Just as I Am

January 4, 2021
In her spirited debut memoir, actor Tyson recalls her extraordinary life, as well as the racial and gender stereotyping, movie-business prejudice, and ill-behaved men that shaped her seven-decade career. Tyson highlights her lifelong penchant for rebelling against convention and injustice, from speaking up against her straitlaced West Indian mother and her abandonment of an early marriage (an ordeal of “tedium and regret”) to fighting off an attempted sexual assault by acting teacher Paul Mann. She also discusses the importance of pushing back against excessive workplace demands. (“When the show’s director would not grant me the time off, I took it anyway.”) The memoir dives deep into Tyson’s reflections on how her performances affected audiences and fans, noting how “deeply satisfying” it was to hear from “those who approached me, tears in their eyes, to say how had touched them.” She also provides an intimate glimpse into her stormy marriage to jazz maestro Miles Davis, which ended in divorce. (“I felt no need to drape words on the hanger of inevitability. The marriage had long since been over.”) It’s in these poignant moments that the memoir becomes a resonant meditation on the link between an actress’s life and her art. This showstopping tale hits the mark.

After a deeply touching foreword by Oscar-winning actor Viola Davis and an introduction by the indomitable force that was Cicely Tyson (1924-2021)--narrator Robin Miles picks up the torch and delivers 16 riveting, thought-provoking hours on the life and times of the author. She was born in Harlem to parents who were West Indian immigrants. Her career in modeling and show business started late; she was 30 but was advised to say she was 10 years younger so that she wouldn't be "aged out" of work. Winner of the Spingarn Medal, the most distinguished honor the NAACP awards; a Kennedy Center honor; three Emmys; a Tony; an honorary Oscar; and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Tyson attributes her well-deserved success to luck, tenacity, and her personal relationship with God. In addition to being the first Black woman to star in a TV drama, she recalls her work in SOUNDER, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN, and as Kunta Kinte's mother in ROOTS, as well as many other groundbreaking roles. Robin Miles is truly remarkable as she relates wonderfully amusing anecdotes of Tyson's life in the public eye, as well as revealing painfully intimate moments with her parents, her own family, and jazz great Miles Davis, with whom she had a longtime, turbulent relationship. Robin Miles delivers all with an elegance, dignity, and charm that would make Tyson proud. This honest account of Cicely Tyson's life also tells of the history and trials of Black women over generations. She closes her memoir by saying that "Whenever God calls me home . . ., I want to be recalled as one who squared my shoulders in the service of Black women, as one who made us walk taller and envision greater for ourselves." This audiobook is a must-listen, thanks to the combined brilliance of Robin Miles's performance and the genteel grace that pervades Tyson's prose. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine