The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey
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Book Summary
Ptolemy Grey is a 91-year-old man, suffering from dementia and living as a recluse in his Los Angeles apartment. Then Robyn Small, a 17-year-old family friend, appears and helps clean up his apartment and straighten out his life. A reinvigorated Ptolemy volunteers for an experimental medical program that restores his mind, and he uses his last days—shortened now by the medical experiment—to delve into the mystery of the recent drive-by shooting death of his great-nephew, Reggie.
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Ptolemy Grey is a 91-year-old black man who has holed himself up in his filthy Los Angeles apartment, where his mind is a jumble of thoughts about his parents, the lynching of his best friend, a battle he fought in World War II and his wife dying in his arms years before. Despite the stash of gold under the floorboards, his life becomes poorer by the day. Then along comes a family friend named Robyn, who gives him the respect and affection he's lacked, and everything changes. Fusing family,
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