Trick Baby

Book excerpt: The author that brought black literature to the streets is back. Weaving stories of deceit, sex, humor, and race, bestselling author Iceberg Slim brings us the story of a hustler who doesn’t just play the con game, he transforms it. This is the gritty truth, the life of a hustler in south side Chicago where the only characters are those who con and those who get conned. Trick Baby tells the story of “White Folks,” a blue-eyed, light-haired, con artist whose pale skin allows him to pass in the streets as a white man. Folks is tormented early in life, rejected by other children and branded a “Trick Baby,” the child conceived between a hooker and her trick. Refusing to abandon his life in the ghetto and a chance at revenge, Folks is taken under the wing of an older mentor, Blue. What happens next is not to be believed. Iceberg Slim’s story is now depicted in a major motion picture distributed worldwide. Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp shows Slim’s transformation from pimp to the author of seven classic books.