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An Angry-Ass Black Woman

This sassy, shocking autobiographical novel captures the racial tensions, the hardships, and the bonds that formed between families and neighbors growing up poor in Harlem.

The Essence bestselling author of Uptown Dreams delivers a fictionalized look at the life she lived before she achieved success as an established writer. “Ke-Ke” (Kay-Kay) grew up on 117th Street in extreme poverty. After an accident leaves her in a coma in her late forties, her beloved family around her in the hospital, she remembers moments from her childhood and the events that would later shape her desires to get out of Harlem and make something of herself. Her sometimes poignant and sometimes hilarious memories—like trying to rob the landlord to pay her family’s back rent—are interspersed with her present-day family’s concerns for her health. Filled with vibrant anecdotes about childhood in Harlem and her journey from dropping out of school, to re-entering and graduating from college, becoming a journalist and then an author, Miller showcases the love experienced by her family and neighbors and the bond secured between them as part of their common upbringing.