Angry-Ass Black Woman

You'd be angry, too, if you grew up poorer than poor in Harlem in the 1960s and '70s, a place of unrelenting violence, racism, crime, rape, scamming, drinking, and drugging. Living with a dad permanently checked out in Bellevue and a mom at the end of her rope raising you, your twin sister, and your two brothers, moving every time the money runs out--and doing what it takes to survive.

But there's more to her story. Ke-Ke Quinones was whip smart and sassy, a voracious reader of everything from poetry to the classics. No matter what, 117th Street--where you could always count on someone to stand up for you--would always be home. And with every hard-knock lesson learned, Ke-Ke grew fiercer, unleashing her inner angry-ass black woman to get through it all.

Decades later, comatose in a hospital bed after a medical crisis, she reflects on her life--her success as a journalist and renowned author, her tragicomic memories of Harlem, her turbulent marriage, the birth of her daughter, future possibilities--all the while surrounded by her splintered family in all of their sound and fury. Will she rise above once more?