The Heart of a Woman [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Maya Angelou (Author, Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 13, 2001

Maya Angelou has fascinated, moved, and inspired  countless readers with the first three volumes of  her autobiography, one of the most remarkable  personal narratives of our age. Now, in her fourth  volume, The Heart of a Woman, her  turbulent life breaks wide open with joy as the  singer-dancer enters the razzle-dazzle of fabulous  New York City. There, at the Harlem Writers Guild,  her love for writing blazes anew.

Her  compassion and commitment lead her to respond to the  fiery times by becoming the northern coordinator  of Martin Luther King's history-making quest. A  tempestuous, earthy woman, she promises her heart to  one man only to have it stolen, virtually on her  weding day, by a passionate African freedom  fighter.

Filled with unforgettable vignettes of  famous characters, from Billie Holiday to Malcolm  X, The Heart of a Woman sings  with Maya Angelou's eloquent prose -- her fondest  dreams, deepest disappointments, and her dramatically  tender relationship with her rebellious teenage  son. Vulnerable, humorous, tough, Maya speaks with  an intimate awareness of the heart within all of  us.


From the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Oprah Book Club® Selection, May 1997: Maya Angelou has had more lives than the proverbial cat, and in The Heart of a Woman she continues the account of her remarkable life begun in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In the first book of her bestselling autobiographical series, she describes her traumatic childhood in the small, segregated town of Stamps, Arkansas, during the 1930s. Gather Together in My Name picks up the story in the postwar years, when Maya, a single teenager with an infant son becomes, in short order, a cook, a madam, a dancer, and a prostitute. Next comes Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas, an account of her twenties and her unsuccessful first marriage to a white man. The Heart of a Woman, the fourth in the series, takes us through one of the most exciting and formative periods of Angelou's amazing life: her beginnings as a writer and an activist in New York.

Angelou has a happy knack of attracting the best and the brightest into her orbit, and The Heart of a Woman offers a veritable cornucopia of black luminaries in its pages. Singer Billie Holiday, writers John Ellins and Paule Marshall, jazz musicians Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, and actors Godfrey Cambridge and James Earl Jones--Maya meets and learns from them all. Political activism soon follows as Ms. Angelou first organizes a theatrical benefit for the Reverend Martin Luther King and then becomes the director of the New York Southern Christian Leadership Conference office. Her involvement in the civil rights movement eventually brings her into contact with African freedom fighters Oliver Tambo and the charming Vusumzi Make, whom she marries and follows to Africa.

The Heart of a Woman is as honest, painful, funny, outraged, and outrageous as Angelou herself. From her debut at the Apollo Theatre to her meeting with Malcolm X, Maya Angelou gives us something to cheer about and plenty to ponder as well. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Remarkable... a great lady moving right on  through a great memoir." -- Kirkus  Reviews


From the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Random House Audio Voices; Abridged edition (November 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375420185
• ISBN-13: 978-0375420184
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,439,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Maya Angelou has been waitress, singer, actress, dancer, activist, filmmaker, writer and mother. As well as her autobiography she has written several volumes of poetry, including 'On the Pulse of the Morning' for the inauguration of President Clinton. She now has a life-time appointment as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Triumph and Tragedy, May 1, 2000

By 

Katherine Neis - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heart of a Woman (Paperback)

The Heart of a Woman is a continuation of Angelou's autobiography, chronicling her adult life as a mother, wife and freedom fighter. The story begins with her decision to move to New York in the late 1950's when Martin Luther King and Malcom X were the most central political figures of that time. There she begins to write, produces the Cabaret of Freedom, a collaboration of performances given to raise money for the SCLC, becomes employed then by the SCLC in a position only held by men previously. Shortly after she has been working such a prestigious job, she meets and marries an African freedom-fighter who wisks Angelou and her son, Guy, off to Cairo where she knows noone. Maya Angelou appears to create good out of bad, a woman faced with tragedy numerous times throughout her life, yet comes out triumphant and victorious each time. Never did I feel as if I was being led to lament with her difficulties. On the contrary, I felt admiration for a woman who inhabited a strong sense of self and an even stronger zest for living. An inspirational story I would recommend to anyone.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars So many differences, yet so similar, November 30, 1999

By 

Carrie - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heart of a Woman (Paperback)

The first time I heard Maya A. speak, I had the little hairs at the back of my neck stand upright! I was moved and in awe.

I have read several of her works, all of which were cherished. However, after reading "Heart" I felt a deeper awareness. I am a middle class, white woman. I will NEVER understand the hate, fear, and anger experienced by anyone of color- no matter how much I learn, no matter how much I empathize. What I will share with all races is that emotions are emotions, no matter the color. Raising a child, falling in love and then realizing, "Oops, wrong one"...parental love, fear, anger...all make us human. I feel closer to this world for having forced myself to think about past misery and hatred. I wish my children the grace and dignity displayed by a remarkable woman. Thank You for reaching my soul.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You never know what's in a woman's heart, August 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Heart of a Woman (Paperback)

Maya Angelou impresses me. What a life! So many lives at the same: it's crazy. I've just watched a movie (featuring Wesley Snipes) that she has recently directed and which reminded of the kind of woman that I thought she was when I read her "Heart": compassionate, human...

Reading Angelou made me aware of what it is was to be a woman and a mother in America. I've read about fictional characters that had comparable difficulties and faced them with astonishing courage and endurance, but reading Maya made it more real for me. Doing that while one has so many commitments at the same time certainly compels admiration.

Words are inadequate to express how I felt to enter the heart of a woman that has so many experiences to share and read a book that is so simply and yet masterfully written.

In this review, I didn't want to be academic and all (commenting on the themes, the syntax, the structure, etc.). I just wanted to communicated what Maya's heart has put in my heart. Go for it, it's humanizing and worth-reading.