This is the 2nd time that I've picked this book up. The 1st and last time was well over a decade ago. I don't know what I was doing when I first read the TCWE, because after re-reading it it was like reading it for the first time. I remembered nothing about the book, which isn't any fault of Sistah Souljah's, it was my own as I read very differently back then, reading words and turning pages not letting any of the story or the message sink in.
I found this book in a Malaysian book store in Kuala Lumpur. Desperate to get my hands on some black non-fiction I typed in every black author I could think of, which were drawing blanks, to see if there were any books in stock. Maya Angelou, Eric Jerome Dickey, E Lynn Harris, Omar Tyree,
Sistah Souljah....GREAT!!....1 book...The Coldest Winter Ever. I knew I didn't have it at home, although I remember buying it, where it was I don't know, maybe lost in a house move somewhere or a trife friend who didn't know how to return my stuff. Never to throw a book away decided this would get me through the next few days and hopefully back to London. I was prepared this time to take it all in and enjoy this book to the fullest. It's funny, I don't remember where or how [being in SE Asia] but I could have sworn I saw another book by Souljah advertised about Midnight, one of the prolific characters in TCWE. And I was right, due to be released in a few days there is another installment from Souljah herself about the dark and mysterious brooding character. Unlike most sequels I'm hoping it won't suck big time.
So I find a Japanese sushi restaurant and get stuck in. The characters are familiar but not enough to spoil a second time around read for me.
Winter Santiaga is her name, and yes she's black with a name like Santiaga. Hell, I'm a black woman with a Scottish last name...go figure.. in the author notes at the end Souljah states due to historical events, namely slavery and colonisation Africans were stripped of their names, but rest assured that Winter and her family were indeed black.
Winter is young, very smart, yet very dumb at times. Loyal, fly and ghetto. I personally wouldn't want to know this razor toting girl when I was her age and glad there were none growing up around me. He father was a well respected drug king pin in Brooklyn and her mothers and her sisters lived the best they knew how on whatever her father made...which was a lot.
Unlike a lot of books you don't always end up rooting for Winter. At times you just feel sorry for her or wish she'd take a beating. For somebody so loved by her parents she was extremely cold, you'd expect kids abandoned at such a young age to act the way she does. She seemed to only have true love for her father who loved her back with such heart and Midnight, who never really seemed interested in her the way she wanted him to be but it was fun reading her desperate attempts falter.
You don't have to be from the ghetto/hood to understand and sometimes relate. The language is real the terminology is real. Cursing, sex, killing all real all graphic to a point in this book, Souljah definitely doesn't tone it down for her audience and why should she. It's not a book glorifying the wrong doings of the Santiaga's and the people around them, but gives you more of an insight from the other side of the coin to figure out why they do what they do, and how they honestly feel about it and how they live. What happens when shit hits the fan and what happens when it going great. You don't have to like it, but you end up understanding it.
For many years I have heard that this book with the help of Mrs Will Smith, my favourite actress Jada, will be helping Souljah bring this movie to the big screen. Three years and still nothing. Whether that be theatre or a TV movie I don't know, although in the authors notes Souljah stated it will be made into a movie and I hope the transition from book to big screen is worth the wait. There is so much to cover that I think a 2 part TV movie or mini series would be better and releasing that on DVD otherwise key elements and characters would get lost.
Who would play Winter I would have to say Kyla Pratt if she's bold enough to shed her sweet girl image. Daddy Santiaga I always saw when I read it the first time around being played by Giancarlo Esposito, but from re-reading his description Terrence Howard would play that role to a T. The drug lord in Brooklyn you don't want to mess with yet can cross over and play the overly protective loving father in a heartbeat. The mother, again from the way she was described in the book Tasha Smith would play the hell out of Mrs Santiaga. And shoot I can only think of Tyrese for Midnight, but he's too old now to play him. If you're not familiar with Tasha Smith she has been featured in 2 or 3 of Tyler Perry's films. She played the outgoing, always cussing bad role model of a mother in Daddy's Little Girls and speaking of that movie the youngest daughter in that film who also stars in House of Payne could play the 8 year old sister Porsche. She's sassy enough to do it.
I enjoyed the book, it got me thinking in many ways. Where I came from, what I'm doing with my life and where I want to be going. I'm glad I was never a loose girl like Winter or had to fend for myself or had such a disregard for life in some aspects. There were parts where Souljah was featured in the book that had me thinking about where I'm at and where I want to be going, and at other times I just slipped right back into Winter n dem's ghetto lifestyle. I don't care how much money her father had she was straight up ghetto. I felt no compassion for her, I think I felt sorry for her more than anything. Cold is not even the word when it comes to this girl, at one point as you'll see she's loyal to wrong people for the wrong reasons, but will it be her downfall or as usual with her ever charming self does she make it through and OK in the end?? If you read it you'll find out.
If I could cast the roles [that's if there's ever a movie made], I think the following actors would make a perfect Santiaga family.
Kyla Pratt as Winter Santiaga
Terrence Howard as Ricky Santiaga
Tasha Smith as Mrs Santiaga
China Anne McClain as Porsche Santiaga (aged 8)
They would be great but are too old from the description of the characters to play Ricky Santiaga and Midnight.
Giancarlo Esposito as Ricky Santiaga
Tyrese Gibson as Midnight
Clareece "Precious" Jones is an overweight, illiterate African-American teen in Harlem. Just as she's about to give birth to her second child, Jones is accepted into an alternative school where a teacher helps her find a new path in her life.
Most importantly this movie won at the Sundance Film Festival the Grand Jury Award, and more talk is that Mo'Nique's performance was that great she maybe shortlisted for a 2010 Academy Award.
