his older brother's suicide. His grief over the death, his family's reaction to it, and the reasons for those actions lead him to question and defy his heritage. While many see community, Jim sees emotional abandonment and it takes a long time within the book for him to recover from the loss.

The two young men’s outlook changes inside the camps. Russell goes through periods of defiance such as defending himself from a racist guard, continuing correspondence with a Filipino-American girlfriend, and joining a gang of troublemakers in the camps. He ultimately tries to adapt, adjust, and find ways to ensure his friends and family's survival. 

Jim does the opposite. He starts out as a mostly pacifistic sensitive kid unwilling to fight alongside Russell and the other tougher kids. He tries not to do anything that would result in punishment and be the complacent dutiful detainee. 

Jim eventually tires of the mask of obedience that he is forced to wear because the officers don't care. He will always be considered an enemy and in moments of self-fulfilling prophecy, he becomes that defiant rebellious enemy. They could only push him so far enough by dehumanizing him before he pushes back. When he finally does, it's a moment of catharsis for himself and the reader.

Reading a book like this makes it easy to see the conflicts that are still relevant today so we can study them, read about them, learn from them, and maybe someday do better.

How to Lose a Life You Love A Memoir of Conditioning Collapse and Sovereignty by Mike Karame 

How to Lose a Life You Love: A Memoir of Conditioning, Collapse, and Sovereignty is a meaningful, moving, and inspirational memoir about having and losing it all, and what happens afterwards. Mostly it's about having the resilience to pick yourself up and seize a second life.

Author Mike Karame had a childhood and young adulthood of strife and conflict. His parents’ tense marriage was rocked by bouts of temper, arguments, accusations, and emotional breakdowns resulting in a divorce.

 Karame describes his childhood in war and battle analogies because the arguments felt like a disruption of the peace that he sought. He and his siblings had to navigate their home like a minefield waiting for the next explosion to occur from their father's angry tirades and their mother's tearful silence. 

Karame’s childhood in Beirut was also surrounded by outside wars as well. He describes life in Lebanon as a “simple brutal algorithm. Your religion determines your power. Your sect determines your identity.”

Karame recalled explosions occurring during innocuous moments of watching television or studying in class. Tanks rolling down the streets, soldiers marching in formation, and people sprinting for shelters were commonplace. With wars occurring both inside and outside Karame's home, it's no wonder that he wanted to escape any way possible.

Karame later entered a law career but eventually felt unfulfilled by it. His interest in caring for and riding horses led him to a different path: opening up a horse club. Even though his friends thought that he traded a life of luxury for training horses, he said that he wasn't trading down, “(He) traded up.” It gave him a chance to do something that he loved and gave him personal satisfaction. He loved teaching people to ride and connect with horses and added to his own pursuits by learning kitesurfing, paragliding, deep sea diving, and other outdoor adventures.

This would normally be the end of the story. Someone leaves the life that tied them down and made them miserable and finds the career and life path that makes them happy. In Karame's case however, this is the middle of his story which means there were a lot more changes for him to go through and far more experiences for him to learn from.

A series of problems including a failed romantic relationship, the deaths of his parents, separation from his twin brother, and financial struggles culminated in Karame having to sell the horse club and leaving Lebanon. He had to find the strength and courage to start over in a new country where he was virtually a stranger, Australia. 

Karame described his life in Australia as a “collapse” when he encountered dishonesty from colleagues, unpaid bills, and potential bankruptcy. Despite this he purchased and worked in a bar/restaurant and maintained a relationship with his companion, Kate. He referred to the end as a demolition because a demolition “when you finally stop fearing it, is the beginning of clean ground.”

Karame and Kate traveled by caravan through the Australian outback. The connection to nature, vastness of travel, and the quiet privacy gave the couple a much needed slower pace. They ended up traveling for almost two years heading nowhere in particular. This trip gave them the freedom that they needed.

The tour also helped Karame look at and listen to himself objectively. In the silence, he examined what went wrong in his life and what needed improvement. Sometimes one needs to remove all of the barriers and noise before they can discover who they really are. That is what this tour meant to Karame: an opportunity to find himself.

This book is a memoir that shows readers that a person might have many opportunities and live many lives. They just have to 

be ready to find them.

Barside Manner by Brian Baleno 

 A trend this year seems to be short anthologized slices of life Contemporary Fiction novels set in specific places, usually dining or music establishments, and around ordinary people. The works are short on major plots but long on setting and characterization. This year I reviewed Where The Wave Broke by Robert Rooks, The Travel Man and The Writing Writes, The Writer: Taking Kev to Sizzlin’ Meats and Salads by Kevin Cann. I might even throw in books from years past like Lunch Ladies by Jodi Thomson Carr, The Lindens by Barney Jeffries, Tales From Whiskey Tango From Misery Towers by James Aylott, and The Cabin Sessions by Isobel Blackthorn for sharing many similar qualities with these works.

We can add Brian Baleno’s Barside Manner to this oddly specific subgenre. Just like its predecessors, it captures the immediacy of a small setting and closed circle cast of characters. Despite the small space that confines this specific written universe, Barside Manner presents an intimate close up look that is rich in detail and purpose.

Freddy is the bartender at the local Pittsburgh bar where he greets his regular customers and the occasional new faces. He listens, advises, comforts, provides a sympathetic ear, and sometimes reveals his own personal struggles while his closest associates drink, laugh, joke, bemoan their fate, and engage in friendship and fellowship that are guaranteed until Last Call.

The book itself doesn't really have much of a plot. Mostly it's about characters debating getting rich quick schemes, figuring out the next steps in their lives, changing jobs, changing relationships, moving up, or moving down in life. Plot isn't as important as character and setting. 

We get to know the characters through their dialogue and conversations. They talk about politics, whether AI will take over the world, whether the Steelers have a shot at the playoffs, complain about their jobs or bad relationships, and just about everything else in between. They don't come to agreements but they sure love talking and arguing about it.

The bar is the type of place that is practically a character in and of itself. Freddy makes sure that it's clean and inviting for guests to enter. He knows the usual drink orders and greets both regulars and newcomers jovially. It's cozy, somewhat dim, kind of smoky, has a stench of alcohol but also has a charm and friendly atmosphere that invites characters and readers inside for a few hours.

We also get some insights into the characters that inhabit this confined space. Since there is alcohol involved, they are at their most vulnerable, open, loquacious, reckless, and honest. It is a place where they can forget their troubles for a few hours and someone, usually Freddy, will be there to lend an ear, offer a word, or at the very least fill up another glass.

There is Enzo whom Freddy describes as a “Pittsburgher’s Pittsburgher.” Tough, mouthy, loyal to his family and friends and particularly sports teams. He will be the first to insult the Steelers or the Pirates if they are losing but don't you make the mistake of criticizing them in earshot if you are from out of town. Not unless you have two hours to kill to sit through a lecture about the history of either team.

 There's also Spike, Enzo’s friend. He is a muscular surly man who might strike up a conversation, brandish a fist, or both sometimes during the same discussion. 

Edward LaRoche, AKA Fox Chapel is from a different background than Freddy and the others. His nickname comes from the more affluent area of town in which he lives, a life of wealth and privilege that only exists in his fellow patrons’ fantasies. 

Bob and Jan are a septuagenarian married couple who treat the patrons and Freddy like surrogate children. 

Then there's Freddy who has struggles of his own. At 29 years old, he knows that he has to make changes in his life but is uncertain how to pursue them. He wouldn't mind attending college to obtain a degree but thinks that he is too old.

 He and his girlfriend Lana, a doctoral student working on her PhD, have a loving but at times contentious relationship as they discuss their next steps: marriage, moving in together, or breaking up and moving on. As Freddy remarks by quoting U2: “(He) still hasn't found what (he) is looking for.”

There is a complacency that surrounds the characters. It says that things are okay for now. As long as they have a decent job, a roof over their heads, a place to go and destress, maybe some good friends or a loved one then everything is okay. Why aspire for anything better or different? Just stay in the same places, ordering the same drinks, have the same arguments, and remain comfortable.

Many of the situations in the characters' lives involve making changes. They seek money, love, better opportunities, innovation, something new and different. Their actions serve as a reminder to remove from their benign comfort zones to enter different possibilities that test their potential and deliver fulfillment beyond settling. They occur when the characters make changes so they aren't the same people that we met in the beginning.

This book reminds us that we can find pleasure in the ordinary everyday routine but we should also look for the changes that provide the breaks in that routine and challenge us to be different, better people. 

New Book Alert: Trailer Trash: An ‘80’s Memoir by Angie Cavallari; Totally Detailed and Radical Memoir Is Perfect For Children of The ‘80’s

New Book Alert: Trailer Trash: An ‘80’s Memoir by Angie Cavallari; Totally Detailed and Radical Memoir Is Perfect For Children of The ‘80’s

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




I have two reasons to identify with Angie Cavallari's book, Trailer Trash: An ‘80’s Memoir. 1) Like Cavallari, I was a child of the ‘80’s and spent some of that gnarly time growing up in Florida (Ft. Walton Beach to be precise) and 2) My Mom grew up in Tampa, Florida as Cavallari did. So we both understood and enjoyed many of the things Cavallari spoke of in her book.

Cavallari, her parents, sister, and brother moved to the Pelican Mobile Home Park in Tampa, Florida in 1980 where her parents managed the trailer park. Cavallari's childhood was forever linked with the park, its eccentric residents, and memories of MTV music videos, Rubik's Cubes, and E.T.

Trailer Trash doesn't have a large plot so much as it features several small moments organized into chapters with minimal dialogue. That works well for this book. Cavallari's reminisces are rich in detail and recall that bring these moments to life. When she describes the tedious task that she and her siblings had of cleaning the trailers, the Reader's nose wrinkles at the accounts of soiled sheets, drug paraphernalia, broken bottles and who really wants to know what else.

The highlight of any book set in the ‘80’s, especially for those of us who grew up in that time, is the constant parade of trends, fads, entertainment, and other signs of an ‘80’s upbringing. The book is peppered with various songs and music videos such as Genesis’ “Land of Confusion,” Debbie Gibson's “Lost in Your Eyes”, and The Bangles’ “Eternal Flame” that are probably meant to present earworms for the average Reader. Cavallari described various activities like playing on a Slip and Slide and going to a skating rink (called originally enough, the United Skates of America) as well as watching prime time shows like Thee A Team, Dukes of Hazard, and Knight Rider, and You Can't Do That on Television on Nickelodeon and Don Knott's movies on the Disney Channel. She also writes about fashion trends like extremely permed hair and large fist-sized hoop earrings. These memories will fill former ‘80’s kids with warm nostalgia or embarrassed derision (and will no doubt give children or younger relatives and friends more fuel with which to tease them.).

Cavallari also captures the Florida setting so well that my mother who is also a former resident of Tampa Bay recognized them. Cavallari frequently watched Dr. Paul Bearer, the local Creature Feature host who showed older cheesy horror movies (no doubt directed by the likes of William Castle). She also writes of visiting the Ben T. Davis Beach (AKA Tampa Bay Beach) which far from being a paradise, Cavallari considered it crowded, noisy, hot, and extremely polluted and dirty. Cavallari even states that the only thing she hated more than cleaning the mobile home units was “going to the beach with (my) Mom.”

Cavallari also captures the eccentric spirit of a state that thrives on tourism. She visited the usual theme parks such as Walt Disney World (which she described as the only place her “family behaved themselves.”) and Busch Gardens. She also acknowledges the stranger tourist sites that Central Florida had to offer like Gibsonton, a small town that was home to various carnival workers during the winter season. Cavallari described the homes with amusement park rides in their front yards and dives run by sideshow entertainers in a way that both teases them for their weirdness and respects them as people who live for standing out in the crowd and being themselves.

Cavallari also offers helpful lists including glossary terms and descriptions of the various tenants. The glossary terms offer the lingo that is used in the trailer park as well as nearby Gibsonton. The glossaries are hilarious and helpful with terms such as “Mobile Homes” (what the residents prefer to call trailers) or “TPD” (the Tampa Police Department who seemingly get called in at least once a day.) The Gibsonton section is rich in terms like such as “Mark” (people who attend carnivals so named because the employees could easily con them to take part in the rigged games) and brilliantly foreshadows the Cavallari's eventual move to Gibtown (Gibsonton to the locals).

The residents are also described in a list format which focuses on their oddities making them a bizarre memorable bunch. They range from Florence who wore halter tops and no brassieres and was often seen walking to and from the liquor store to “Drive-Thru Bob” who was the first person Cavallari met who had an emergency tracheotomy and Bob’s wife, Alice, who was an expert in all things sitcom and would often describe various episodes in great detail. The Pelican Mobile Home Park appeared to be an odd assortment of alcoholism, drug addiction, and peculiar traits that could be signs of mental illness. It's no wonder that many of the tenants would eventually die of heart disease, natural causes and other means. These deaths would eventually cause the Cavallari's family to move and apparently traumatized her so much that she would later recall them in great detail and abandon in her book.

Cavallari captures her youth brilliantly. The end appears to set up a sequel in which the family moved from the trailer park to Gibsonton. I look forward to another trip down Cavallari's memory lane.

Classics Corner: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou: Angelou's Memoir Captures The Beauty, Sadness, Terror, and Strength of Her Youth

Classics Corner: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou: Angelou's Memoir Captures The Beauty, Sadness, Terror, and Strength of Her Youth
By Julie Sara Porter, Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Maya Angelou's classic memoir I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is probably the gold standard of childhood memoirs. Angelou recounted a childhood troubled by parental separation, racism, child molestation, sexism, and teenage pregnancy with beauty and intelligence that also defined her career as a poet and Civil Rights activist.

Maya, born Marguerite Johnson (but nicknamed "My" or "Maya" by her older brother, Bailey) recounted her childhood from the time she was three years old when she and her brother were sent to live at their grandmother's home in Stamps, Arkansas to when she was 16 and gave birth to her son, Clyde. Angelou's autobiography is written exclusively from her childhood self in which she is intelligent, shy, insecure, and confused about the world around her.

The book is filled with beautiful descriptions of Angelou's memories. On her and Bailey's arrival in Stamps, she describes the reaction of  her grandmother's store (which is the nerve center of Stamps) as "Early in the century, Momma (we soon stopped calling her Grandmother) sold lunches to the sawmen  in the lumber yard (east Stamps) and the seedmen at the cotton gin (west Stamps). Her crisp meat pies and cool lemonade when joined to her miraculous ability to be in two places at the same time assured her business success." Using humor and beautiful description, Angelou captures her youth as well as she captured her poetry in a way that enchants and inspires the Reader.

Angelou's grandmother, Annie Henderson, filled a loving presence in Angelou's young life. She writes "(Her grandmother) was undemonstrative in her love but uncompromising in that love. A deep-brooding love hung over everything she touched." "Momma" Henderson was a woman of deep strength and faith. Many of Angelou's strongest memories are of her grandmother taking her to church, introducing her to the various members of the community, and distributing motherly wisdom and advice to Maya and Bailey. She was a true warm and motherly soul that provided comfort for Angelou's dark childhood.

Many of Angelou's darkest childhood memories were caused by those who should have loved and cared for her: her parents. Her father, Bailey Johnson Sr. was a distant presence in young Maya's life. In fact he only appears twice in the book: once to drive his daughter to St. Louis to live with her mother and another time to invite a then-teenage Maya to spend the summer with him and his girlfriend in San Diego (The summer ended with  a huge fight between Maya, her father, and his girlfriend resulting in her becoming temporarily homeless.)

As bad a time as Angelou had with her father, the time with her mother was worse. Her mother had
a very glamorous appearance almost like a film star but was very immature and somewhat self-centered, more interested in being buddies with Maya and Bailey than being a mother. This is particularly evident when the children lived with her and her boyfriend in St. Louis. The boyfriend raped 8  year old Maya and threatened to kill Bailey if she tells anyone. The isolation that she felt during the rape and its aftermath is deeply felt as she withdraws into herself unable to trust her mother to protect her.
Maya continued to feel isolated even after the boyfriend was arrested and put to trial. He was released after a year only to be found dead under mysterious circumstances (possibly caused by her uncles). However this does not give Angelou any release as she was  rendered mute for five years from the trauma.

Despite the trauma that Angelou endured from her parents, she encounters love and support from her grandmother and brother, Bailey. (Bailey encourages Maya to come forward about the rape despite the threats to his life). But even they can't shield children from racism. Racism is prominently felt throughout the book in different passages that reveal the cruelty of the bigots around Angelou and her family.
Three "powhitetrash" girls mocked and displayed  vulgar gestures to Angelou's grandmother. Her disabled Uncle Willie was  chased by Ku Klux Klan members only to find safety in a potato and onion bin. A white dentist refused  to treat Maya's teeth which Angelou envisions a dramatic confrontation in which Momma Henderson confounds the dentist and makes him change his ways. (In reality she had to remind him of a debt he owed her, but Angelou always liked her version better.) In another passage, a white professor gave a graduation speech which basically tells the mostly black audience that they will never be good at anything but in sports. During his speech, Maya felt ashamed and embarrassed at her race but then became defiant determined to prove him wrong.

The struggles within her family and from the racism outside would lead most people to despair, but Angelou discovered her strength through a love of reading and learning. She writes that  William Shakespeare is her "first white love" as she discovered his works at a young age. After that she recognizes the transformation that reading provides for her and a talent for writing. Angelou's writing suggested that her love of reading even proved miraculous at times.
After her selective muteness, Maya bonded with Mrs. Flowers, a Stamps intellectual who offered Maya poems and books to read. This connection to her love of reading, freed Maya from the trauma of her rape and allowed her to read a poem aloud in school.

Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings captured a troubled childhood but did so with humor, beauty, and strength found in a love of family and learning. She turned a difficult background into a work of triumph.