[.ca] A Song Flung Up to Heaven (ISBN 0375507477)

From Amazon.com:
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

a song flung up to heaven book reaview:
Nick short A song flung up to heaven book review 3/4/04 There were a lot of things I found in the book a song flung up to heaven. One of those things I found was that it was very insightful. I learned a lot about the history of blacks and whites in the United States. The chapters in the book could be very complex and sometimes very maundering. Maya Angelo is one of those writers that writes one chapter and explains that chapter in the next. Once you read one chapter she builds it so you can understand the second chapter. From my read prospective and reading level I found the book very easy to understand. The reading was very mature and infer stable. Her style is like a poem except in does not rhyme. The book a song flung up to heaven is an autobiography on a famous and by my option the best poet and writer ever. This book is one of the six books in her series. At the beginning it betrays her life as a black woman on a plan heading for the United States. She is one board a plain full of whites. The time was 1960 and blacks and whites would rage war to each other. Maya is forced to coop with the lost of one of her closed friends Malcolm x at the beginning of t he book. After the death of a close friend Malcolm x Angelou feels there is no reason for her to stay in America, but soon realizes that she needs to be part of the black community and fighting against poverty and saving the rights of blacks and pour people. During the novel she goes many different trials she is forced to understand the truth behind the fact that even blacks can be anti-black. She also talks of a controlling lover from Africa who she says "he tears my heart out of my chest and wars it on his shoulder". This is saying that the lover she had was taking away what she wanted to in life and not allowing her to for fill her wants and needs. She then realizes than she needs to live life for her self and is able to leave him. When Malcolm x died she was very angry and confused do to how they forgot about what contributions he gave to team. Maya angelus is not afraid to use dialoged that may be offensive because she is confident with what she writes. For example- the use of the word "niggard" because she is black and it might help the reader under stand the substance. Maya Angelo is a writer and a person who has fought along with the black community and protected the blacks and pours people what she writes. She is a visionary though her autobiography- miss Angelo shows her option about the angry nature between the blacks and whites. She does this se well that her option becomes our opion.She carried the weight of t h black people on her back. She still supports the pour and black commodity in what she writes in her books and poems.

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

Notes from an eyewitness to history:
"A Song Flung Up to Heaven" is the continuation of Maya Angelou's series of autobiographical narratives. This volume opens in the mid 1960s as Angelou returns to the United States from Africa with the intention of working with Malcolm X. The narrative follows Maya's life in Hawaii, California, and New York. Maya reflects on her work as a stage performer and aspiring writer, and reminisces about her relationships with her son, her mother, and her friends. The book is really fascinating as it tells of her relationships and encounters with many noteworthy people: Martin Luther King Jr., Nichelle Nichols, Rosa Guy, and others. The author paints a particularly warm and moving portrait of the great writer and activist James Baldwin. "Song" continues to explore many of the important themes of her other books, such as the relationship between Africans and African-Americans. Angelou does a good job of capturing intimate human relationships and placing them in the context of great movements in history. The book also looks at the genesis of her celebrated book "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." This is a well-written, very engaging book; I read all 212 pages in literally a single evening. I recommend as companion texts to this wonderful book the following: the previous volumes of Angelou's autobiography, the essays of James Baldwin, the autobiography of Malcolm X, Audre Lorde's "Zami," and any good collection of King's essays and speeches.

Like listening to history come alive!:
Heard A SONG FLUNG UP TO HEAVEN, written and read by Maya Angelou--the sixth volume of an autobiographical series that began more than 30 years ago with the appearance of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS. I had read CAGED BIRD, but nothing in-between . . . I now am tempted to go back to see what I've missed because I liked this latest volume so much . . . it was like listening to history come alive. Angelou has certainly lived an amazing life, having worked with Malcom X and then Martin Luther King, Jr. . . . she was there when Watts exploded in violence, and she also got to visit black churches all over America to support the Poor People's March. She never had it easy . . . as a child, she was the victim of abuse . . . and throughout the rest of life, she has had to overcome various other obstacles and prejudices . . . yet she has managed to survive and succeed and, as such, made her life (and this story) an inspirational one.

Her journey through life.:
Ms Angelou's A Song Flung Up To Heaven is a collection of her memoirs collaborated together to form this book of great historical events and how they effected her life. I was surprised at some of the events that have taken place in her life and how she chose to handle them. I was also baffled at the lifestyle she was living while networking with some of the black elite entertainers and leaders, which demonstrates it is not what you know but who you know. Ms Angelou hits hardest on her relationships with James Baldwin and the African, whom she never names. Although I thought she should have gone into more detail about her son Guy, she did express her love for him as well as her brother who had a profound affect on her stability as a woman. Ms. Angelou highlighted the Watts riots that took place in the 60's and all though she went into great detail about the riots, I think I may have missed the effects it had on her, nonetheless the actual events were well written and educational. I would definitely recommend this book. Stacy Campbell Apooo Bookclub