"Sweet Potatoes" is the title of the first chapter of the book, which is set in a poor, working-class neighborhood in Chicago. The narrator, claire, is upset that her father is not getting married. She tells her father that he is too poor to get married and that no girl will like him. He tells her that he has a day off from work the next day to go play football. She asks if there is a misunderstanding between her father and the girl, and the narrator tells her it is not unusual for a man of his age to get a wife. He also says that the narrator's father has been taking good care of him for so long that he deserves a "little me" time. Believing that his father is in love with a woman, she tells him that she is going to like the girl too. She then tells him to go cheer his father on, and he does so. .