Publisher's Synopsis
"First published at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic thirty years ago, Ray Shell's "powerhouse" (Maya Angelou) of a novel is as timely and relevant today as it was in 1994. It is the story of Cornelius Washington, a young upper-middle-class Black man blessed with burning talent and ambition, who enjoys experimenting with drugs-a dangerous pastime that gradually becomes a destructive addiction. Now a middle-aged crackhead, Cornelius ponders his life and the choices that have led him here. Written as a series of immersive stream of consciousness diary entries, Iced captures the despair and dashed dreams of a man caught between the harsh realities of his present and the adventures and upheavals of his past-a youth marked by a host of characters both intriguing and terrifying. A complicated man both compelling and maddening, sympathetic and defiant, Cornelius tries desperately to break free from his addiction, a struggle that ends i
