Cack-Handed: A Memoir

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But the violence, abuse, and cruelty that run throughout the first two thirds of the novel are far from amusing or entertaining. As well as her personal story, she interweaves information on race in the UK, giving a really good exposition of the reasons for the conflict between people of Caribbean and African origin: when she was a child in the 80s, Africans having been fed a diet of American culture thought that Caribbean and African American people were lazy and criminal, whereas British people of Caribbean origin didn’t realise they were originally African (there’s a big section on how the UK offshored its slave-owning to third countries); this division has started to clear with further generations, as other books I’ve read recently have clarified.

From birth, Gina carried a similar birthmark - a sign that she was her grandmother’s chosen heir, and would fulfill Patience’s dreams. From what I’ve read, it does seem to be blurring now, especially as people of direct African heritage are outnumbering Caribbean heritage people in the UK now.

It's comedy worth watching and in this memoir, Yashere introduces her family and the hardship that she laughed her way out of and into making a name for herself as an entertainer in England, traveling the world and finally landing a dream position in the US. According to family superstition, Gina Yashere was born to fulfill the dreams of her grandmother Patience. Outside the house, Yashere experiences racism, whether from the white youths on the estate or the Caribbeans who’ve been indoctrinated to hate their African brothers. It feels more like a collection of essays on the author’s background, her sister, her mother, school, her stepdad, vacations, and her rise in comedy. The book spends a lot of time on that and I’m willing to bet because it had that much of an effect on her, more so than her sexuality which she stumbled upon a little later than some.

One last tiny little niggle though, I dislike being referred to as "ignorant" or having lived under a "Jupiter sized rock" because I've not seen Black Panther (I've not seen any of the Marvel universe films). The back of the book describes it as ‘humorous’ and ‘hilarious’, which I found odd considering the first third is an extensive catalog of horrific mental and physical child abuse the author suffered at the hands of various family members. One small point - I found it interesting and even slightly amusing that as Gina is now a US resident, and clearly the book is also written for her US fan base, she had to explain all the British nuances and London locations in great detail, which clearly a Brit would understand, however she did this really well and it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. Despite the difficulties, Gina was very resourceful and enterprising and managed to get small crumbs of freedom wherever she could, for example by arranging to go on a trip to France as an A-Level student without her mother knowing she would be unaccompanied. That humour is a good way to make a book like this accessible and readable while not diluting the messages.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Although Gina is of Nigerian heritage, I found it relatable as the daughter of Caribbean born parents.