Patricia started life on the lowest rung of society: poor, black, and female. With an alcoholic for a mother and four siblings, she was raised on a steady diet of welfare, food stamps and cigarette smoke. By the age of 15 she had two children, and by the age of 16 she was dealing drugs to support her young family. Growing up in a family that had been stuck in the ghetto for generations, it seemed impossible Patricia would ever escape.
But when she was shot be a rival drug dealer in front her own children; Patricia made the life-changing decision to turn it all around. With a combination of grit, stubbornness, anger and love - and the kindness of others - she fought to break the cycle of poverty for the next generation. Now a stand-up comedian performing as Ms. Pat, she lives the maxim that the best healing comes through humour.
***
[WE'D BEEN LIVING in our new place in Indianapolis for only a couple of days when I heard a knock on the front door]***
(Ebury Press, 17 August 2017 (first published 2016), copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed)
***
***
Rabbit: A Memoir touched me in a way tha a book hasn't in a long time.
By the time I was reading the epilogue I was crying so hard I could hardly see.
This is not an easy memoir to read. It's raw and damn painful at times, so painful it felt like someone was trying to peel my skin off my bones.
I thought I knew what to expect reading this memoir; poor black woman, drinks too much, raises her kids, dirt poor family, etc, etc...
Rabbit blew me away but it's much bigger than the sum of its parts.
At time I read this memoir, open-mouthed in disbelief and horror thinking that can't have happened, surely - but it did. One of the most painful parts to read is when Ms Pat gets pregnant at thirteen to her married twenty-year old 'boyfriend'. I could have punched her mother for her don't give a crap attitude.
Ms Pat's story could have turned out a lot differently. She may never have gotten out of the hood. I'm glad she did and found the courage to share her heart-breaking story with us.
