Rage To Survive: The Etta James Story [Paperback]

Etta James--brash, sassy, and uncannily gifted--has left a soul-sized footprint on modern music, from blues to R&B to jazz. As theHouston Chronicleputs it, her expressive voice and exquisite dramatic timing can actually make you tremble.

Rage to Survivecaptures that amazing voice. Etta tells riveting stories of her youth in Los Angeles--from being discovered at age five singing in her church choir (when celebrities like Lana Turner and Orson Welles would sneak in the back to listen to the girl genius) to why she hates encores (her father would drag her out of bed in the middle of the night to sing for his card-playing buddies) to her first hit record and her work with Chuck Berry, Tina Turner, and the great stars of the Golden Age of Soul. She tells of meeting the man she believes is her father--the legendary pool hustler Minnesota Fats--her recovery from the grip of drugs, her childhood dealing with a mother who worked on the streets, and her lifelong trouble with bad men. To quote Liz Smith inNewsday: Candid? Brutally honest? You don'tknowabout candor and brutal honesty until you've read Etta's life story in her own rough, unvarnished, and humorously right-on words . . . any major movie studio would do itself a huge favor by turning this book into a sizzling, big-screen saga.