Written like a recovering crack man picking up the pieces on comedown. Erratic but enough to follow and see the paranoia with it sounding lived instead of a teen’s fakery. Cornelius is in his mid-40s, sick of women trying to help him, his whole life is based on the pipe and sorting people into d!cks and suckers—literally. We get ghost and government mini rants, befitting street types but with a kernel of truth.

We also gets flecks of where his sadness stemmed: He was doing great at Columbia University, bagging guys and gals of every race, while his bro secretly got into smack. Details are hazy, but the heroin hit him right into the casket. That’s when Cornelius fell heavy between the cracks of cocaine. His parents blamed him for not keeping enough of an eye of him like it was his job. I didn’t know getting AIDS made you so susceptible to growing fungus in your throat and nose!

Prose example: “Memories that used to hip-hop like angry roaches across my brain movie-style, slowed down to comic-strip-frames in a funny paper like Peanuts.” Or “I got dents in my forehead from banging my head against the wall, trying to hurt the guilt.”
Usually it’s much choppier, five word sentences but they ain’t plain. Or with many line breaks:
“I eat rocks.
They eat me.
Alive.”

Between bits about letting guys suck him for money, there are niceties like this: “My voice laughs back at me like a lost echo in this busy, crowded, canyon of a city.”

Though I get crackheads are known for ranting, especially on political conspiracies and the like, it is rather heavy-handed and cringey with the “and then everybody clapped at the party I’m making about me”. It gets super repetitive when the conclusions are obvious, cliches, and distract from the actual story. In a bit we do get back to him yo-yoing on cutting back or quitting, moving, trying to rebuild a family unit and set goals.

Did not see the Lolitay route coming or him beefing w/ heroin users all high (literally) and mighty. Nor the cool music recording biz info, the late-life Army stint, sh!t w/ Pia, or weird sympathy it retains way too long—a feat for sure. Could have had a couple more guilt triggers/flashbacks but maybe that would fog the pace. What a mind-bending end!

Iced by Ray Shell was originally published in 1993. The book’s 30th anniversary will be celebrated with an anniversary edition, a theatre production, and a movie that is being developed. The book is written in the first person as the personal diary of Cornelius Washington, Jr.

Cornelius experimented with drugs for many years. When he was 40, he became addicted to crack. The book tells the story of how he became a crack addict.

Cornelius Washington, Jr. could have had a great life. He had a scholarship to Columbia University. Unfortunately, he did not graduate or pursue any type of career. Due to drug use and a series of terrible events, he turned to drugs.

His brother, Nate, died possibly from a combination of aids and drug abuse. Soon after that Cornelius’s drug use increased year after year.

His sister Lorraine was doing her best to help him stay alive and get clean. When she became pregnant, she started to distance herself from Cornelius. Who can blame her? She had her own life and soon there would be a child.

Eventually, he moved to Boston. Cornelius was helping a singing group by looking over their legal contracts. When they signed a record deal, the record label didn’t bring Cornelius on board in the same role. He moved back to New York.

When his addiction worsened, he went to stay in North Carolina with his mother. Everything was going well for him. He was the cleanest and healthiest that he had been in years. Until the last short period of time in North Carolina, he hadn’t done drugs at all.

Then temptation got the better of him. After a terrible tragedy, Cornelius didn’t care about anything except crack. He didn’t care about getting off of drugs anymore. He returned to New York where his drug addiction spiralled out of control.

It was sad to read about how someone with so much potential can be affected by drugs. So many people hurt him. He hurt so many people. If Cornelius hadn’t become addicted to drugs, his life could have gone in a different direction with less pain and tragedy.

As an African-American man, the cards were stacked against Cornelius. The War on Drugs has never helped people of color recover from substance abuse. Instead, people of color are sent to prison or die from drugs and drug-related activity. Drugs are from the devil but how do they get into the community?

If I had to guess, I would say that Richard Nixon would not appreciate this book. He would be wrong though.

If you would like to read a realistic book about drug addiction, then this book will be perfect. Please use your own judgment when deciding to read Iced. Do not read it if you are triggered by references to addiction.

This book is powerful and well written but is also painful and traumatic at the same time if that makes sense. Would recommend this book to others.