Little Black Sheep

Grammy-winner Cleveland recounts her troubled history and long romance with alcohol and drugs. Her parents were alcoholics who didn’t stay married long because her father was a closeted homosexual living in the South. Cleveland grew up shuttling back and forth between Tennessee and California, learning to get in trouble but also learning music, beginning with dancing to 45 rpm records in her bedroom. Both her music career and her addictions develop in California, until she becomes pregnant, an event that is life- and soul-saving. It takes a long time—most of the story—for her recovery to stick, which makes for a fairly dark story. The account also suffers from a lack of dialogue, turning the narrative voice into something of a monotone. Cleveland’s métier is music—she is a seriously underrated singer—so if this soulful memoir helps draw attention to her music, so much the better. Agent: Kathleen Davis Niendorff. (Sept. 1)