Written by hip-hop artist and activist, Sister Souljah, this novel is a virtual hip hop lexicon, and probes family values and social issues in fascinating ways. Drug king Santiaga is a committed father, caring for his daughters and wife, providing them with an extravagantly luxurious lifestyle. Souljah's values play against Santiaga's like a counterpoint, however, as she preaches values of self-love, love for the community, and the increasingly urgent need for education in poor communities.

Looking at life through Winter's eyes, her astonishment at and ultimate rejection of Souljah's message, her absolute belief in the goodness of the fast and moneyed life, provides a useful means for exploring the ways poverty and racism shape values. It is too easy to criticize a family like the Santiagas for their superficial love of things (and for Mr. Santiaga's willingness to run his "business" in whatever fashion necessary to turn a fabulous profit--murder, tax evasion, money laundering), but to probe connections between the "easy" money and the options open to a family like the Santiagas is much more difficult, yet important.

Particularly relevant to medicine is the story of Winter's mother, whose decline into crack addiction and prostitution is breathtakingly rapid. One day she is wearing furs and driving a Lexus, exquisitely groomed and mannered. The next week she has lost weight, is filthy, and begging money from Winter for her next fix. Of course she becomes more and more ill as her addiction progresses.

The final chapter could stand alone (it is a long novel). In it, Winter narrates being let out of prison to attend her mother's funeral. The chapter gets at the experience of prison, and the poignance of that experience for a 25-year old young woman who is incarcerated for non-violent drug-related charges (as the majority of women in the U.S. are).