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I must have read at least a part of this book decades back, as the beginning was familiar to me. At this reading so many questions surfaced in my mind.
* In previous volumes Angelou presents herself as almost the poster child of hatred and fear of whites, particularly white men (though it was a black man who raped her as a child, and another black man who turned her out as a prostitute). When she's not actively enraged by them, she is busy ignoring them as if they don't exist, particularly white women. In this volume she marries a white man. Her explanation for this about face? "Because he asked me." Uh-huh. Of course she tells herself he's "not really white" as he is a Greek American. I've met white Americans who believe that people from the Mediterranean countries aren't really white, which is news to those of us who live here, but it surprised me in Angelou. I guess you can rationalise anything if you really want to. Her marriage to this controlling, isolating man apparently comes to an end shortly after she attends a Pentecostal church service and is so carried away that she "forgets" and gives them her real name and phone number, enraging her husband when he answers a phone call from a church member. Was it really a mistake, or was she looking for a way out?

* She works in a strip club as what would today be known as an "exotic dancer." Why was this her "only" option of employment? I couldn't help wondering why acquiring marketable skills such as typing was quite so far beneath her. I've known plenty of journeyman musicians/actors who took jobs waiting tables, as temporary office staff etc. while studying or getting started in their careers, but not Angelou, oh no no no. She couldn't lower herself to that! Because taking off your clothes for men to ogle is more empowering, and a sure path to stardom. Uh-huh.

* When she joins an all-black theatre company touring with Porgy and Bess, she is no less critical of fellow cast members than of the whites who helped her get the break. She repeatedly describes them as "loud", "noisy" etc as if she found them embarrassing to be around. No wonder she feels her friendships among them are not solid. On her side, they're not. She is supposedly the "first dancer" in the troupe but there is no mention of rehearsal or choreography. We are led to believe the unbelievable--that she just pranced on stage and let the music take her away. Yeah. The director will love that.

*Despite her own repeatedly declared need to be seen as a wonderful creative individual, she herself appears to think of other peoples and cultures in facile stereotypes. All she sees of the Italians is the curly hair and waving hands, the Germans wear starched white shirts and sup beer, the Greeks are all handsome and exotic...and beneath her notice, etc. Hmmmm.

*She repeatedly speaks of the Yugoslav people as having "stainless steel teeth" or "the bar of metal that substituted for teeth" as if they had all had them pulled and replaced. Where does she get this? I've never read or heard of it from any other source.

*In her first memoir she speaks of her son Guy. In book 2 he is just "my son/my baby/my child." Suddenly in this volume he is Clyde, and we are told that was his given name until he decided his name was Guy. Confusing to say the least, but as 8 years passed between the two volumes, perhaps like many authors she just forgot the parameters she herself set up. The book is cut off in mid-conversation, a device I dislike in any writer.

I can't figure out if she is self-deprecating when she speaks of her stereotypical thinking and impulsive, foolish actions and choices, or if she really was that wrong headed. Her angry superiority to all around her carries over into later books, which makes me wonder why she is such an icon to so many readers. Having praised the book with faint damns, I will say it was a vast improvement on Volume 2.