A Piece of Cake: A Memoir

A Piece of Cake: A Memoir is an autobiography by Cupcake Brown. The novel describes her descent into teenage prostitution and drug addiction. Although doubt has been raised as to the veracity of much of what transpired in the novel, Brown maintains that the events in the book are real.[1]

Plot summary

This novel provides a first-person account of Cupcake Brown's triumph over adversity. She largely adopts a colloquial writing style which makes the book a very approachable work for readers. She also has a tendency to end various chapters with sentences which direct the reader to imminent events in her life. For example, she concludes one of the chapters in her biography with: 'Little did I know, I really was leaving Lancaster for good.'

The story begins in January 1976 when the female protagonist gives a short account of why her mother named her Cupcake. Cupcake Brown's mother died in 1976, when Cupcake was 11. Since her biological father only acquired custody because he wanted to receive social security checks, she and her brother were placed in an abusive stranger's foster home, along with several other children. Their foster mother, Diane, forced them to clean her entire house every day and beat them if she wasn't satisfied. Diane's daughter, Connie, was also slightly sadistic in terms of the way she derived pleasure from tormenting Cupcake and the other children who resided in the foster home. For example, she is quick to point out to Cupcake that she is the real child of Diane as opposed to being a foster child. In Connie's mind, she believes that her 'status' entitles her to cause trouble for the foster children in any way that her cruel mind will allow.

Within days of arriving, Cupcake is raped by her foster mother's nephew, Pete. Cupcake provides a frank account of how Pete thrusts a glass of rum and coke into her hand, tells her to drink it and how everything happened so fast afterwards. Although the drink makes Cupcake feel very good at first, she proceeds to relate what she describes as being a nightmare. She also decides that since God took her mother away from her as well as allowing the rape to happen to her, then He must not like Cupcake very much. She then decides that she hates God.

After months of unrelenting abuse, Cupcake runs away and ends up meeting a prostitute, Candy, who teaches her about life on the streets, how to smoke marijuana, and charge for sex as a prostitute. Cupcake 'turns her first trick' at the age of eleven. Her next foster father, under the guise of "cheerleading practice" traded her LSD and cocaine for oral sex. She moved in with her great aunt in South Central Los Angeles, where she joined a gang. She narrowly survived a shooting when she was barely 16, and she left the gang. Her boyfriend taught her how to freebase and introduced her to crack. Soon, she was a "trash-can junkie," indulging in as many drugs as she could find. When she woke up behind a dumpster one morning, scarcely dressed and more than near death, she admitted that she needed help. She then attends an addiction clinic, where she embarks upon her road to recovery, which is successful.

Reception

Bestseller

The book was a Sunday Times No. 1 Ultimate Best Seller.

References

  1. ↑ Rowe, Peter (2006-03-26). "'I'm the real thing': Cupcake Brown's up-from-the-gutter memoir doesn't go down easily in a cynical world". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
  2. ↑ "Rev. of A Piece of Cake: A Memoir". Publishers Weekly 252 (46): 36. 2005-11-21.
  3. ↑ "Rev. of A Piece of Cake: A Memoir". Kirkus Reviews 73 (24): 1306–1307. 2005-12-15.
  4. ↑ "Rev. of A Piece of Cake: A Memoir". Library Journal 131 (17): 96. 2006-10-15.

Reviews