Part 2, Chapter 9 Summary

When Elaine goes to prison her mother Yvonne lives in the Wald House in apartment 13B. This is one of three public housing projects on the Lower East Side. The New York Times names their neighborhood's Avenue D, "one of the meanest streets in America, a narrow corridor of poverty and violence." The small three bedroom, one bath apartment houses thirteen people: three of Yvonne's children, Sabrina, Ronald and Michelle; Sabrina's daughter; Michelle's husban; Michelle's two daughters; Donjuan's daughter and Elaine's four children). Yvonne pays $153 per month for the apartment.

Yvonne's son Shyan is in and out of prison and is a big influence on Elaine's two boys. He carries a gun around and sometimes lest Jamel hold it. Shyan brags about his drug dealings, illegal jobs and the many women he gets pregnant. He finally lands in prison with a...