Eleven-year-old Cupcake Brown woke up on the bicentennial and found her mother still in bed. She struggled to wake her up, pushing and pulling until she managed to tug her mother's lifeless corpse onto her own small body, crushing her beneath its dead weight. After squeezing out from under her mother, Cupcake calmly walked over to the phone and called her aunt Lori. Lori, my momma's dead. Here is the threshold of a hell for young Cupcake. Rather than being allowed to live with the man she believed to be her father--who ...
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Eleven-year-old Cupcake Brown woke up on the bicentennial and found her mother still in bed. She struggled to wake her up, pushing and pulling until she managed to tug her mother's lifeless corpse onto her own small body, crushing her beneath its dead weight. After squeezing out from under her mother, Cupcake calmly walked over to the phone and called her aunt Lori. Lori, my momma's dead. Here is the threshold of a hell for young Cupcake. Rather than being allowed to live with the man she believed to be her father--who turns out to have been her stepfather--she is forced into a foster home where the kids were terrorized, the refrigerator padlocked, and Cupcake sexually abused. She eventually fled the house, only to find herself wandering from misadventure to misadventure in the system, while also developing a massive appetite for drugs and alcohol, an appetite she paid for by turning tricks. She settled down in Los Angeles and found a home in the Crips, where she was taken in and befriended by gangsters like the legendary Monster Kody Scott. For the first time she found a family, but when Cupcake was blasted in the back with a 12-gauge shotgun, she was once more taken in by the system. At 16, her stepfather reeneters her life and engineers an emancipation, in which the courts declare her an adult and free her, finally, from the child welfare system. Cup takes advantage of her new freedom to start a drug-dealing operation with her stepfather, who also manages a stable of colorful prostitutes. Soon she meets a man, falls in love, and gets married. He convinces her to get a real job and learn to speak proper English--but he also abuses her and introduces her to crack cocaine. Cupcake flits from job to job, miraculously, given that she never fails to show up without some cocktail of narcotics floating in her system. She hits rock bottom when, in desperation, she steals crack from her drug dealer. He beats her nearly to death, rapes her, and then leaves her body behind a dumpster. Cupcake wakes up days later, not sure of how she ended up in this state and from that moment begins to turn her life around. She was adopted by a lawyer who ran the law firm where she worked, and slowly he assisted her in kicking the habit--with the help of an eccentric group of fellow addicts who became, at last, a family to her--and catching up on her education. With the support of her new family, she eventurally goes all the way to law school (although not without a few additional misadventures along the way) and joins one of the top law firms in the country. Cupcake's story is an inspiring, at times hilarious, often distrubing, and deeply moving account of a singular woman who took on the worst of contemporary urban life and survived it with wit and a ferocious will. It updates classic memoirs like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Makes Me Wanna Holler, and gives a bold and gritty spin to contemporary memoirs like Finding Fish. At the center of it, Cupcake is a charming and inspiring narrator through the inferno of her life.
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This is one of the best memoirs I've read in a long time. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to read true stories about real people we can relate to!!
Soltera
Jan 1, 2009
Disturbing and Addicting Read
I picked up this book not knowing what to expect but a woman who turned her life around after her addiction to drugs. The author gave graphic details (which I appreciated because unless you experience it you never know) accounts of her life from the beginning where she was a happy child who after losing her mother, was suddenly taken from her home and entered a life of sexual, verbal, and physical abuse that eventually lead to drugs and prostitution as a means of survival. Reading this book was at times disturbing because you can't imagine a child going through such abuse but at the same time I could not put the book down. The only downfall I would say is that the book is lengthy and by the time I was a little more than halfway, she was still talking about her addictions and I was ready to read about how she had changed her life. Overall I highly recommend the book especially for anyone knowing someone with an addiction or having an addiction themself. She endured this lifestyle for years but eventually changed which is proof that anyone can change with will and determination.
Supportive
Feb 28, 2008
Excellent!!
My very best friend has been addicted to cocaine for the majority of his life; he started using at 17 and is currently 39 years old. He entered rehab back in July 2007, where he currently remains, learning to live/cope with life's challenges without the use of cocaine, alcohol, etc. A very close friend of mine recommended that I encourage my friend to buy/read "A Piece of Cake" for inspiration - that if Cupcake Brown can bring it under control and live a healthy life without drugs, etc., so can he. And so, I purchased this book and took it to Ron on my monthly visit to his rehab community. "A Piece of Cake" was a hit with Ron, easy reading, and hit the nail on the head as to where he was coming from in life - nothing much in his favor, with drugs being his only outlet. Ron read this book quickly and has donated it to the rehab community as a "must-read" for anyone who also wants to be reminded that life can be lived without addiction to drugs. I highly reccommend this book as inspirational reading to anyone who either has a friend/family member that is addicted or in recovery, and most definitely to anyone who is an addict. It hits the nail on the head.
MBoy
Oct 22, 2007
Raw and honest
Cupcake Brown walks us through her life without apologies. Many people of the world today live in seemingly impossible circumstances. She gives them a voice and a belief that everyone is capable of great things. Her perseverance and authenticity gives any reader hope to follow their dreams and passions.
Sarah
Apr 4, 2007
Startling!
If you want a real look into the life of an addict turned professional with all the bells and whistles, this is it and more. Although one would think this is your typical "I blame my past for my present" lamentation, you would be surprised to find the unapologetic tone of the book very appealing. The read can become a bit lengthy, but just as one cannot edit out any small parts of their life, it would do no good to shorten this memoir. All points are integral to understanding the struggles and successes of this character. Prepare to be inspired.
