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$8.99
Used
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Trade Paperback
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9781400052295
Overview
Overview
There are shelves of memoirs about overcoming the death of a parent, childhood abuse, rape, drug addiction, miscarriage, alcoholism, hustling, gangbanging, near-death injuries, drug dealing, prostitution, or homelessness. Cupcake Brown survived all these things before she'd even turned twenty. And that's when things got interesting... You have before you the strange, heart-wrenching, and exhilarating tale of a woman named Cupcake. It begins as the story of a girl orphaned twice over, once by the death of her mother and then again by a child welfare system that separated her from her stepfather and put her into the hands of an epically sadistic foster parent. But there comes a point in her preteen years--maybe it's the night she first tries to run away and is exposed to drugs, alcohol, and sex all at once--when Cupcake's story shifts from a tear-jerking tragedy to a dark comic blues opera. As Cupcake's troubles grow, so do her voice and spirit. Her gut-punch sense of humor and eye for the absurd, along with her outsized will, carry her through a fateful series of events that could easily have left her dead. Young Cupcake learned to survive by turning tricks, downing hard liquor, partying like a rock star, and ingesting every drug she could find while hitchhiking up and down the California coast. She stumbled into gangbanging, drug dealing, hustling, prostitution, theft, and, eventually, the best scam of all: a series of 9-to-5 jobs. But Cupcake's unlikely tour through the cubicle world was paralleled by a quickening descent into the nightmare of crack cocaine use, till she eventually found herself living behind a Dumpster. Astonishingly, she turned it around. With the help of a cobbled together family of eccentric fellow addicts and "angels"--a series of friends and strangers who came to her aid at pivotalmoments--she slowly transformed her life from the inside out. A Piece of Cake is unlike any memoir you'll ever read. Moving and almost transgressive in its frankness, it is a relentlessly gripping tale of a resilient spirit who took on the worst of contemporary urban life and survived it with a furious wit and unyielding determination. Cupcake Brown is a dynamic and utterly original storyteller who will guide you on the most satisfying, startlingly funny, and genuinely affecting tour through hell you'll ever take.
- Format: TradePaperback
- Author: Brown, Cupcake
- ISBN: 9781400052295
- Condition: Used
- Dimensions: 9.10 x 1.00
- Number Of Pages: 472
- Publication Year: 2007
Customer Reviews
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Great Read
April B. - 5 years 8 months agoIt was an amazing read, it had me engulfed as if I knew her personally. I even cried and felt the pain she endured. Great book! #BannedBook
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Think you've had a bad life?
Merideth E. - 5 years 9 months agoThis memoir is hard to put down! The author grabs you from the first page and the suspense and hard times just keep coming! If you are someone who has had a difficult childhood and second guessing your ability to make something of yourself then this is the book for you. Caution, this book is very graphic and detailed. This is the story of Cupcake Brown, yes that is her real name...She's been through hell and back and creates a portal into her life through this book. For someone who has been through the ringer, she was able to overcome tragic obstacles and make something of herself. If Cupcake can do it, you can, too!
HPB Staff Review -
Must read
Alana T. - 6 years agoThe story of Cupcake will have you from cover to cover in her memoir. I could not put this book down! The was she shares her story will have you feeling what all she experienced and for her to be so young will have you cry, mad and overjoyed with her triumph. A definite must read nor non fiction lovers.