I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (1969)

 

"Caged Bird" is a coming of age memoir told through the eyes of  Maya (a nickname for Marguerite given to her by her brother Bailey) as a child from age three to 17. She tells of being shuttled between family members and the rape by her mother's boyfriend that she endured at the age of eight. Soon after the rape and sudden death of her rapist (after he was found guilty), she decided to become mute: "I though if I spoke, my mouth would just issue out something that would kill people, randomly, so it was better not to talk." This lasted five years and forced a certain attention to the words and actions of other people.

 

At the end of this portion of her life story (Angelou has other memoirs), when she is 17, she becomes obsessed with her body and sexuality. She asks a neighbor boy to sleep with her, and she conceives and gives birth to a son. The book ends with Maya's mother coaching her on motherhood, and Maya's blissful realization that it is her choice and responsibility to take care of this newborn creature.

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Ben Yagoda closes out Memoir: A History (page 270) with: “Sometimes we encounter a puffed-up braggart who is the hero of every story, or else the victim; we doubt his every other word. An aggrieved tone, or a low talker who invades our personal space, or someone who gets too intimate too soon? We’re looking for the nearest exit. Someone who seems to remember too many details from too long ago is dubious, too. Once in a while the person talking is just plain funny; the wink in her eye and the tone of her voice tells us we shouldn’t take anything she says too literally. Then there are the prodigious storytellers. They look us straight in the eye, and they have us from the first word. There may be—there probably are—hidden deceptions in these people’s tales. But we never find them out.”

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