Book: A Piece of Cake

Book: A Piece of Cake: A Memoir
Author: Cupcake Brown
Year: 2006
Publisher: Three Rivers Press

I love discovering a new book. Sometimes it is just as interesting as the story itself. Often it is just by accident. My favourite book about the Holocaust was discovered at a bookstore closing for only 50 cents. My favourite trilogy was advertised in a magazine I was reading on the way home from Cedar Point. I also find a lot of good reads in the bargain section at Chapters. Why pay more when you can get it for a great deal?

Sometimes I wonder if I hadn’t walked into that closing sale…
Or if I hadn’t been bored and read that magazine…
Or if I didn’t shop in the bargain section…
Would I have ever discovered any of these books?

I can’t help but think probably not. And this particular book is no different. I was working as student assistant in my university’s athletic building. Mostly I just manned the door, demanding student cards for entry, but this particular day was different.

We were cleaning up after a high school robotics function and I discovered this book under the bleachers. I wasn't hard to miss. Its bright pink, sprinkle cover screamed up at me, A Piece of Cake: A Memoir by Cupcake Brown. I was hesitant. I mean a book about cakes?

I threw it to the side and continued with my cleaning. On break I read the back cover. The words sprang alive. Hustling. Prostitution. Drug Dealing. Gangbanging. Unlike its flashy cover, the novel seemed to be dark and grim. Not a feel good book.

At the bottom, had a picture of a middle-aged lawyer named Cupcake Brown and this was actually her memoir.

I was intrigued. How do you go from gangbanging to being a San Francisco lawyer? I stashed it in my book bag. The robotics competition was long over and there was little chance that the person who had left it would be returning for it.

The novel starts off with a bang. Cupcake finds her mother dead, her father turns out not to be her biological one, and the biological father wants nothing but insurance money so he throws her into foster care along with her brother. The insanity of foster life drives her into a new world of sex, drugs and violence. There is no one left who cares about her so why should she care how she self-destructs?

The story is quite graphic. She gives details into her gang world that she eventually leaves behind. There is also her hard drug use and alcohol. She experiments with cocaine and LSD. She will trade nearly anything for drugs including sex.

The author’s brief bio on the back cover gives the ending away. It is clear that if she becomes a prominent lawyer that she finds a road to recovery. And she does but it isn’t without a lot of struggle and it doesn’t happen overnight. Coming clean to her boss about her drug use is just the beginning. She actually never sees herself as drug addict (many users don't) and she truly believes that she would be able to stop at any time. She doesn’t realize how little she knows about addiction.

She finds counselling in woman named Venita or just V as Cupcake usually refers to her. V is a recovered addict and doesn’t take any of Cupcakes nonsense or excuses. As a former addict, she knows how much bull a recovering addict can come up with and it is because of her firm guidelines that Cupcake begins to see success in her own life.

As the story winds to a close, I can’t believe what great book I found. I pass it along to all my fellow reading friends so they too can be inspired by the story of Cupcake Brown.

This was until I told a co-worker to read it. She just had to burst my bubble and put that seed of doubt in my mind.

She too loved to read and when I suggested the book, she just happened to be reading it. What are the chances? She said it was okay, but said she just wasn’t convinced by it. How could she not love it? And then she reminded me of James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces and how his story brought millions of people together to believe that people could overcome their horrible past when in reality he made most of it up.

And then I couldn’t think of Cupcake’s story in the same light. As someone who isn’t an addict, it would be difficult for me to remember the amount of details she recalls in her story. I could give a good account of it, but it definitely wouldn’t be exact. How did I think someone who was so strung out on drugs at the time would be able to recall all the events she had experienced in her past life? Was this just another case where the person wrote it as "they" remembered it?

I am still unsure of my feelings towards the book. A good read: yes. A true memoir: questionable.