D. Watkins - The Cook Up: A Crack Rock Memoir
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- Book:The Cook Up: A Crack Rock Memoir
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- Year:2016
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The Cook Up: A Crack Rock Memoir: summary, description and annotation
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Reminiscent of the classic Random Family and The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, but told by the man who lived it, THE COOK UP is a riveting look inside the Baltimore drug trade portrayed in The Wire and an incredible story of redemption.
The smartest kid on his block in East Baltimore, D. was certain he would escape the life of drugs, decadence, and violence that had surrounded him since birth. But when his brother Devin is shot-only days after D. receives notice that hes been accepted into Georgetown University-the plans for his life are exploded, and he takes up the mantel of his brothers crack empire. D. succeeds in cultivating the family business, but when he meets a woman unlike any hes known before, his priorities are once more put into question. Equally terrifying and hilarious, inspiring and heartbreaking, D.s story offers a rare glimpse into the mentality of a person who has escaped many hells.
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In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.
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Some names, relationships, and locations were changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.
Copyright 2016 by Dwight Watkins
Cover copyright 2016 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Reading Group Guide copyright 2016 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Cover design by Post Typography
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.
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First ebook edition: May 2016
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ISBN 978-1-4555-8864-0
E320160321JVPC
The Beast Side: Living (and Dying) While Black in America
To Devin AKA BIP, may you Rest in Power
When you learn, teach, when you get, give.
Maya Angelou
My junior high school class, wish I stayed there
Illegal entrepreneur, I got my grades there
Blaming society, mad, it wasnt made fair
I would be Ivy League if America played fair
Nas
1. If you were in Ds position and you opened that safe, what do you think you would have done?
2. At what point does The Cook Up read more like a novel than a memoir? How is Ds story a Heros Journey?
3. How would you characterize Ds choice to start cooking crack cocaine? Was it an act of veneration to try to be just like his big brother? Or by defying Bips wish for his brother to attend college, was becoming a drug dealer an assertion of Ds independence? Bip always hoped for more for D: Who in your life does that for you?
4. D begins The Cook Up with a college acceptance and ends it with a college attendance, but he lived a thousand lives in between. Consider the ways Ds values changed during his years away from higher education in terms of maturity, responsibility, and materialism. What if he had remained at Loyola University and never started dealing? What did he gain from dropping out of college?
5. Discuss the ways in which the realities of running a drug ring differed from your expectations of it. Were there any stereotypes you may have had that The Cook Up forced you to confront? If so, what were they?
6. D refers to himself as a serial escapist. Does this strike you as an apt characterization? What exactly is D escaping from, and does he ever succeed in outrunning it?
7. D refers to women like Miss Angie as the most powerful people in the Black community, in that she provides consistent support in a neighborhood of volatile change. In what ways does this definition upset the conventional understanding of power? By these standards, who is the most powerful person in your own life?
8. Why do you think D included Hope in his memoir? As a symbol? A warning? A turning point? Who was she to him? In their final interaction at the 7-Eleven, D and Hope fail to recognize each other. Put yourself in Ds shoes: Would you have acted differently?
9. D and his friends worshiped Jay Z; they even called their product Rockafella to pay homage to the rappers record label. What do you think it is about the musician that made him so iconic to this group? Who was that figure in your own life, growing up?
10. D says that as a child, he was given books such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that he and his friends couldnt relate to. It wasnt until he discovered Fire in a Canebrake in college that D finally enjoyed reading. What books do you think should be taught in schools? Is there such a thing as a universally relatable book?
11. Discuss Ds assertion that reading is the avenue to freedom, to understanding others and ourselves. When does reading make us feel closer to worlds other than our own, and when does it make us more aware of our individuality? Is one result more freeing than another? What freedoms has The Cook Up provided you?
I saw bullets rip through the faces of adolescents.
I saw mothers abandon their kids. I saw fathers go out for milk to never return. I saw kids turn into killers. Cops steal and grandparents raise infants around here.
I saw kids slap spit out of adults.
I saw the devil. I saw dude shake dudes hand before whipping out his gun and making dude put his hands up.
We go through midlife crises at fifteen around here.
I saw friends kill friends. I saw friends kill friends and then attend their wake. I saw teachers tell kids that theyd die like their parents or siblings. What does hope look like?
I saw shot dudes in wheelchairs be shot again while they sat in their wheelchairs.
I saw shots that made bodies flip. I saw colostomy bags burst, guts spill, brains on the curb, brains on the wall, brains by the car, contusions, limbs knocked off, faces rearranged, eyeballs, small intestines, and flesh chunks. I saw flesh sizzle like minute steaks.
We all self-medicate around here.
I saw murder after murder. Ive smelled murder. I saw bodies rot. I read 150 teen obituariesall with short bios. I know hate.
I saw barefoot families, I saw drug money buy churches, I saw hoop dreams spark and fade. I saw all types of dreams spark and fade. I saw house raids, I saw families evicted, I saw AIDS spread, I saw thousands made, and lost right in the middle of the place where cops enforce, terrorize and collectI saw it.
I saw it all.
B ANG! BANG! BANG!
Aunt Kims front door almost thumped off the hinges, while I was rolling a celebratory blunt because College Park, Georgetown, Loyola, and a couple of other schools were letting me in.
Kim, kill the music! I said, looking through the peephole.
I opened the door without removing the latch to see Ron G prop both hands on his knees like kickstands, his oval belly peeking out of his shirt.
Ron, what the fuck is up? I said.
He breathed heavily. Yo, find Gee. They shot Bip! he saidwith his pudgy face pinching through the door.
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