This is the epigraph for Rabbit, and it seems particularly germane. Of course, unspoken is the damage life does to you before you learn how to fight back.

Rabbit is the nickname Patricia Williams was given as a kid, after she was seen sitting on a porch eating a carrot. The porch in question, where she lived, at her grandfather’s house/24-7-bar/distillery, was not long for this world. When a woman he was paying to have sex with his disabled son insulted him, Gramps shot her. Buh-bye residence, any form of stability, and affection of a non-toxic sort from an adult family member. It goes downhill from there.

I really enjoyed this book. As the teacher in charge of stocking the senior school library, I like to ensure that the books are diverse and the students are exposed to both excellent fiction and excellent modern non-fiction. I think that this is both a fascinating and well-written book that has much to recommend it and will keep the students interests. It is good to stretch their reading interests by providing them with books about subjects they might never have considered before and this definitely does the job well. It is also good to find books that I know the teaching staff might enjoy as well as the students and I definitely think that this applies in both cases. Absolutely recommend wholeheartedly; a fantastic read.

The story of Patricia Williams, aka Ms Pat, known as Rabbit, unveils a thread of love and belief in her, that made me believe she had unseen help along the way. Her life story begins with the hopelessness of entering the world in ‘The Hood’; the baby of an alcoholic uncaring mother and a childhood where crime is the only means of survival.

I have the utmost admiration for Patricia’s will to survive, first through crime from a horrendously young age, then through, I think, the deep love she has for those close to her. It takes a courageous and determined effort to change from survival mode to walk away from crime and to live legally.

Jeannine Amber, who writes the book for Patricia, captures her essence as an incredible human being with an honest sense of humour. Jeannine writes as if Patricia is speaking to her reader and Patricia’s voice quickly comes through.

I loved it when Patricia prays to God in her particular slang and she is answered with special, caring people who love her for what she is, not what she does. They are as tenacious as she is in transforming her life.

Beautiful, warm, compassionate, generous and caring with a dose of fabulous humour.
Enjoy!

BonnieK

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

<blockquote>The struggle nobody talks about is what it feels like to be invisible, or to know in your heart that nobody cares.</blockquote>
I always find it difficult to rate memoirs, as I don't think I can "rate" anyone's life, but this is about rating my reading experience. At first I thought I may not be able to finish this book as it is very much an in your face experience, and I was wondering if the author was trying to shock us with some of the sex talk and profanity, but I then realized this is the way it was, so she can't change that to make me more comfortable. A very quick, sad but inspiring read about how Rabbit turned her life around, but also showing me a world I knew nothing about. I think her husband must be a phenomenal person - he always believed in her, and never said no when he was asked to help out her family.
The Story: This stand-up comedian, who performs as Ms. Pat, grew up in Atlanta during the crack epidemic, one of five children of an alcoholic single mother. By 15, Ms. Williams had two children of her own. She went on to sell crack (she was shot twice) and spent time in jail. Now, living in Indianapolis, she is a regular guest on comedy podcasts and has appeared on television shows This stand-up comedian, who performs as Ms. Pat, grew up in Atlanta during the crack epidemic, one of five children of an alcoholic single mother. By 15, Ms. Williams had two children of her own. She went on to sell crack (she was shot twice) and spent time in jail.

A truly remarkable memoir. Heartbreaking at times but told with a humour that makes it clear that the author does not want pity. Brought up by an alcoholic mother in poverty that most of us cannot begin to imagine, 'Rabbit' is a mother of two herself by 15, does not finish high school and falls into drug dealing just as the crack epidemic is hitting the US. She pays tribute to the inspirational people who never gave up on her and convinced her that she could turn her life around. She admits that plenty of girls, brought up in similar circumstances, did not take the same path into drug dealing that she did but for her it was easy money which allowed her to provide for her family.
There is no doubt that dealers like her wreck lives but she clawed her way out and her story can hopefully show others that it is possible to turn your life around and there always people there to help.
My thanks to netgalley and the publishers for this copy.

https://sj2bhouseofbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/rabbit-memoir-by-patricia-williams.html

This brutally honest memoir begins with the five-year-old Rabbit living at her grandfather's home from which he runs an illegal liquor house. Rabbit regularly has to navigate her way through a living room floor full of drunken bodies, but life with her grandfather, as Ms Pat reminisces, 'were the best times'. Then 'Miss Betty' demands a drink during grandfather's favourite television show and he shoots her for the interruption. Life changes 'for the worse' after he is jailed for the shooting.

Mildred, an alcoholic with a frightening, explosive temper, is incapable of looking after Rabbit and her four siblings. Rabbit's childhood is filled with hunger, alcohol, drugs, abuse on every level, and instead of protecting her, or showing any affection her mother would, as Rabbit tells us “...get drunk off her gin, whoop me with an extension cord, call me ugly, and tell me to take my ass to bed.”

By the time Rabbit is 15 years old, she's already a mother of two. At 17 she's is a damned good hustler (drug dealer) providing extremely well for her family and her children's father Derrick, and been shot twice. Life is good again, but since the latest shooting Rabbit realises that she wants a safer life for her kids.

As much as I don't condone Ms Pat's early career choices her memoir demonstrates the struggles of everyday life in 'the hood', and of the attraction to make a choice which results in either being able to eat and keep a roof over your head, or not. With what seems no alternative Rabbit takes the only solution, to her problems, handed to her at the time.

Ms Pat's ability to turn the most awful moments in her life into a comedy sketch show is mind blowing and I can't remember the times I laughed out loud.
One particular scene I found uncomfortably funny was when a naive Rabbit (yep, Rabbit the 17 year old mother of two, crack dealing entrepreneur, still is unbelievably naive in so many ways) purchases an outfit for her mother to be buried in. It's only when Dre whispers to her and says "why Mama wearing these ho clothes? She look like she on her way to sell pussy in hell.”, does she realise her faux pas.

As difficult as it was reading about a young child living in poverty, suffering cruelty, hunger, neglect and abuse, Ms Pat's retrospective humour pulled me through resulting in a captivating read that I couldn't leave for any length of time. So candidly written with dignity, and spades of humour, that not one moment did I feel sorry for Ms Pat, however I was horrified and appalled at the awful treatment and cruelty Rabbit and her siblings endured.

Rabbit isn't a 'pity party' memoir, with a handful of caring adults, from Ms.Troup an 'Angel In Leather Boots' who made Rabbit promise to dream, to numerous others who appear like Guardian Angels just at the right moment to help show her the way, it's a surprisingly uplifting read that sparkles with wit and optimism and is an inspiration for others wanting to turn their lives around and to those Guardian Angels feeling their help is completely unheeded.

A few memorable quotes:
I snorted with laughter on the bus at this one;
"Mama didn’t trust a doctor, so whenever something was wrong..., she liked to do the diagnosing herself ... Over the years she’d told me I had infantigo, trench mouth, chicken pox, sour stomach, a case of the nerves, and fleas. No matter what the ailment, the remedy was always “rub some Vicks on it.”

A 'bitter sweet' or rather 'sweet bitter' quote about being able to depend on someone when all else is failing is this one, "At least we have Bill Cosby.”

And, this poignant statement;
"I don’t know what made Mama act so crazy, or how love and anger got so mixed up in her head. All I know is by the time I met Derrick, when I was twelve years old, everything I knew about relationships was what I’d learned from her."

Highly recommended.

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.

This memoir is both heartbreaking and uplifting; told with such candour and gritty detail about the abject poverty 'Rabbit' experienced as a child . I wasn't familiar with Ms Pat's comedy career before reading this book, which I will now rectify, but it didn't matter, this story grabs you hard and even after you've finished you're left thinking about how privileged so many are in comparison to many,many children (& adults) living every day abused, neglected, invisible like this, knowing that though this memoir is shocking it is by no means an exception.
The enduring spirit of Rabbit, and her determination to make life better for her family was so inspiring, and the support she received from various people both gives hope and encourages you to be the difference in someone's life.

I received this book via Netgalley, other than the fact it was an autobiography I knew nothing about it before I started reading.
This is a compelling, fascinating story of a poor, single black woman living in the hood where poverty, crime and drugs were rife.
I could not put this book down, but saying that I did TWICE to look the title up and check that it really was an autobiography because it read more like a family drama. Boy did this lady have life hard, she had more experiences under her belt by the time she was pregnant with her first child at the age of 13 than many of us ever have to endure.
Despite all that she went through 'Rabbit' never felt sorry for herself or her circumstances, she just kept her eye on the road ahead, got on with things, even taking responsibility for others along the way and adopted an optimistic outlook most of us would have found impossible had we been in her shoes.
I understand that the author is now a successful stand-up comedian in the States and this says an awful lot about Patricia Williams. What a very, very long way she has come! What a special lady she is. I thoroughly recommend this book.

Let's just say it now - this book is bloody brilliant. I had pretty much no idea who Patricia Williams when I was sent this book but it sounded intriguing. But it wasn't what I was expecting. I expected a true life tale of hardship in the ghetto, maybe a bit of a tear jerker - to be honest not my usual type of book. What I got was been transported to a world I know nothing about and feeling like I was there in the streets with her. Yes there were moments that moved me to tears...but not just empathetic tears - tears of laughter too. Her story takes us from a hungry kid just trying to get by to a pregnant 13 year old. Then a drug dealer and foster mother to six children as well as her own two. She doesn't apologize for what she did to get by, wringing her hands etc. No the story is told in a matter of fact way, with humour and self deprecation whilst declaring anyone can change if they really want to. Truly inspiring.

This was a revelation of a book, honest and raw with both pathos and humour, which is a hard combination to get right. It's an important book to read for people like me who have little understanding of the inherent struggles of being born into a life of poverty and lack of opportunity and who can therefore be quick to judge those who fall between the cracks.
I was hooked from the start and it was the lack of self-pity which really drew me in - she just lived her life the best way she knew how and even the unsympathetic people like her mother and first boyfriend eleicited compassion because they were as trapped in a cycle as she was, only without the 'angels' she credits with her ability to break out of it.

I had never heard of Patricia Williams. I am so glad I read this book. It is an inspirational story. Rabbit managed to get out of poverty and earn money legitimately. She has raised her own children and also raised her sisters children for 10 years and helped her niece with her children as well. No child should have to live like Rabbit did. It is a heartbreaking story in a lot of places but it is also a story of hope. The hope that it is possible to improve your circumstances. The kind people who helped Rabbit show that there is good in this world.

This was a great read, a real page turner. What a terrible childhood Rabbit had, I'm glad she turned her life around. No child should live like this.

Truly amazing!

Patricia Williams is apparently quite a famous stand-up comic in the USA, not surprisingly I have never heard of her so had no concept of who she is or where she came from, and how she managed to escape the circumstance of her birth. I thus approached this memoir with no expectations other than a natural curiosity about someone else’s life and particularly her nickname ‘Rabbit’. She was raised by her mother in circumstances that were pitiable. Living in the ghetto, a crime and drug infested place with all the attendant deprivations the name suggests. Together with her brothers and sisters Rabbit saw many a day without proper food (a ketchup sandwich was often dinner), and they lived in squalor and changed homes frequently, each worse than the last. By the age of 15 she had two children. We discover how Rabbit managed to survive against the odds, assuming responsibility for her sisters’ children, and others. She was blessed with four things; she was intelligent but uneducated and time after time she met with an individual that mentored her and supported her; from a case worker to a man who owned the launderette providing support and help with the children and she acknowledges how she could not have managed without the help of these many and diverse individuals.

Patricia’s voice is very matter-of-fact, obviously in dialect but the humour is always present, not to mask the horrors of her childhood but just as an observation as to ‘that is the way it was’.

I could not but help be captivated; first by the tragedy of people (and children at that) living such a life just a few years ago, in one of the richest countries in the world but secondly by the sheer strength of her voice and her will to beat all odds, surviving criminal activity, being shot, and gathering an expanding family in a home she could never have imagined.

Powerful stuff – well written, captivating and a credit to all involved in the publication of such a vivid, mind-blowing but ultimately a testimony to the strength of Rabbit who could see beyond the pain and relate the humour.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry reading this book. Patricia rights about her harrowing childhood and early adulthood with a touch of comedy. To survive what she did and still be able to laugh, and make others laugh, shows what a strong woman she has become.

Thank you Netgalley for my copy.

Sorry not for me. I persevered to 30% but I didn't like the style of writing, the storyline or the characters.