Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta
Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta is a 2022 novel by American writer James Hannaham. Set over the course of the Fourth of July weekend, it follows the titular character, an Afro-Colombian trans woman who returns to Brooklyn, New York after spending twenty years incarcerated in a men's prison. Plot In 1993, 22-year-old Carlotta Mercedes accidentally becomes involved in the robbery of a liquor store by her cousin while travelling to a party, during which a woman is shot and permanently disabled. She is subsequently sentenced to 12 to 22 years in prison and spends the next two decades as an inmate at a men's prison in Ithaca, New York. While in prison, Carlotta comes out as a trans woman; however, prison authorities refuse to acknowledge her gender transition, and she is raped by inmates and prison guards alike throughout her time in prison. As a result of her treatment, Carlotta spends six years in isolation, and goes on to form a romantic relationship with another inmate, Frenzy. Following her fifth meeting with the parole board, Carlotta is surprisingly released from prison a year and a half early, and travels back to New York City to live with her family just before the Independence Day holiday. Carlotta is excited to reconcile with her estranged son Ibe, who she hasn't heard from since he was nine, but is shocked at the gentrification that has happened in Brooklyn since her imprisonment. She returns home to her Afro-Colombian family, many of whom struggle to accept her new gender identity. Carlotta learns that her mother is significantly afflicted with dementia. Carlotta meets with her probation officer who informs her as part of her release she is not allowed to be near alcohol, a matter that is complicated by her family hosting an extravagant wake for a recently deceased family friend. During the course of the weekend, Carlotta tries to avoid contact with alcohol while looking for work and reconciling with old friends, including Doodle, whose party she was travelling to the night she was arrested. Carlotta finds employment as a driver and tries to find someone to teach her how to drive before she starts her new job. During the course of the day, Carlotta struggles to fight her impulses triggered by her traumatic experiences, and jeopardizes her freedom several times, including by shoplifting a designer label shoe, crashing a car, and getting into a verbal altercation with Ibe. She also speaks at length with Doodle about her experiences in prison, including sharing being regularly raped by a guard throughout her sentence. Carlotta's probation officer becomes unhappy at the alcohol consumption happening at Carlotta's family home, and makes her take a drug test, which she indicates has come back positive. Panicked, Carlotta visits Coney Island, where she meets an old friend, consumes substances, and wakes up the next morning, having slept on the beach overnight and been robbed of her money. Having missed her appointment with probation, Carlotta is recalled back